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Intellectual Capital Index

Intellectual Capital Index

Quality and availability of education in the past are an indication for today’s R&D and innovation capabilities, and today’s education performance reflect future innovation capabilities. Strength and depth of R&D activities is the basis for the development of value-added technologies and services.  Educational performance indicators are therefore highly important to estimate the ability for sustained innovation and competitiveness

 

Intellectual Capital Index 2023

 

Intellectual capital: sustaining the innovation drive

Innovation – which in turn is the result of education – allows countries to compete in the globalised markets.
In order to create and sustain wealth, jobs and income for the population are required. Providing jobs requires producing goods and providing services that people or businesses, domestically or abroad, are willing to buy. This in turn requires products and services to be competitive in the global market in terms of quality and price. To maximise the domestic benefits, the value chain is ideally covered within the boundaries of a national economy – the largest share of adding value is contained in processing raw materials and/or parts to finished products.

The Intellectual Capital Index is based indicators that measure the extend of the following clusters

Intellectual Capital

State of the World – Intellectual Capital

The global average in the Intellectual Capital Index is 37 – the gap to a perfect World 63. The Difference between low-performing countries (lowest: 16) and the highest score (74) is striking, and reflects – even stronger than a GNI comparison – the North-South gap. A high score in the Intellectual Capital Index is the basis for future innovation and therefore economic success. Unfortunately, poor countries also score poor in Intellectual Capital, raising the fear that large parts of Africa will remain trapped in poverty.

On a positive note, nearly 60% of all indicators show positive development globally. However, most of the improvements seem to be originating in Europe, Far & South-East Asia, and the Americas (excluding Central America).

Global Intellectual Capital Scores

Lowest
Global Average
Global Best
Ideal World

Global Intellectual Capital Trends

Positive Trends
No Trend
Negative Trends

Countries with a high score in this ranking are more likely than others to develop (or sustain) successful economies through research and know-ledge driven industries, i.e. high-value added industries, and therefore achieve higher growth rates.

Intellectual Capital Index Ranking 2023

  • The Innovation ranking continues to be topped by South Korea – by a considerable margin.

     China is ranked 3, the US 7

  • North-Eastern Asian nations (S. Korea, China, Japan, Singapore) dominate the intellectual capital sub-index of the GSCI.

  • North-East Asia trend show a faster development than their counterparts in “The West”

  • Scandinavian Nations are all within the top twenty, as is Israel

  • The UK is ranked 5, Germany 6

  • Brazil is ranked 70, and India 84.

  • Morocco (54) and South Africa (59) are the highest ranked nation on the African continent

  • Most of Africa is unfortunately still underperforming in the global intellectual capital comparison, raising fear of prolonged entrapment in poverty

GSCI 2023

Download the report: The Global Sustainable Competitiveness Report 2023 (PDF) Download the data: GSCI Scores 2023 (XLSX)

Sustainable & Competitive

Achieving Sustainable Competitiveness: policies for more sustainable AND more prosperous societies: Sustainable. Competitive.

2023 Intellectual Capital Ranking

RankCountryScore
1South Korea75.2
2Singapore68.9
3China68.8
4Japan68.6
5United Kingdom65.2
6Germany65.2
7USA64.6
8Switzerland63.6
9Israel61.8
10France61.6
11Finland61.4
12Sweden60.7
13Denmark60.5
14Norway60.4
15Netherlands59.9
16Austria59.6
17Belgium59.1
18Portugal58.8
19Turkey58.6
20Italy57.4
21Canada55.7
22Iceland55.3
23Czech Republic55.2
24Thailand55.1
25Slovenia55.0
26Estonia55.0
27Australia53.5
28Russia53.3
29Iran53.0
30Latvia52.8
31Poland51.9
32Malta50.6
33Cyprus50.6
34Lithuania50.0
35New Zealand49.7
36Ireland49.2
37Chile49.1
38Vietnam49.0
39Luxembourg48.9
40Hungary48.5
42Peru47.7
43Tonga47.5
44Colombia47.1
45Spain46.5
46Croatia46.4
47Micronesia46.1
48Slovakia46.0
49Malaysia45.7
50Greece45.5
51Timor-Leste45.1
52Uruguay44.7
53Kiribati44.4
54Morocco44.3
55Ecuador44.2
56Fiji43.8
57Saudi Arabia43.6
58Kazakhstan43.5
59South Africa43.5
60United Arab Emirates43.1
RankCountryScore
61Mauritius42.9
62Oman42.9
63Philippines42.9
64Solomon Islands42.6
65Qatar42.4
66West Bank and Gaza42.3
67Mexico42.1
68Mongolia42.0
69Azerbaijan42.0
70Brazil41.9
71Argentina41.8
72Paraguay41.8
73Nepal41.6
74Georgia41.6
75Algeria41.5
76Kyrgistan41.5
77Ukraine41.2
78Burma41.2
79Serbia41.0
80Tunisia40.5
81Indonesia40.4
82Cuba40.1
83Guyana40.0
84India39.9
85Costa Rica39.9
86Sao Tome and Principe39.8
87Turkmenistan39.7
88Albania39.6
89Seychelles39.5
90Vanuatu39.5
91Armenia39.3
92Rwanda39.2
93Samoa39.1
94St. Vincent and the Grenadines39.0
95Bulgaria38.8
97Uzbekistan38.2
98Belarus38.0
99Bhutan37.9
100Bahrain37.8
101Jordan37.8
102Grenada37.7
103Belize37.7
104Egypt37.7
105St. Kitts and Nevis37.5
106Dominican Republic37.4
107Dominica37.3
108Eswatini37.3
109Senegal37.2
110Maldives37.2
111Moldova37.0
112Laos37.0
113Guatemala36.9
114Bolivia36.8
115Sri Lanka36.7
116Bangladesh36.3
117Jamaica36.2
118Kuwait36.2
119Tajikistan36.1
120Montenegro36.1
RankCountryScore
121Brunei36.0
122Bahamas35.5
123Gambia35.4
124Syria35.4
125Kenya35.3
126Panama35.3
128Romania35.0
129Suriname34.9
130Togo34.7
131Cameroon34.4
132Bosnia and Herzegovina34.0
133Namibia33.8
135North Macedonia33.5
136Djibouti33.4
137Gabon33.3
138Cote d'Ivoire33.0
139Mozambique32.8
140Liberia32.2
141Trinidad and Tobago32.1
142Burkina Faso32.0
143Nicaragua31.9
144Venezuela31.2
145Benin31.1
146Sierra Leone31.0
147Malawi30.9
148Honduras30.9
149Burundi30.8
150Lesotho30.4
151Zambia30.3
152Botswana30.0
153Yemen29.9
154Cape Verde29.8
155Ghana29.3
156El Salvador29.1
157Haiti28.6
158Cambodia28.5
159Tanzania28.5
160Lebanon28.3
161Ethiopia28.3
162Pakistan27.8
163Republic of Congo27.6
164Comoros27.6
166Iraq26.9
167Democratic Republic of Congo26.7
168Zimbabwe26.4
169Guinea26.1
170Sudan25.9
171Mauritania25.8
172Angola25.8
173Madagascar25.7
174Papua New Guinea25.7
175Nigeria25.4
176Mali24.7
177Uganda24.4
178Chad24.4
179Central African Republic23.6
180Afghanistan23.5
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