UAE breaks into world’s top 25 most innovative economies for first time

Dubai: The UAE has entered the world’s 25 most innovative economies for the first time, climbing five places in the 2026 Global Innovation Index as investment in technology, research and entrepreneurship strengthens its position in the global knowledge economy.

The UAE ranked 25th among 139 economies in the index compiled by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), up from 30th in 2025.

The country ranked first globally in four indicators: entrepreneurship policies and culture, attracting international students, financing for start-ups and scale-ups, and new investment in research and development and advanced technologies.

The annual index measures innovation performance across 139 economies. Its 2026 edition focuses on enabling entrepreneurs in advanced science and technology to turn scientific discoveries into scalable businesses with broad economic impact, particularly in artificial intelligence, biotechnology, advanced materials, semiconductors and clean energy.

It also assesses how innovation ecosystems are evolving amid global economic shifts, uneven growth and challenges facing venture capital markets.

Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, Minister of Economy and Tourism, said the country had made significant progress in creating a business environment that encourages innovation and strengthens the competitiveness of the national economy.

He said the five-place rise reflected the UAE’s institutional, human and technological capabilities and its continued investment in knowledge and technology.

The improvement also demonstrated the country’s ability to translate investment and innovation capabilities into tangible economic and knowledge-based outcomes, supporting its ambition to become a global centre for the new economy and innovation-driven sectors under the We the UAE 2031 vision, he added.

Brand value, technology exports rise

The UAE also posted strong results across measures of creative and technological output and knowledge diffusion.

It ranked sixth globally for the value of brands represented among the world’s 5,000 biggest brands, seventh for mobile application creation, ninth for creative goods exports, 13th for high-tech exports and 19th for intellectual property receipts as a share of total trade.

The combined value of UAE brands included among the world’s top 5,000 reached about $101.66 billion in 2026, an increase of 15 per cent from 2025.

Applications produced by UAE-based developers and companies recorded about 2.91 billion downloads worldwide in 2025, up 9.81 per cent from 2024.

The value of the UAE’s high-tech exports reached about $68.05 billion in 2024, an increase of 36.35 per cent from the previous year.

UAE ranks 12th for innovation inputs

The UAE placed among the world’s top eight economies in six subcategories. It ranked first in higher education, second in the business environment, fifth in both general infrastructure and knowledge absorption, seventh in information and communications technology and eighth in credit.

Its ranking for innovation inputs improved to 12th globally from 14th in 2025, while its innovation-output ranking advanced five places.

Across the index’s seven main pillars, the UAE ranked ninth for institutions, 13th for human capital and research, 13th for infrastructure, 14th for market sophistication and 25th for business sophistication.

It ranked 47th for knowledge and technology outputs and 36th for creative outputs.

The UAE performed above the average for high-income economies in five pillars: institutions, human capital and research, infrastructure, market sophistication and business sophistication, exceeding the regional average across all seven pillars.

WIPO, a specialised United Nations agency, publishes the Global Innovation Index annually, assessing economies through a broad range of indicators covering innovation inputs and outputs.