According to this year’s Bloomberg innovation ranking, Czech Republic is the most innovative country in the Visegrad Four alliance, while Germany has the world’s most innovative economy.
Compared to the last year, the Czech Republic jumped to 24th place, improving its ranking by one position, putting it on top of the other Visegrad Four countries of Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary.
The Czech Republic has become the most innovative country within V4 for the first time since 2014, as the number of patents has helped the country to rise in the ranking.
Poland placed 25th in the rankings, while Hungary claimed 28th place, and Slovakia was in 41st place.
The ranking, published for the eighth time, assesses, for example, expenditures on science and research, the number of patent applications, and a country’s tech company density.
This year, South Korea dropped to second place, followed by Singapore. In fourth place is Switzerland, which hosted a World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos on Jan. 21-24, with innovation being the main topic.
Germany breaks South Korea’s six-year streak as the world's most innovative nation https://t.co/IfLzORDyRv pic.twitter.com/fBoEWitG6B
— Bloomberg Economics (@economics) January 19, 2020
From the European countries, the top ten list is completed with Sweden (5th), Finland (7th) and Denmark (8th).
Israel ranked sixth, while the United States dropped one place to rank ninth, and China moved up one place to rank 15th.
This year’s winner, Germany, scored in value-added manufacturing, high-tech density, and patent activity. South Korea dropped in the ranking mainly due to a decline in productivity.
The surprise of 2020 is Slovenia, as it improved by ten places in the ranking and placed 21st, mainly due to patent activity.
