Denmark gets top-score again as one of the world’s most innovative economies
Global Innovation Index ranking 2025
Every year, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) analyses how well countries around the globe perform in terms of innovation. WIPO’s Global Innovation Index uses 78 indicators to evaluate 139 countries. In 2025, Denmark was ranked ninth-best globally, up from 10th in 2024. Only three countries among the 27 EU member states can boast a stronger innovation performance than Denmark.
Denmark scores particularly high on parameters related to its general framework conditions conducive to innovation, such as its institutional and regulatory environment, as well as physical and digital infrastructure.
Denmark scores high on these parameters
Denmark also performs strongly on a number of parameters that more directly measure innovation and research activities and output, including the following:
Methodology
The WIPO Global Innovation Index is based on data from 78 statistical indicators. The Index is calculated as the average of these statistical indicators across seven different areas: (1) Institutions, (2) Human capital and research, (3) Infrastructure, (4) Market sophistication, (5) Business sophistication, (6) Knowledge and technology outputs and (7) Creative outputs.