Top EU countries regarding innovation. Does your country have a good environment for innovation?

Sweden remains the innovation leader in the European Union, according to a recently published report by the European Commission. The last position in the ranking is occupied by Romania.

Sweden remains a leader regarding innovation, followed by Denmark, Finland, The Netherlands, Great Britain and Germany.

The following countries were ranked as “strongly innovative”: Austria, Luxembourg, Belgium, Ireland, France and Slovenia, with only two countries being included in the “modest innovators” category: Romania and Bulgaria.

On the other hand, Lithuania, Malta, The Netherlands, Austria and the United Kingdom are the innovators with the strongest increase, according to the aforementioned report.

At the same time, there are regional innovative centres in countries that are moderately innovative, such as Prague in the Czech Republic, Bratislava in Slovakia and the Basque Country in Spain.

When it comes to specific innovation domains, the leaders are the following:

Denmark – human resources and environment suitable to innovation
Luxembourg – attractive research systems and intellectual assets
Finland – financing and support
Germany – investments from enterprises
Ireland – innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises and the impact on occupying the workforce
Belgium – innovative networks and collaboration
United Kingdom – effects on sales

Overall, regarding innovation, performances improved most in the sector of international co-publications, entering broadband networks, the number of university and Ph. D. graduates and the sector of communication and information technology. On the other hand, investments in risk capital and the share of small and medium-sized enterprises that produce innovation has been experiencing a strong decline, according to the European Commission report.

Regarding the number of people that completed tertiary education, the top 10 is lead by London (Great Britain), Hovedstaden (Denmark) and Oslo og Akershus (Norway). The rest of the positions are occupied by Zürich (Switzerland), Stockholm (Sweden), Scotland (United Kingdom), Mazowieckie (Poland), Île de France (France), Utrecht (The Netherlands) and Trøndelag (Norway).

The first four positions in the ranking of regions that spend most money on research and development (as a percentage of their GDP) are occupied by regions in Germany: Trier, Dresden, Braunschweig and Berlin. The top 10 further includes Trøndelag (Norway), Övre Norrland (Sweden), Prague (Czech Republic), Köln (Germany), Bremen (Germany) and Karlsruhe (Germany).

For almost 60% of the EU regions, performance in the domain of innovation has increased. This is the case for Austria, Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Still, performance decreased in all regions in Romania, as well as in 50% of regions in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Portugal and Spain.

From a global perspective, the EU is undergoing a process of catching up with Canada and the USA, yet South Korea and Japan remain the frontrunners.

Among international competitors, China showed the fastest progress.