Signal China enters the global innovation top 10 for the first time (2025)

Summary

Citing a global innovation ranking, the report places Switzerland, Sweden and the United States at the head of the field. In that ranking China reached the top ten innovative countries for the first time in 2025. The finding is presented against a worldwide pattern of countries building knowledge and innovation ecosystems around universities, research institutes, private R&D centres and multinationals. The report sees such ecosystems as stimulating innovation, strengthening networks and speeding the circulation of knowledge. In the same chapter it judges that the EU's investment rate is very low compared with China and the US, which dampens innovation and productivity growth. Its technology chapter adds that China leads the world in patent applications with more than twice the US total.