ZAGREB, 18 Sept (Hina) - Croatia ranked 40th out of 139 economies in the 2025 Global Innovation Index (GII), improving from 42nd and 43rd place in previous years. It placed best in infrastructure (16th) and ranked lowest in institutions (65th).
The Geneva-headquartered World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on Tuesday presented the 18th edition of the Global Innovation Index (GII), which covers 139 countries and the world's 100 leading science and technology clusters.
The GII is the leading reference for measuring the innovation performance of economies worldwide, built on a large dataset consisting of 81 indicators from international public and private sources. It measures innovation based on criteria that include institutions, human capital and research, infrastructure, business sophistication, market sophistication, knowledge and technology outputs, and creative outputs.
In addition, the GII identifies the 100 top global scientific and technological clusters.
Within its group of 54 high-income economies, Croatia is ranked 37th, and in Europe it reached 26th place (up from 27th). Relative to GDP, Croatia now achieves innovation results in line with expectations, compared to last year when it underperformed. It also improved in converting innovation investments into tangible results.
Progress was noted in human capital and research (40th), creative outputs (44th), business sophistication (53rd), and even institutions (65th). In terms of market sophistication, the country ranked 54th. The only decline was in knowledge and technology outputs (37th).
Key strengths include the student-teacher ratio in secondary schools (rank 1), ecological sustainability (rank 6), and domestic industry diversification (rank 8). Also underlined is the value of unicorn companies relative to GDP (rank 14), exports of cultural and creative services (rank 16), and ICT use (rank 18).
Weaknesses include youth demographic dividend (rank 128), university-industry R&D collaboration (rank 101), policy stability for doing business (rank 99), and entrepreneurship policies and culture (rank 86).
Globally, Switzerland remains first, Sweden second, and the US third, while China entered the top 10 for the first time.
