U.S. is slipping when it comes to innovation
Innovation is one of the keys to a nation’s success, especially in today’s global market — and the U.S. is falling behind. The 2012 Global Innovative Index (GII) shows the U.S. slipping from 7th place last year to 10th place in the rankings of 141 countries across the world. The index considers close to 100 factors in evaluating a nation’s innovation ranking. The factors stretch over a vast area of issues, including infrastructure, human capital and research, institutions, market and business sophistication, knowledge and technology outputs as well as creative outputs. According to the report, the U.S. is slipping in innovation, in part, due to poor educational outcomes.
“The report shows that the U.S.A. continues to be an innovation leader but also cites relative shortfalls in areas such as education, human resources and innovation outputs as causing a drop in its innovation ranking,” reads the report’s press release.
Substantial and effective curricula in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects are critical to nurturing and boosting innovation within a nation. While the U.S. ranks second in college enrollment, the nation’s rank falls to 74th when it comes to the number of students graduating with degrees in mathematics or engineering. Experts affiliated with the GII say the report provides insight as to how a nation’s policies and fiscal priorities may be affecting its innovation.
“The GII is a timely reminder that policies to promote innovation are critical to the debate on spurring sustainable economic growth,” said General Francis Gurry, director of the World Intellectual Property Organization, an agency of the United Nations that helped author the report. “The downward pressure on investment in innovation exerted by the current crisis must be resisted. Otherwise we risk durable damage to countries’ productive capacities. This is the time for forward-looking policies to lay the foundations for future prosperity.”
Switzerland and Sweden topped the innovation index as numbers one and two, respectively, for the second year in a row. Singapore, Finland, and the United Kingdom followed in the rankings to make up the top five.
