Slovenia rose 10 places to #21 in Bloomberg’s 2020 Innovation Index, between Australia and Canada, with this year’s list headed by Germany, ending South Korea’s six-year run at the top, the Asian nation now at #2, with Singapore at #3.
The index is based on dozens of criteria under seven broad headings: R&D intensity, manufacturing value-added, productivity, high-tech density, tertiary efficiency (enrollment in tertiary education, percentage of the workforce with degree and the number of STEM graduates), researcher concentration and patent activity. It’s this last category where Slovenia excelled in the last 12 months, enabling it to leap ahead of such countries and territories as Canada (22), Iceland (23), Luxembourg (31), Estonia (36) and Hong Kong (39).
Notably, Slovenia is the highest ranked of the former communist or socialist states – with the next being the Czech Republic at 24, although note that China, operating under a self-proclaimed system of “socialism with Chinese characteristics”, is at 5. Slovenia is also the only member of the former Yugoslavia to appear in the top 60. More details on the list can be found here, while the top 21 are listed below.
- Germany
- South Korea
- Singapore
- Switzerland
- Sweden
- Israel
- Finland
- Denmark
- US
- France
- Austria
- Japan
- Netherlands
- Belgium
- China
- Ireland
- Norway
- UK
- Italy
- Australia
- Slovenia
