TEHRAN – According to the 2024 edition of the Global Innovation Index (GII) report, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s ranking in knowledge and technology output, as well as business sophistication has improved from 55 and 117 in 2023 to 49 and 110 in 2024, respectively.

Also, the country’s ranking in market sophistication and infrastructure has risen by two positions from 19 and 97 in 2023 to 17 and 95 in 2024.

However, Iran’s ranking in creative output, human research, and capital, as well as institutions has lowered compared to 2023.

The Global Innovation Index ranks the world’s leading economies according to their innovation capabilities.

According to this year’s report, Iran ranks second among the countries of the Central and Southern Asian region, unchanged compared with the last two years.

India and Kazakhstan ranked first and third, respectively.

Iran ranks 5 among the 38 lower-middle-income group economies, which has improved compared to the 2023 ranking (6).

However, the country’s ranking, among the 133 economies featured in the GII 2024, has dropped from 62 in 2023 to 64 this year.

Switzerland secured the first rank in the GII 2024 report with a score of 67.5 for the 14th consecutive year, closely followed by Sweden and the U.S. at the second and third positions with scores of 64.5 and 62.4, respectively.

As stated in the 2024 edition, over the past four years (2020-2024), the statistical confidence interval for the ranking of Iran in the GII 2024 is between ranks 56 and 80.

Iran performed better in innovation outputs (48) than in innovation inputs (85) in 2024.

Published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the report ranks Iran first in Market capitalization, and Trademarks by origin.

It ranks 3, 5, 8, 17, 19, 23, and 35 in Software spending, Gross capital formation, Graduates in science and engineering, market sophistication, Domestic market scale, Intangible asset intensity, and Tertiary education, respectively.

Iran (Islamic Republic of) ranks highest in Market sophistication (17), Knowledge and technology outputs (49), Creative outputs (52), and Human capital and research (64).

Iran (Islamic Republic of) ranks lowest in Institutions (133), Business sophistication (110), and Infrastructure (95).

The GII has ranked Tehran as the world’s 38th–largest science and technology (S&T) cluster this year, down from 35 last year, according to a report released on Tuesday by the UN’s WIPO.

MT/MG