The yearly innovation performance report shows a stable growth, but improvements are still urgently needed for the EU to compete globally.
The European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) 2024 presents an insightful analysis of innovation performance across Europe. The methodology, performance indicators, and country-specific insights illustrated in the report, provide a comprehensive overview of the innovation landscape and serve as evidence-based findings to support strategic interventions and policy formulation.
The EIS 2024 assesses and compares innovation performance across EU Member States (MS), 12 neighbouring countries (including Moldova for the first time) and selected global competitors. To better track the progress and trends year after year, the performance scores of each edition are relative to the figures of the EU in 2017 (reference year) and then compared to the whole eight-year period. In line with the previous publications, 32 indicators are measured, spread over 12 dimensions and four broader categories: Framework conditions, Investments, Innovation activities, and Impact. According to their respective innovation performance and compared to the EU average performance, which equals 110% (reference in 2017: 100%), countries are divided into four groups: Innovation Leaders (performance >125%), Strong Innovators (performance between 100% and 125%), Moderate Innovators (performance between 70% and 100%), and Emerging Innovators (performance below 70%).
The EU MS have increased their performance by 10% since 2017, with substantial variations between countries. Cyprus and Estonia demonstrated the most notable improvements (+39% and +27% respectively, the latter becoming a Strong Innovator in 2024), whereas countries such as Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia displayed a rise of less than 5% over the same period (2017-2024). While measuring if less-performing countries were catching up with other MS, the report shows only a slight decrease in the disparities in innovation performance across the EU, suggesting the innovation divide persists. Among MS, Denmark remains the top performer (135.7%), followed by Sweden (132.9%), Finland (127.8%) and the Netherlands (125.7%) – all four as MS Innovation Leaders.
At the global level, South Korea outperforms the EU and remains the global most innovative competitor (119.1% of the EU average). Canada (114.9%), the United States (106.7%) and Australia (106.2%) also lead over the EU (all four as Strong Innovators, with performance ranging between 100-125%), while China is catching up with a strong performance score (+28.2% since 2017, reaching 94.7%), overtaking Japan (93.2%), but still not surpassing the EU. Nevertheless, those results should be treated carefully because, due to limited data available, a set of 19 indicators has been used for global benchmarking compared to the 32 indicators (see methodology report). The two sole indicators where the EU has shown a weak performance compared with international competitors are “trademarks application” and “collaboration among innovative SMEs”, flagging concrete areas of improvement.
Switzerland continues to excel as an Innovation Leader, securing the top global rank again with a performance score of 138.4%. This performance indicates Switzerland’s consistent strength in various innovation dimensions, particularly in human resources, attractive research systems, firm investments and intellectual assets. Despite a modest overall increase of 1.3% since 2017, Switzerland has shown significant growth in specific areas, such as venture capital expenditures, population involvement in lifelong learning, and SMEs introducing product innovations.
The one-page country profiles facilitate the report’s reading and indicate the performance scores relative to the EU in 2024. The online interactive tool complements these profiles and offers a customised view of the countries and indicators. The EIS indicators and methodology will be revised in Autumn 2024, and changes agreed upon with the MS will be applied to the EIS 2025.
In conclusion, the report underscores the importance of innovation for Europe’s competitiveness, resilience, and sustainable development. By providing detailed insights into the innovation performance of European countries and recommending targeted policy actions, the report serves as a crucial guide for enhancing Europe’s innovation landscape.