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Global Innovation Index 2025: Germany no longer among the top 10 countries

Latest study by the World Intellectual Property Organisation on innovative strength: Germany drops from 9th to 11th place – strengths in traditional technology products and science, weaknesses in digitalisation and start-up culture – DPMA President: ‘We need to better translate our potential into protected innovations and then into attractive products and business models.’

Press release of 16 September 2025

Munich/Geneva. Germany has fallen from ninth to eleventh place in the country rankings of the Global Innovation Index, a worldwide study conducted by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), and is no longer among the ten most innovative economies. Although the study still attests to the country's strengths in some important indicators, such as the production of technology goods and exports, science and investment in research and development, structural weaknesses in digitalisation, the development of promising business models and the promotion of new companies are becoming increasingly apparent.

‘The fact that our country is falling so far behind is cause for concern and a clear signal that we need to make greater efforts if we want to remain among the most innovative economies,’ said DPMA President Eva Schewior. ‘In some areas that are crucial for future innovative strength, we are not progressing nearly as quickly as other economies – especially in the digital transformation of the economy and society. If we want to maintain our competitiveness, we must succeed in better translating our enormous research potential into protected innovations and then into attractive products and business models.’

WIPO published the Global Innovation Index 2025 today in Geneva. For the study, the United Nations sub-organisation responsible for intellectual property examines the innovative strength of around 140 economies using approximately 80 indicators.

Strong traditional technology companies, high-performing science

In the study, the German innovation system performs less well than in previous years in terms of both input factors (15th place) and output factors (8th place). The overall efficiency of the German innovation system remains comparatively high; Germany has a higher output than the use of resources would suggest. The study still reflects the export strength and performance of traditional technology companies: Germany remains in 5th place worldwide in the ‘High-tech manufacturing’ indicator and also in 5th place in ‘Production and export complexity’ (previous year: 4th place). Germany ranks third in logistics. The country remains among the leaders in terms of the number of patent applications and patent families, but is continuing to fall behind here too: a few years ago, Germany was still at the top of all economies in terms of global patent applications by German companies. In the current study, it only managed to rank seventh.

Germany continues to perform well in the categories relating to scientific work. Research and development in large companies remains a strength. The central role of the automotive industry for Germany is particularly evident here: all three German companies with the highest investments in research and development are car manufacturers.

Slow expansion of digital infrastructure, lack of start-up culture

The study identifies significant weaknesses in Germany in terms of access to and use of digital technologies. The expansion of digital infrastructure, such as broadband internet and high-performance mobile communications, is progressing only slowly. Germany continues to rank only 48th in the ‘Mobile App Creation’ indicator. Germany also performs poorly in terms of the framework conditions for starting a business: the country ranks only 41st in the ‘Entrepreneurship Policies and Culture’ indicator.

Venture capital transactions in Germany continued to decline compared to the previous year – by ten percent. Venture capital is extremely important for start-ups if promising technologies are to be turned into successful business models. Due to the high importance of venture capital investments, WIPO recently used this criterion for the first time to evaluate the strongest innovation regions. In terms of venture capital indicators, Germany ranks only between 30th and 40th in the Global Innovation Index. It stands to reason, then, that the country is not among the leaders when it comes to particularly highly valued start-ups, known as ‘unicorns’. The top three unicorns in Germany are Celonis (tech; Munich), N26 (financial services; Berlin) and Personio (human resources services; Munich).

The study also continues to see a significant weakness in the education sector: Germany ranks only 56th internationally in terms of spending on education.

The German Patent and Trade Mark Office

Inventiveness and creativity need effective protection. The DPMA is the German centre of expertise for all intellectual property rights – for patents, utility models, trade marks and designs. As the largest national patent office in Europe and the sixth largest national patent office in the world, it represents the future of Germany as a country of inventors in a globalised economy. Its approximately 2,800 employees at three locations – Munich, Jena and Berlin – provide services to inventors and companies. They implement the Federal Government's innovation strategies and further develop national, European and international protection systems.

Bild: iStock.com/metamorworks

Last updated: 16 September 2025