Bangladesh falls behind in innovation
Bangladesh has ranked 105th out of 139 economies in the 2026 Global Innovation Index (GII), placing it at the bottom among the six South Asian economies covered by the index, with Nepal moving ahead to 104th.
Bangladesh scored 21.5 out of 100, well behind regional leader India, which ranked 38th with a score of 40.1. Bhutan stood at 74th, Sri Lanka at 94th and Pakistan at 95th.
The rankings, published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), show that Bangladesh continues to face significant weaknesses in the foundations needed to foster innovation, particularly in human capital, research, business sophistica
Bangladesh performed relatively better in innovation outputs than inputs, ranking 92nd in outputs and 115th in inputs.
Among the seven input pillars assessed by WIPO, Bangladesh’s strongest performance was in infrastructure, where it ranked 84th, followed by market sophistication at 98th.
Its weakest areas were human capital and research, at 127th, business sophistication at 125th and institutions at 113th.
On the output side, Bangladesh ranked 95th in knowledge and technology outputs and 87th in creative outputs.
Switzerland remains top
Switzerland retained the top position in the 2026 GII for the 16th consecutive year, followed by Sweden and the United States. The Republic of Korea ranked fourth and Singapore fifth.
Switzerland ranked second in innovation inputs and first in innovation outputs, maintaining its position as the world’s leading innovation economy.
Sweden remained second and was among the economies that combine high levels of innovation inputs and outputs, alongside Switzerland, the United States, the Republic of Korea and the United Kingdom.
The United States retained third place, with particularly strong performance in research, business and technology.
The Republic of Korea consolidated fourth place, with WIPO highlighting its strength in business-performed research and development, business-employed researchers and PCT patents by inventor origin. It ranked second globally in overall R&D expenditure.
Singapore ranked fifth and recorded the strongest overall performance in innovation inputs, taking first place in the inputs sub-index.
Bottom five
At the other end of the 139-economy ranking, Burundi stood at 135th, Angola 136th, the Democratic Republic of the Congo 137th, Niger 138th and Chad 139th.
Burundi ranked 27th among the 31 Sub-Saharan African economies included in the index.
WIPO identified its youthful population as a potential innovation asset, with the country ranking fifth globally for its youth demographic profile.
Angola ranked 136th globally and 28th in Sub-Saharan Africa. It ranked 13th globally in gross capital formation, which WIPO identifies as one of several potential strengths in the region.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo ranked 137th globally and 29th in Sub-Saharan Africa. WIPO said its inclusion in the GII reflected improved innovation-data collection.
The country also ranked fourth globally for its youthful demographic profile.
Niger ranked 138th globally and 30th in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Despite its low overall position, it ranked first globally for its youth demographic profile.
Chad was placed 139th, making it the lowest-ranked economy assessed. It also ranked 31st in Sub-Saharan Africa.
WIPO said improved innovation-data collection enabled its inclusion in the 2026 GII. Chad ranked 30th globally for gross capital formation.
Wider innovation gap
The gap between the highest- and lowest-ranked economies reflects more than differences in technological capacity.
The GII measures a broad range of innovation inputs and outputs, while WIPO’s analysis also identifies potential strengths in lower-ranked economies.
WIPO said innovation activity remains concentrated among leading economies, although several developing countries are building capabilities in areas such as education, digital services, finance, research and development and intellectual property.
The 2026 rankings primarily draw on data from 2024 to 2026, accounting for more than 80% of the index’s data points.
WIPO cautioned that year-on-year comparisons should take changes to the GII model and variations in data availability into consideration.
