Taiwan topped the global rankings in patent activity and was ranked the 10th-most innovative nation in the world and the fourth-most innovative in Asia, according to the Global Innovation Rankings released by Bloomberg on Thursday.
According to Bloomberg, the patent activity category looked at resident patent filings per million residents and per US$1 million of research and development spent, as well as patents granted as a share of the world’s total.
In addition to patent activity, Taiwan finished second in high-tech density and tertiary efficiency in the Bloomberg innovation rankings.
The high-tech density category calculated the number of high-tech publicly listed companies as a percentage of all listed companies. The US came in first. The tertiary efficiency category measured the number of secondary graduates enrolled in post-secondary institutions and the percentage of the labor force with tertiary degrees.
The category, in which Canada was ranked first, also looked at the annual number of science and engineering graduates as a share of the labor force and as a percentage of all tertiary graduates.
In addition to the three categories, the global innovation rankings weighed four other factors: R&D density, productivity, researcher concentration and manufacturing capability. The rankings evaluated more than 200 countries and regions based on the seven factors. South Korea came in first in the overall innovation rankings, but did not lead in any of the seven categories, Bloomberg said.
Sweden was ranked the second most innovative nation in the world ahead of the US, Japan, Germany, Denmark, Singapore, Switzerland, Finland and Taiwan.
China finished 25th in the overall innovation ranking, but placed first in manufacturing capability, which measured manufacturing value as a percentage of a country’s GDP and as a share of the world’s total manufacturing added value.
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