TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan has been ranked as the second-most innovative country in the world by CEOWorld Magazine.
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs shared the magazine's list of the “Most Innovative Countries in the World, 2025” on its X profile. The ministry said that Taiwan's high ranking is “a recognition of our open society, R&D strength & vibrant tech ecosystem" and affirms Taiwan's role as a “trusted and global partner."
Out of 196 countries on the list, Singapore came in first with a score of 97.81, just edging out Taiwan's 97.8 mark by one-hundredth of a point. In third place was South Korea at 97.68, followed by Switzerland, Israel, the Netherlands, the US, Finland, Denmark, and Japan, rounding out the top 10.
Among Taiwan's remaining East Asian rivals in Asia, Hong Kong came in 17th at 93.45, and China ranked 20th at 92.38. As for its Southeast Asian competitors, Malaysia placed 29th at 90.29, followed by Thailand in 40th at 86.96, Vietnam in 46th at 86.14, and Indonesia in 50th at 85.42, topping out the world's top 50.
Yemen came last with a score of 45.02. It was closely preceded by East Timor with a score of 45.1, along with Palestine, Syria, Tonga, Tuvalu, Turkmenistan, Suriname, Sudan, Pakistan, and South Sudan, accounting for the bottom 10.
Factors the innovation index takes into consideration include patent applications, global brand value, high-tech manufacturing, researchers per million population, corporate R&D investors, government R&D spending, and university-industry R&D collaboration.
Other aspects are knowledge-intensive employment, finance for startups, venture capital received, environmental performance, information and communication technology access, regulatory quality, and policies for doing business.
The index also weighs a country’s adoption, use, and production of technology. While the World Innovation Index score typically correlates with GDP per capita, favoring wealthier nations, countries like India outperform expectations relative to their level of development.
