Croatia Ranks 40th in the Global Innovation Index

Croatia has ranked 40th in this year’s Global Innovation Index (GII) out of 139 economies, which represents a certain progress compared to previous years, with the best ranking in the area of infrastructure and the weakest in institutions.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) presented the 18th edition of the Global Innovation Index (GII) yesterday at its headquarters in Geneva, covering 139 countries and the 100 best scientific and technological clusters worldwide. The GII serves as a leading reference for measuring the innovation performance of economies around the world, built on a large dataset, specifically a collection of 81 indicators from international public and private sources. It measures innovation based on criteria that include institutions, human capital and research, infrastructure, business sophistication, market sophistication, knowledge and technology outputs, and creative outputs. Additionally, the GII identifies the 100 best scientific and technological clusters globally.

Croatia has placed 40th out of 139 economies, which represents progress compared to previous years (42nd and 43rd place). According to a statement from the State Intellectual Property Office, the availability of data and changes within the GII model affect year-on-year comparisons of GII rankings, and the statistical confidence interval for Croatia’s GII rank in 2025 is between 39th and 43rd place.

– This result marks a positive shift compared to previous years when Croatia was stabilized in the ranking between 41st and 45th place – it was emphasized.

‘Croatia achieves results at the level of expectations for its level of development’

Furthermore, according to this year’s GII, Croatia maintained 37th place among a group of 54 high-income countries and ranked 26th among 39 economies in Europe, representing progress compared to last year and 27th place.

“In relation to GDP, Croatia achieves results at the level of expectations for its level of development, which represents a positive shift compared to last year when the innovation performance was lower than expected for the level of development. In terms of effectively translating investments in innovation into innovation results, Croatia has improved its results and produces more innovation outputs relative to the level of investment in innovation,” it states.

Of the seven areas covered, Croatia has progressed according to this year’s GII and is best ranked in the area of infrastructure, jumping from 23rd to 16th place. Progress was also recorded in the area of human capital and research (from 41st to 40th place), creative outputs (from 50th to 44th place), business sophistication (from 54th to 53rd place), and it also improved in the weakest ranked area of institutions (from 68th to 65th place). In the area of market sophistication, Croatia ranked 54th, while a decline was recorded in the area of knowledge and technology outputs, from 32nd to 37th place.

Furthermore, according to individual innovation sub-indices, Croatia’s best-ranked innovation strengths are the ratio of students to teachers in secondary schools (rank 1), environmental management system (rank 6), and diversification of domestic industry (rank 8). The values of “unicorn” companies relative to GDP (14th), export of cultural and creative services relative to total trade (16th), and the use of information and communication technologies (18th) are also highlighted.

Among Croatia’s greatest weaknesses according to individual innovation sub-indices are the demographic dividend (rank 128), low level of scientific collaboration between universities and industry (101), low level of business-friendly policies, i.e., “doing business” (99), and policies and culture of entrepreneurship (86), it was reported.

Switzerland Again First, China Enters Top 10 for the First Time

According to the Global Innovation Index for 2025, Switzerland has held the first place for the 15th consecutive year, Sweden has maintained second place, and the United States is third. Following are the Republic of Korea, which has advanced from 10th place in 2023 to 4th place in two years, Singapore in fifth, the United Kingdom in sixth, Finland in seventh, the Netherlands in eighth, Denmark in ninth, and China in tenth place.

China has entered the top 10 for the first time and is the only middle-income economy among the top 10 countries according to the GII. Observing the period since 2013, the fastest-growing countries in this group, alongside China, are India, Turkey, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Morocco, Albania, and Iran, which are ranked among the top 70 economies, it is stated.

Seventeen middle- and low-income economies have above-average innovation results relative to their level of development. Thus, India and Vietnam have achieved innovation results above expectations for their level of development for the 15th consecutive year, followed by Rwanda and Ukraine.