Sweden ranked as #1 most innovative country in the EU

Two recently published innovation reports conclude that Sweden is the most innovative country in the EU, and third in the world. That may not come as a surprise if you consider that the country has many famous innovations under its belt ranging from TetraPak to Spotify. And on top of that Sweden is the home of the Nobel prize – a prize that acknowledges and praises innovational creativity.

Both the European Commission and WIPO, the United Nations agency for intellectual property, have recently published their annual innovation reports where they conclude that Sweden is the most innovative country in the EU, and third in the world.

The European Commission published the 2022 edition of the European Innovation Scoreboard, a comparative assessment of the research and innovation performance of EU Member States and selected third countries. Here Sweden continues to rank as #1 and tops the list of a group of countries identified as “Innovation Leaders” where performance is above 125% of the EU average. For Sweden that number is 135,7% of the EU average.

The Global Innovation Index 2022 is a similar index that tracks the current state of innovation globally and ranks the innovative performance of 132 countries. Here, Sweden also ranks as #1 out of the EU countries and #3 in the world after Switzerland and United States. The index identifies seven innovation pillars and Sweden comes out on top when it comes to Infrastructure and Business sophistication.

“Seeing Sweden ranked as #1 in these reports is truly a great testament to the mentality and entrepreneurship that this small, yet competitive country possesses. Sweden has become a credible and reliable player on the global market with renowned companies such as IKEA, Volvo, and Ericsson but also newer companies such as Klarna, Spotify and games such as Minecraft, services that we take for granted today but were only founded less than 20 years ago,” says Frida Nylén, Chief Marketing Offer at Node Pole.

Many factors contribute to Sweden being one of the most innovative economies in the world. For example, there is the historic tradition of inventors, high level of education, social stability, access to government support, well-developed infrastructure in data and IT, a high degree of equality, close collaboration between research institutes and the private and public sectors to name a few.

To learn more about how Sweden promotes innovation: 
- The Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems (Vinnova)
- The Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth (Tillväxtverket)
- The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF)
- The Knowledge Foundation (KK-stiftelsen)

About the innovation reports:

The European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) provides an annual comparative assessment of the research and innovation performance of EU Member States and selected third countries, and the relative strengths and weaknesses of their research and innovation systems. It helps countries assess areas in which they need to concentrate their efforts in order to boost their innovation performance.

The Global Innovation Index 2022 is the 15th edition of Global Innovation Index (GII) produced by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the United Nations agency for intellectual property, The index tracks the current state of innovation globally and ranks the innovative performance of 132 countries.