Pakistan climbs to 95th in Global Innovation Index 2026
Pakistan has risen to 95th place among 139 economies in the Global Innovation Index 2026, published by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) on Thursday. The country moved up four places from 99th in 2025 and regained its status as an innovation overperformer.
The overperformer label goes to economies that perform above expectations for their level of development.
The report shows that Pakistan performed better on innovation outputs than on innovation inputs in 2026. It ranked 121st on inputs, which cover areas such as institutions, skills and infrastructure. It ranked 72nd on outputs, which cover results such as knowledge, technology and creative work. Both rankings improved on last year.
Digital strengths drive the result
WIPO pointed to the digital economy as the centre of Pakistan’s strength. The report highlighted mobile app creation, exports of information and communication technology services, high-tech imports and software spending.
It added that relatively strong scientific production and university quality supported a developing digital economy. In other words, Pakistan’s research base and its universities gave its digital sector something solid to build on.
The report summed up the wider point in its own words: “Innovation overperformance shows that innovation does not follow a straight line from income to results.”
It added: “The 2026 overperformers show that economies can generate more innovation than expected for their level of development when they build on focused strengths.”
For Pakistan, those focused strengths are plain to see in the report. The country does not rank among the leading economies in any single innovation pillar, such as human capital and research or infrastructure. Its overall gain came from doing well in a narrow set of digital areas rather than from strength across the board.
Where Pakistan stands in its region
Among the 36 lower middle-income economies in the index, Pakistan placed 15th. Among the 11 economies of central and southern Asia, it placed eighth.
The seven-year record puts the latest move in context. Pakistan ranked 107th in 2020, then 99th in 2021 and 87th in 2022. It slipped to 88th in 2023 and 91st in 2024, before falling back to 99th in 2025. The climb to 95th in 2026 recovers part of that lost ground, but it still leaves the country below its 2022 peak.
That history matters for how the result should be read. A four-place rise is progress, yet Pakistan remains in the lower third of the global table. The gap between its input rank of 121st and its output rank of 72nd also tells a story. The country produces more innovation than its inputs would predict, which is exactly what the overperformer label rewards. Closing the input gap, through better skills, research funding and infrastructure, would give future gains a firmer base.
A stable top of the table
At the top of the index, Switzerland, Sweden and the United States kept the first three places. Switzerland ranked first for a 16th consecutive year. WIPO noted that, in a period of major geopolitical and economic turbulence, the most striking feature at the top was stability.
No new economy entered the top 15 since last year. Europe again accounted for the largest share of the leading group, with 14 of the 25 innovation leaders. The Netherlands moved up to seventh place and Austria to 18th.
Five Asian economies sat among the top 25. South Korea and Singapore placed fourth and fifth, China stayed 10th as the only middle-income economy among the leaders, Japan placed 12th and Hong Kong, China placed 14th.
The wider innovation picture
The GII 2026 Innovation Tracker pointed to continued but slower progress across the innovation cycle. Most indicators advanced, with notable gains in scientific output, corporate research and development, battery costs and technology adoption. About three-quarters of indicators, however, remained below their decade average.
The near-term environment was more demanding than a year earlier. Global growth of about 3.4 per cent in 2025 was expected to ease to around three per cent in 2026, held back by higher energy prices and elevated uncertainty, before recovering modestly in 2027.
Investment linked to artificial intelligence remained the main engine on the upside. The largest technology firms were set to spend over one trillion dollars on AI infrastructure across 2025 and 2026. The report warned that this spending would increasingly be financed through debt and private credit, so a downward revision of expected AI returns could tighten financing conditions well beyond the sector.
