UAE Enters the Global Innovation Index Top 25 as Kuwait Climbs 11 Places and Jordan Hits 60th
The United Arab Emirates rose five places to 25th in the 2026 Global Innovation Index, entering the top 25 of 139 economies, while Kuwait climbed 11 places to 62nd and Jordan moved up five to 60th, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization. All six Gulf Cooperation Council economies now rank inside the top 70, and their average rank improved to 51.5 from 54.7 a year earlier, on our calculation.
An unchanged top five
Global Innovation Index 2026, top five
| Rank | Economy | 2025 rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Switzerland | 1 |
| 2 | Sweden | 2 |
| 3 | United States | 3 |
| 4 | Republic of Korea | 4 |
| 5 | Singapore | 5 |
Global Innovation Index 2026, 139 economies ranked.
The top five are unchanged from 2025. The United Kingdom is 6th, the Netherlands 7th after 8th in 2025, Finland 8th after 7th, Denmark 9th and China 10th, and no new economy entered the top 15 this year.
The Gulf moves up
The Gulf, Jordan and Egypt in the index: rank by year
| Economy | 2026 | 2025 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|
| United Arab Emirates | 25 | 30 | 34 |
| Saudi Arabia | 42 | 46 | 66 |
| Qatar | 47 | 48 | 70 |
| Jordan | 60 | 65 | 81 |
| Kuwait | 62 | 73 | 78 |
| Bahrain | 64 | 62 | 79 |
| Oman | 69 | 69 | 84 |
| Egypt | 83 | 86 | 96 |
Ranks from the index’s 2026 economy profiles. Ranked by 2026 position. The index notes that changes in methodology and in data availability may affect year to year comparisons of rankings.
Since 2020, Saudi Arabia has gained 24 places, Qatar 23, Jordan 21, Kuwait 16, Bahrain and Oman 15 each, Egypt 13 and the UAE 9, on our calculation. This year four of the six Gulf economies moved up, Oman kept its 69th place and Bahrain, 64th after 62nd in 2025, is listed in the report with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan among the economies with some of the strongest sustained advances since 2019 within the top 70.
The report ties the Gulf’s progress to strong enabling conditions, including digital government, ICT adoption, infrastructure, higher education, talent attraction and startup finance. The UAE ranks 1st for greenfield R&D and high tech foreign investment, 20th for FDI inflows and 41st for patent families. Saudi Arabia ranks 1st in ICT use and 4th in government online services, and Riyadh enters the world’s top 100 innovation clusters at 92nd. Qatar ranks 16th for infrastructure and 1st in tertiary inbound mobility. Kuwait’s 11 place gain, one of the region’s largest, builds on ICT access, where it ranks 4th, and ICT use, where it ranks 3rd. Bahrain ranks 1st in ICT access, 2nd for general infrastructure and 6th for business environment.
The gap the report highlights is between inputs and outputs. The UAE ranks 12th on innovation inputs and 42nd on outputs, Saudi Arabia 30th and 62nd, and Qatar 33rd and 67th, gaps of 30, 32 and 34 places, on our calculation.
Jordan and Egypt
Jordan’s 60th place compares with 65th in 2025 and 73rd in 2024, and the country ranks 1st in the world for scientific and technical articles. The Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship said Jordan ranks 5th among Arab economies, after the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Morocco, which is 54th, and that it has passed the target of 63rd set for 2033 under the Economic Modernization Vision seven years early. Jordan ranks 63rd on inputs and 65th on outputs.
Egypt rose three places to 83rd, with innovation outputs, at 75th, ranking ahead of inputs, at 95th, the reverse of the Gulf pattern on our reading. Its R&D spending was slightly above 1 percent of GDP in 2024, second in the region only to the UAE according to the report, and Cairo ranks 86th among global innovation clusters. Among the 36 lower middle income economies, Jordan ranks 5th and Egypt 9th.
Why it matters: for the Gulf economies the index measures how far diversification into knowledge based activity has gone. With the UAE in the top 25 and all six GCC members inside the top 70, the enabling conditions are in place; turning strong inputs into innovation outputs is, in the report’s words, the key issue now.
Outlook: in Jordan, the Cabinet has approved a revised improvement plan for the index and circulated it to the entities responsible for each area, the ministry said. The index is published annually.
Sources: World Intellectual Property Organization, Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship of Jordan, The Edge.
