Denmark second most innovative country in Europe

The Innovation Union Scoreboard 2011 ranks Denmark as the second most innovative country in Europe. The ranking is based on 24 indicators, such as public and private spending on education and research, patent applications and internationally cited scientific publications.

The innovation leaders in Europe
The 2011 Innovation Union Scoreboard places Member States into the following four country groups:

• Innovation leaders: Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Finland.
• Innovation followers: Belgium, the UK, Netherlands, Austria, Luxembourg, Ireland, France, Slovenia, Cyprus and Estonia with a performance close to that of the EU27 average.
• Moderate innovators: Italy, Portugal, Czech Republic, Spain, Hungary, Greece, Malta Slovakia and Poland perform below that of the EU27 average.
• Modest innovators: Romania, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Latvia are well below that of the EU27 average.

The EU still maintains a clear lead over the emerging economies of China, Brazil, India, Russia, and South Africa. However, the EU is not closing the persistent gap with global innovation leaders US, Japan and South Korea.

About the Innovation Union Scoreboard 2011
The scoreboard is prepared by the Maastricht Economic and Social Research and Training Centre on Innovation and Technology (MERIT), in collaboration with the European Commission's in-house science service, the Joint Research Centre (JRC).