European innovation scoreboard - European Commission
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European innovation scoreboard

This provides a comparative analysis of innovation performance in EU countries, other European countries, and regional neighbours.

What is the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS)

The European Innovation Scoreboard provides a comparative assessment of the Research and Innovation performance of EU Member States, other European countries, and global competitors. It helps countries assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of their national innovation systems and identify challenges that need to be addressed. The European Innovation Scoreboard 2025 was released on 15 July 2025.

European Innovation Scoreboard 2025

The European Union's innovation performance as measured by the European Innovation Scoreboard increased by 12.6 percentage points since 2018. Over this period, all EU Member States have increased their innovation performance, although the extent to which they have improved varies. Between 2024 and 2025, the EU's innovation performance has declined marginally by 0.4 percentage points. More specifically, innovation performance increased in 13 Member States during this period, while 14 Member States experienced a decline.

Similarly to the previous editions, the European Innovation Scoreboard 2025 categorises Member States in four innovation groups based on their scores: Innovation Leaders (performance is above 125% of the EU average), Strong Innovators (between 100% and 125% of the EU average), Moderate Innovators (between 70% and 100% of the EU average) and Emerging Innovators (below 70% of the EU average). Based on a revision process undertaken in late 2024 and early 2025, the EIS 2025 applies a revised indicator framework to the one used for 2021-2024.

Compared to the previous editions, Sweden regains its position as the most innovative Member State, ahead of Denmark which was the leading EU Member State from 2020 to 2024. Three countries experienced changes in their performance group. Croatia has improved its innovation performance by 19.4 percentage points from 2018 to 2025, moving up from the Emerging Innovators group to the Moderate Innovators group. Cyprus has dropped from the Strong Innovators to the Moderate Innovators performance group, despite its score increasing by 17.6 percentage points since 2018. Similarly, Hungary has moved from the Moderate Innovators to the Emerging Innovators, despite a 16.2 percentage points increase over the same period. 

EIS interactive tool

The European Innovation Scoreboard interactive tool allows for customised comparisons of performance scores. It allows to visualise country profiles, compare relative strengths, weaknesses and trends, and test correlations between indicators.

EIS interactive tool