The Global Innovation Index 2026 places Sweden, Finland and Denmark among the world’s ten highest-ranked economies for innovation, while Norway and Iceland remain notably further down the table. The annual ranking, published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on 29 September, puts Sweden second, Finland eighth and Denmark ninth.
Sweden remains one of the world’s innovation leaders
Sweden retains second place globally, behind Switzerland and ahead of the USA, according to WIPO’s 2026 ranking. Its position is unchanged from 2025.
The Global Innovation Index 2026 top ten is:
- Switzerland
- Sweden
- USA
- South Korea
- Singapore
- United Kingdom
- Netherlands
- Finland
- Denmark
- China
Finland ranks eighth, one place lower than last year, while Denmark remains ninth. This means three of the five Nordic countries are once again represented in the global top ten.
The ranking also underlines the continued strength of European innovation ecosystems. Six of the ten highest-ranked economies are European.
Norway and Iceland remain further behind
The picture is different for the other two Nordic countries.
Norway has fallen from 20th to 21st place, while Iceland is 26th, down from 24th in 2025. The gap between the Nordic countries is even clearer when looking at how innovation resources are converted into measurable results.
According to the Norwegian Industrial Property Office (Patentstyret), Norway ranks 16th for innovation inputs, which include the resources and conditions that support innovation, but only 30th for innovation outputs. This is Norway’s lowest-ever position in the output category, down from 26th last year.
Norwegian Industrial Property Office director Kathrine Myhre said the figures suggest Norway continues to have favourable conditions for research and innovation but is struggling to translate them into results.
“The Global Innovation Index has for several years shown that Norway has the conditions needed to create innovation, value creation and increased competitiveness. But we struggle to achieve concrete innovation results.”
A similar, though more pronounced, imbalance appears in Iceland’s WIPO profile. Iceland ranks 21st for innovation inputs but 33rd for outputs, compared with 20th and 29th respectively in 2025.
Small movements in the overall ranking should nevertheless be interpreted cautiously. WIPO notes that data availability and changes in the index methodology can affect comparisons between individual years.
What the Global Innovation Index 2026 measures
The Global Innovation Index is not a direct ranking of the quality of individual companies, universities or research projects. It is a composite assessment designed to compare the wider innovation ecosystems of 139 economies.
The 2026 edition uses 79 indicators divided between two broad groups.
Innovation inputs cover areas such as institutions, human capital and research, infrastructure, market sophistication and business sophistication. Innovation outputs measure knowledge and technology results as well as creative outputs.
The distinction helps explain why countries with strong research systems or favourable economic conditions do not necessarily occupy the same position when the index looks at the results produced from those resources.
For the Nordic region, the 2026 ranking therefore shows two different pictures at once: Sweden, Finland and Denmark remain firmly among the global innovation leaders, while Norway and Iceland continue to have a measurable gap, particularly when the focus shifts from the conditions for innovation to the outputs they generate.
