Malta has retained the 26th position in The Global Innovation Index (GII) 2017 obtaining a score of 50.6 out of 100. This was slightly higher than its score last year which was 50.44.
Malta placed in the eighth position for the countries combining certain levels of innovation inputs with more robust output results.
It was preceded by Luxembourg, Switzerland, China, the Netherlands, Iceland, Ireland and Germany.
In this year’s edition of the GII, 15 of the top 25 economies come from Europe, home to the top three economies of the GII 2017: Switzerland, Sweden, and the Netherlands.
Following these regional leaders are the UK (5th), Denmark (6th), Finland (8th), Germany (9th), Ireland (10th), Luxembourg (12th), Iceland (13th), France (15th), Norway (19th), Austria (20th), the Czech Republic (24th), and Estonia (25th).
Eighteen European economies follow among the top 50. They have maintained relatively stable rankings since 2014: Malta (26th), Belgium (27th), Spain (28th), Italy (29th), Portugal (31st), Slovenia (32nd), Latvia (33rd), Slovakia (34th), Bulgaria (36th), Poland (38th), Hungary (39th), Lithuania (40th), Croatia (41st), Romania (42nd), Greece (44th), the Russian Federation (45th), Montenegro (48th, it joins the top 50 this year), and Ukraine (50th, it joins the top 50 this year).
The remaining European economies remain among the top 100 economies overall.