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• Almost all EU countries have improved their innovation performance since 2015 
• Australia, Canada, Republic of Korea and the US continue having a performance advantage over the EU 

The European Commission has published the 2022 edition of their European Innovation Scoreboard, a comparative analysis of innovation performance in EU countries, and regional neighbours. This year’s edition reveals that the EU’s innovation performance has grown by around 10% since 2015.  

Innovation performance in Member States  

Compared to 2021, innovation performance in 2022 has improved for 19 Member States and declined for eight.  

Almost all EU countries have improved their innovation performance over the period 2015-2022. Compared to the EU’s 2015 performance, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Lithuania and Czechia have increased their performance the most. . For two Emerging Innovators, Croatia and Poland, performance has grown faster than the EU average. 

EU’s innovation divide remains. The performance groups tend to be geographically concentrated, with the Innovation Leaders and most Strong Innovators being located in Northern and Western Europe, with most of the Moderate and Emerging Innovators in Southern and Eastern Europe.  

Worldwide comparison  

Compared to the EU average, global competitors such as Australia, Canada, Republic of Korea, and the United States continue having a performance advantage over the EU. Nevertheless, the EU has closed its performance gap with these nations and has surpassed Japan since 2021. 

Between 2015 and 2022, the EU has improved its relative position towards all global competitors except China. As a result, the EU has somewhat reduced its innovation performance gap with Australia, Canada, South Korea and the United States. South Korea continues being the most innovative country among the selected global competitors. 

More about the Scoreboard 

This year’s European Innovation Scoreboard is based on the same indicator framework as the 2021 edition, which consists of 32 indicators grouped under twelve dimensions such as: attractive research systems, firm investment in research and development, and use of information technologies.