The world’s most innovative countries

The Economist ^ | 10/11/2025

[ckilmer]

How does switzerland get to be the number one innovator? Does anyone recall that last time that switzerland was credited for a big invention.

or do they major in the minors.

[delta7]

Blowing up their energy pipeline with Russia, Nordstream, just about sealed the height of their stupidity….the EU is collapsing….and the world’s Wealth is moving from the West to the East.

[ckilmer]

britian, germany, netherlands and france are all in decline in the last three years. makes sense. illegals and the war in ukraine are draining their resources off to other things.

[Vermont Lt]

China’s economy is about to have a very hard landing. Demographically, they are on a precipice. Your delusional statements would be hilarious if I thought you actually believed them.

Not sure how much you get paid for spreading this crap on FR, but I gotta believe this site is so tiny, it must be a side job for your bot farm.

[Fungi]

Nonsense. Israel is not on the list. The antisemitic world hates Israel for a number of reasons. They are envious because Jews are smart, and God chose to reveal Himself through the Jews. Don't believe in God? Explain the Jews as one noted philosopher once said.

[Fungi]

Israel is there and I stand corrected.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Nonsense. Israel is not on the list.

Israel is ranked number 14. It’s amazing considering the total number of Jews in the world are less than the population of the state of New York ( OK, granted, New York has a lot of Jews, but still ).

Say what you will of Israel, but when it comes to STEM, they punch way above their weight.

[Freedom4US]

Germans also invented poison gas, chemical weapons, and frightened enough physicists around the globe with their discoveries in the 1930s to encourage an American nuclear or atomic bomb research program. Also they invented some poisonous ideas like Socialism, international or otherwise.

[fireman15]

China's economy is about to have a very hard landing.

Isn't that the same thing you always say about every adversary that we have? Do I need to go back and quote you? Wishful thinking and reality often collide don't they. We can hope that all of our adversaries will have bad things happen to their economies... whether this is likely is questionable in most cases.

“LONDON, Oct 7 (Reuters) - The World Bank lifted its 2025 growth projection for China to 4.8% and raised its forecast for much of the region, but warned of slowing momentum next year, citing low consumer and business confidence and weak new export orders.

Publishing its biannual economic outlook for East Asia and the Pacific region on Tuesday, the World Bank said it now expected China to grow 4.2% next year, after forecasting in April growth of 4.0% both this year and next.”

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/world-bank-lifts-china-2025-gdp-forecast-48-ahead-slowdown-next-year-2025-10-07/

That is a projected slow down compared to 4.8% growth projected for this year, but the USA's growth rate has been doing much worse than China's and our economic risks are greater, especially if we keep pouring $Hundreds of Billions into never ending sink holes of corruption like Ukraine. Massive deficit spending and letting our country be overrun by illegals who are overwhelming the local economies in many areas is destroying our country at levels never before seen.

[GOPJ]

Great points - we should have lists of cultures that have produced horrors - similar to this list.

Thanks Freedom4

Great idea.

[Cronos]

A number of companies are headquartered in Switzerland due to its company friendly laws, taxes and banking. So they also have most patents filed. That makes them and Sweden the most innovative. Kind of like Delaware in the USA having so many companies

[9YearLurker]

Home of the globalists, who set the world at war every so often, making money from all sides, but magically managing to remain “neutral” throughout.

That’s pretty inventive, is it not?

[irishjuggler]

I suspect that Switzerland punching above its weight on patents is mostly due to pharma companies. There’s a lot of drug research there. They also innovate quite a bit in the area of food production, cf. Nestle.

[Freedom4US]

There was a swath of many inventions and other great advances in music, literature, architecture etc in that area. World War One kinda destroyed all that. Britain, France, Italy were no slouches either. Hungary for a time had some of the finest schools.

Germany was paid royalties or sued for patent infringement on their Mauser rifle bolt design, the US government paid. I think that was actually during the first World War. By the 2nd nobody paid any attention to that sort of thing. At the end of the war all of the technological advancements were confiscated and were considered a form of war reparations by the allies. One notable example, I guess, were wire and magnetic tape recording. Music fidelity and broadcast took a noticeable leap right after the war, acetates and such from the 1930s and 1940s sound very bandwidth limited and tinny, by the 1950s that had changed a great deal.

Many people are aware of the “Paperclip” rocket scientists imported to the US right after. Unfortunately less well known are thousands of propaganda specialists, and chemical warfare guys too. Ostensibly to fight “the cold war”, but in hindsight this helps explain a lot of the otherwise inexplicable turmoil America has been subjected in the last 60 years.

[Chickensoup]

Aren’t we all on a precipice.

I would guess a command economy can better manage it.

Why do you continually say that China is failing.

[Chickensoup]

So it is not that the Swiss or Swedish are innovative...they are safe hold repositories for the intellectual and monetary properties of innovation.

[Vermont Lt]

Because their economy, which is built on real estate and manufacturing, is suffering greatly. The demographics of the country—based on the one child limit from decades ago—has left a hole in their population which is coming home to roost. They are aging and will have significant declines in population over the next ten to twenty years.

Xi is barely holding on to his job. No…not in the sense of “Putin has cancer” but in a true political sense. That is going to cause major disruption.

China is a mess. And its not getting any better.

[Chickensoup]

Up to 20 years from now.

Manufacturing and real estate. Strong sectors thar show softening. Now.

A well educated population. That doesn’t put up with crime and decline.

As I look at the rapidly declining West I really don’t see your issues.

[Night Hides Not]

I was hit with the realization of how bad our educational system is here in the US. My goddaughter teaches 5th grade here in North Texas. When I mentioned the novel Animal Farm, she said she’d never heard of it. As I was briefly explaining the plot, she said “it’s probably on the banned list.”

My next gifts to my 15YO grandson will be Animal Farm and the Grapes of Wrath. He doesn’t get any homework assigned, even in high school.