TEHRAN –According to the 18th edition of the Global Innovation Index (GII) report, the Islamic Republic of Iran ranks 11th among Islamic countries in 2025.

GII 2025 measured innovation performance across 139 economies and unveiled the world’s top 100 innovation clusters. It tracked global innovation trends through investment patterns, technological progress, adoption rates, and socioeconomic impacts.

The country ranked 70th among the 139 economies featured in the report, Mehr news agency reported.

The UAE, Malaysia, and Turkey had the highest positions among Islamic countries in this edition.

The country ranked 17th among the 36 upper middle-income group economies. In 2024, Iran ranked 5th among the 38 lower-middle-income group economies.

Over a ten-year period, Iran’s ranking rose from 106 in 2015 to 70 in 2025. The country’s best ranking in GII was 53 in 2022. It ranked 67, 60, 62, and 64 in 2020, 2021, 2023, and 2024.

In 2025, Iran's performance in knowledge and technology outputs improved three steps, rising from 49 in 2024 to 46 in 2025. The country’s best performance (24th globally) was in the knowledge impact variable, which measures the effect that innovation and the knowledge generated have on the economy and society.

Iran ranked 45th in innovation outputs. This position is higher than last year (52nd).

The country ranked lowest in Institutions (138th), Business sophistication (107th), and Infrastructure (98th).

Iran performed above the Upper middle-income group average in Human capital and research (Iran’s score is 32.43, while the upper middle-income score is 29.7); Knowledge and Technology outputs Iran’s score is 27.46, whereas the upper middle-income score is 20.0; and Creative outputs (Iran’s score is 31.87, while the upper middle-income score is 22.6).

The Innovation cluster ranking of the GII identifies local concentrations of innovation activity. Innovation clusters are established through the analysis of patent-filing activity, scientific article publication, and venture capital (VC) activity, documenting the geographical areas around the world with the highest density of inventors, scientific authors, and venture capitalists.

Switzerland remains the world’s innovation leader in 2025. China enters the top 10 for the first time, while middle-income economies – India, Turkey, Viet Nam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Morocco, Albania, and Iran – are the fastest climbers since 2013.

GII 2025

After a decade of rapid expansion in R&D spending and venture capital investment, a shift is witnessed.  R&D growth has declined to its slowest pace since the global financial crisis, and global venture capital deals have not recovered from the severe downturn in 2023.

However, even if innovation investment is in a lull, innovation itself is not. Green supercomputers are setting new efficiency records. Battery prices and genome sequencing costs continue to fall. Adoption of electric vehicles, 5G, and robotics is gaining ground, albeit unevenly, across regions.

And while the full impact of artificial intelligence remains uncertain, its transformative potential is undeniable.

What is particularly encouraging in this year’s findings is how innovation momentum is diversifying across regions.

The GII 2025 shows strong performances across middle-income economies. China, India, Turkey, and Viet Nam continue to climb in the ranking. Others, including Senegal, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, and Rwanda, are emerging as dynamic innovation overperformers.

Regions such as Central and Southern Asia and the Middle East are steadily advancing, contributing to a more diverse innovation landscape.

New features of GII 2025 include expanded global coverage, with six more countries: the Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Lesotho, Malawi, Seychelles, and Venezuela.

This edition also further improves the GII Innovation Ecosystems & Data Explorer, which aims to empower decision makers by offering in-depth views of their economies’ innovation systems, from persistent strengths to areas of untapped potential.

Another new element is the integration of venture capital activity into the innovation cluster ranking for the first time. The result is a sharper picture of the ecosystems turning scientific discovery into entrepreneurial success — ranging from cities such as Bangalore, Cairo, Mexico City, and Paris to multi-city hubs like Silicon Valley and southern China’s Greater Bay Area.

MT/MG