Singapore ranked among top five most innovative economies for third consecutive year
18 September 2025
For the third consecutive year, Singapore has been named among the top five economies in the 2025 Global Innovation Index (GII), occupying fifth spot.
Singapore also ranked second in Southeast Asia, East Asia and Oceania. This is also the second year that Singapore has achieved the highest number of top-ranked indicators, securing first place for 10 out of 78 GII indicators.
Organized by the World Intellectual Property Organization, the GII is an annual ranking of the innovation capabilities of 139 world economies. The ranking is based on two broad areas: innovation inputs and innovation outputs.
Innovation inputs refer to factors that enable innovative activities such as institutions, human capital, research, infrastructure, market sophistication and business sophistication.
Innovation outputs reflect the results of innovative activity, such as knowledge and technology outputs, as well as creative outputs.
Singapore maintained its top position in innovation inputs for the 15th year in a row. It continued to hold the top spot for the institutions pillar, while maintaining second position in the human capital and research pillar and third position in the business sophistication pillar. More specifically, top-ranked indicators for Singapore include government effectiveness, policy stability for doing business and foreign direct investment net inflows.
Singapore rose two positions to ninth in innovation outputs – its highest ranking in over a decade. The country advanced two positions to seventh in the knowledge and technology outputs pillar, and four positions to 15th in the creative outputs pillar. This improvement was driven by strengths in high-tech manufacturing, unicorn valuations and cultural and creative exports, alongside gains in intangible asset (IA) intensity and brand value of top firms.
“Singapore’s performance in the GII reflects the collective commitment across government, businesses and research communities to build a world-class innovation ecosystem. This indicates that we have enhanced our innovation capability to realize tangible benefits for the economy. The GII provides encouragement and affirmation as we plan for the next bound of the Singapore IP Strategy 2030,” said Kong Hwee Tan, chief executive of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore.
Unveiled on April 26, 2021, the Singapore IP Strategy 2030 or SIPS 2030 is an initiative for stronger economic growth based on innovation, IA and IP. It builds on the 2013 IP Hub Master Plan and aims to maintain Singapore’s position as a top-ranked IA and IP regime and bolster its reputation as a global hub for IA and IP activities.
- Asia IP
