The Bloomberg Innovation Index is an annual ranking of the world’s most innovative countries. The index measures a country’s innovation performance across seven categories: research and development (R&D) intensity, manufacturing value-added, productivity, high-tech density, researcher concentration, tertiary efficiency, and patent activity. It also considers factors such as the quality of education systems, infrastructure investment, and government policies that support innovation.
Bloomberg created the index in 2017 to provide a comprehensive measure of a country’s innovation capabilities. It is based on data from over 200 sources, including the World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The index uses a weighted average of each country’s performance across all seven categories to determine its overall score.
The top five countries in the 2021 Bloomberg Innovation Index are South Korea, Finland, Sweden, Israel, and Germany. South Korea has held the top spot since 2017 due to its vigorous R&D intensity and high-tech density scores. Finland consistently ranks highly due to its robust education system and government policies supporting innovation. Sweden has seen its rank rise steadily over the past few years due to its strong manufacturing value-added score. Finally, Israel ranks highly due to its robust patent activity score. At the same time, Germany rounds out the top five with its high researcher concentration score.
The Bloomberg Innovation Index provides an important measure of a country’s ability to innovate and compete globally in today’s rapidly changing economy. An overview of each country’s performance across seven key categories allows investors and businesses to make informed decisions about where they should invest their resources for maximum return on investment.