The United States has stayed third in the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Global Innovation Index 2026, behind Switzerland and Sweden.

Switzerland topped the ranking for the 16th consecutive year, with Sweden second and the US third. South Korea and Singapore were fourth and fifth, followed by the UK, the Netherlands, Finland, Denmark and China. The ranking covers 139 economies across about 80 indicators including R&D spending, venture capital deals, high-tech exports and patent applications.

China remains the only middle-income economy in the top 10. India and Vietnam remain the longest-running overperformers for their level of development, at 16 consecutive years.

The top innovation cluster in the world is Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou, followed by Tokyo-Yokohama and San Jose-San Francisco. The US and China have the largest numbers of top-100 clusters.

Why it matters: in a turbulent year, the innovation frontier held steady, with no new economy entering the top 15.