Bloomberg’s Most Innovative Economies List
South Korea has topped Bloomberg’s Most Innovative Economies list for 2021 with a score of 90.49.
The Bloomberg Innovation Index is based on seven evaluation criteria: R&D intensity showing R&D expenditure as % of GDP; Manufacturing added-value; Productivity showing GDP and GNI per employed person; High-tech density showing the number of domestic high-tech companies; Tertiary efficiency showing the total enrollment in tertiary education; Researcher concentration showing the number of professionals engaged in R&D per million population; and Patent activity showing resident patent filings, total patent grants and patents in force per million population. This year’s assessment covered a total of 60 countries.
South Korea topped the list in 2014 to 2019 and Germany did so last year. This year, Singapore came in second with a score of 87.76, followed by Switzerland (87.60) and Germany (86.45). The United States (83.59), Japan (82.86) and China (79.56) came in 11th, 12th and 16th, respectively.
South Korea ranked second in R&D intensity and manufacturing added-value, third in researcher concentration, first in patent activity, fourth in high-tech density, 13th in tertiary efficiency, and 36th in productivity.