Estonia Leads Emerging Europe In The Global Innovation Index

Estonia is the most innovative economy in emerging Europe, the 24th most innovative globally and 15th in Europe, as indicated by the 2019 Global Innovation Index.

The index ranked Switzerland as the most innovative country in the world—a spot the country has held since 2011. Sweden was second, followed by the U.S, Netherlands, Britain, Finland, Denmark, Singapore, Germany and Israel.

The Global Innovation Index, the result of a collaboration between Cornell University, INSEAD, and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), ranks every year the innovation performance of nearly 130 economies around the world.

The countries are evaluated based on 80 different factors that affect innovations, including factors such as politics, technology, education, infrastructure, creative output, research and entrepreneurship development to name a few.

The 2019 index also reveals that other economies in emerging Europe such as Armenia and Georgia, as well as Montenegro, North Macedonia and Ukraine, are more innovative than expected for their development level. Lithuania meanwhile, is less innovative than should be expected for its level of development as it is classified as a "high income" economy.

Georgia and Ukraine also feature amongst the leaders of their respective income groups ("lower-middle income"), as does Bulgaria, which is classified as "upper-middle income."

Bulgaria is third in the upper-middle-income bracket (among 34 countries) for innovation, while Ukraine is second and Georgia is ranked third for economic innovation in the lower-middle-income bracket.

The report highlights Georgia as a country which outperforms in innovation relative to its GDP, and which is fast catching-up with innovation leaders more quickly than its peers.

Additionally, just one emerging Europe city makes the index’s list of the leading 100 tech clusters: Warsaw, in 100th place.

The index also reports that the lowest innovation level economies are Zambia, Guinea, Togo, Niger, Burundi and Yemen, which is 129^th in the index.