Geneva and Singapore, July 3, 2012 - For the second year running, Switzerland, Sweden, and Singapore lead in overall innovation performance according to the Global Innovation Index 2012 (GII): Stronger Innovation Linkages for Global Growth, published by INSEAD, the leading international business school, and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a specialized agency of the United Nations.

The report ranks 141 countries/economies on the basis of their innovation capabilities and results. It benefits from the experience of Knowledge Partners Alcatel-Lucent, Booz & Company, and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), as well as an Advisory Board of eleven international experts.

The study shows that the dynamics of innovation continue to be affected by the emergence of new successful innovators, as seen by the range of countries across continents in the top twenty GII ranking, as well as the good performances of emerging countries such as Latvia, Malaysia, China, Montenegro, Serbia, Republic of Moldova, Jordan, Ukraine, India, Mongolia, Armenia, Georgia, Namibia, Viet Nam, Swaziland, Paraguay, Ghana, Senegal; and low-income countries Kenya and Zimbabwe.

Canada  is the only country leaving the top 10 this year, mirroring weakening positions on all main GII innovation input and output pillars.

"The GII is a timely reminder that policies to promote innovation are critical to the debate on spurring sustainable economic growth," WIPO Director General Francis Gurry said.

"The downward pressure on investment in innovation exerted by the current crisis must be resisted. Otherwise we risk durable damage to countries' productive capacities. This is the time for forward-looking policies to lay the foundations for future prosperity."

Canada - previously number 8 on the top ten list, dropped this year to 12th position. While the country ranked high on such measures as its institutions (second place) and market sophistication (seventh), it scored considerably lower on human capital and research, where it ranked 25th.

Top 10 Leaders in the overall Global Innovation Index 2012

The list of overall GII top 10 performers has changed little from last year. Switzerland, Sweden, and Singapore are followed in the top ten by Finland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, Hong Kong (China), Ireland, and the United States of America.

At a glance: Global Innovation Index 2012 The report shows that the U.S.A. continues to be an innovation leader but also cites relative shortfalls in areas such as education, human resources and innovation outputs as causing a drop in its innovation ranking.

The Top 10 Leaders in the Global Innovation Index are (in order) Switzerland, Sweden, Singapore, Finland, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Denmark, Hong Kong (China), Ireland.United States of America

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Global Innovation Efficiency Index 2012

Complementing the overall GII ranking, the Global Innovation Efficiency Index shows which countries are best in transforming given innovation inputs into innovation outputs. Countries which are strong in producing innovation outputs despite a weaker innovation environment and innovation inputs are poised to rank high in this "efficiency" index.

In the Global Innovation Efficiency Index, China and India lead the top 10 league of countries. Four of the top 10 countries in the Efficiency Index are lower-middle income countries.

Deep innovation divides between countries and regions persist

The GII identifies three groups of countries: innovation leaders, learners andunderperformers - full graphic. 

The GII 2012 shows that a new dynamic of innovation is emerging regardless of deep and persistent innovation divides between countries and regions.

The most important innovation gaps exist between countries at different stages of development.

On average, high-income countries outpace countries with less income per capita by a wide margin across the board in all innovation performance metrics. Large innovation divides also exist across geographic regions, especially when comparing average performances across high-income countries with those of other regions, such as Africa, large parts of Asia and Latin America.

The Report highlights a multi-speed Europe, with innovation leaders in Northern and Western Europe, Eastern European and Baltic countries catching-up, and a Southern Europe that performs less well.

Comparing the overall GII scores to countries GDP per capita, the report identifies three groups of countries.

Among the "innovation leaders" are high-income countries such as Switzerland, the Nordic countries, Singapore, UK, Netherlands, Hong Kong (China), Ireland, USA, Luxembourg, Canada, New Zealand, Germany, Malta, Israel, Estonia, Belgium, Republic of Korea, France, Japan, Slovenia, Czech Republic, and Hungary, which have succeeded in creating innovation ecosystems where investments in human capital thrive in fertile and stable innovation infrastructures favorable to knowledge, technology and creative outputs.

"Innovation underperformers" are countries with weaknesses in their innovation systems. They include a mix of high-income as well as middle-income countries as shown in the chart above.

The theme of this year's GII report, 'Stronger innovation linkages for global growth', underlines the importance of productive interactions among innovation actors-firms, the public sector, academia, and society-in modern innovation ecosystems. 

Download the full report here or additional highlights, economy profiles and rankings.