Israel surged to 5th place in the Bloomberg Innovation Index of 2019, climbing five spots from last year’s index where Israel ranked 10th, Globes reported Tuesday.
The Bloomberg Innovation Index ranks the world’s 60 most pioneering economies, according to the most recent data. The ranking is compiled by analyzing seven equally weighted categories, including the amount spent on research and development, manufacturing capabilities, and the concentration of hi-tech public companies.
In 5th place in the overall survey, Israel overtook Singapore, the United States and Japan, which made the top ten at sixth, eighth and ninth place, respectively. South Korea retained the global crown in the innovation index for the sixth year in a row, followed by Germany, Finland and Switzerland.
Israel’s surge in the index was the result of strong performance in various sectors, including research and development intensity (first place), research personnel concentration (second place), patent activity (fourth place), and high-tech density (fifth place). Israel’s biggest jump was in patent activity, from the 19th place last year.
The U.S. rose three spots in the 2019 ranking, after it fell out of the top 10 economies for the first time in 2018. China, the world’s second largest economy, was rated only in 16th place.
Meanwhile, in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report for 2018-2019 – which ranks countries’ competitiveness based on 12 categories, including innovation, technological readiness, business sophistication and higher education – Israel retaining top marks for a number of categories including innovation, spending on R&D, and positive attitude toward entrepreneurial risk.
“Israel spends the most of any country in the index on R&D (4.3 percent of GDP), and is where entrepreneurial failure is most accepted and innovative companies grow the fastest…A well-developed financial sector (22nd), with the second-best availability of venture capital in the world, also supports a flourishing and innovative private sector,” the WEF report read.
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