Cyprus has secured the 27th spot in the Global Innovation Index 2024, maintaining a stable position among the 133 economies assessed for their innovation capabilities. The island also ranks 26th among 51 high-income countries and 2nd in the Northern Africa and Western Asia region.

The GII, published by the World Intellectual Property Organization, evaluates economies through a complex system of around 80 indicators. This year, Cyprus saw its performance in innovation outputs surpass inputs. The country climbed to 17th place in innovation outputs, marking an improvement from last year, while its innovation inputs ranking slipped to 35th, reflecting challenges in its institutions, human capital, research, and infrastructure.

Cyprus performed particularly well in key sectors, leading categories such as mobile app creation, cultural and creative services exports, and ICT services exports. However, it continues to face lower rankings in categories such as human capital and research (46th), infrastructure (45th), and market sophistication (41st). Despite these challenges, Cyprus is recognized for producing more innovation outputs relative to its investment levels, demonstrating the country’s ability to efficiently convert resources into impactful innovation.

Over the last five years, Cyprus has consistently ranked between 27th and 29th in the GII. While Cyprus still lacks representation in the top 100 science and technology clusters globally, its strong performance in creative outputs (13th) and knowledge and technology outputs (23rd) suggests promising potential for future growth.

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