China Ranked 10th in 2024 National Innovation Index Rankings

The National Innovation Index Report 2024 has been published recently by the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development (CASTED).

The report ranked the innovation performance of 40 countries, which accounted for about 85% of the world's GDP and 95% of the world's spending in research and development (R&D), using official published data from relevant governments and international organisations including the World Bank and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

In 2024, the leading 10 best-performing countries by overall innovation performance were the US, Switzerland, Korea, Sweden, Denmark, Japan, the UK, the Netherland, Germany, and China. Compared with the other leading countries which have remained relatively stable in ranking over the decade, China has seen the most rapid rise, from the spot of 20th in 2012 to 10th place in recent two years.

The ranking framework of the National Innovation Index was built on five main indicators, namely, innovation resources, knowledge creation, enterprise innovation, innovation performance, and innovation environment.

China's performances in 2024 by said indicators and some of the sub-indicators were:

Innovation resources - China ranked 5th (2023: ranked 21st) in this category, with sub-indicators of R&D funds to GDP ratio reaching 2.68%, basic research funds accounting for 6.91% of R&D expenditure of the national total, and number of R&D personnel continuing to occupy top spot globally.

Knowledge creation - 7th (2023: 3rd), attaining global number one position in both highly cited papers (11,000) and valid invention patents (3.351 million).

Enterprise innovation - 9th (2023: 12th), with number of PCT patents (38,000) ranking third in the world, and proportion of revenue from use of IP to exports of services (3%) at 20th globally.

Innovation performance - 22nd (2023: 17th), with high-tech exports topping the world at 22.3% of the world total, and proportion of added value from knowledge-intensive services to added value from service industry ranking 26th.

Innovation environment - 20th (2023: 23rd), being 2nd in entrepreneurial culture, 5th in R&D collaboration between enterprises and universities, 8th in venture capital accessibility, and 29th in international investment to GDP ratio.