Ranked: Countries With the Most Patents per Capita

Ranked: Countries With the Most Patents per Capita

See visuals like this from many other data creators on our Voronoi app. Download it for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Monaco has over 300,000 patents per 100,000 people—more than 12 times higher than the next country.

This striking gap highlights how patent activity is often concentrated in small financial hubs rather than large industrial economies.

This chart ranks countries by active patents per 100,000 people, based on 2024 data from the World Intellectual Property Organization.

Active Patents by Country Per Person

Check out the data here:

Rank	Country	Active Patents per 100,000 People
1	Monaco	307,237
2	Luxembourg	24,318
3	Ireland	3,752
4	Switzerland	3,015
5	South Korea	2,536
6	Iceland	2,418
7	Denmark	1,847
8	Finland	1,734
9	Japan	1,691
10	Belgium	1,591
11	Austria	1,469
12	Sweden	1,445
13	The Netherlands	1,377
14	Malta	1,312
15	Germany	1,140
16	France	1,107
17	United Kingdom	1,099
18	United States	1,051
19	Norway	995
20	Hong Kong	977
21	Slovenia	873
22	Singapore	839
23	Macao	814
24	Portugal	788
25	Estonia	780
26	Italy	650
27	Australia	612
28	Latvia	558
29	Czechia	464
30	New Zealand	457
31	Spain	451
32	Lithuania	434
33	Israel	418
34	China	404
35	Slovakia	390
36	Hungary	374
37	Croatia	349
38	North Macedonia	302
39	Poland	296
40	Bulgaria	207
41	Russia	169
42	South Africa	165
43	Romania	144
44	Serbia	141
45	Malaysia	112
46	Chile	108
47	Türkiye	105
48	Mexico	86
49	Sao Tome and Principe	64
50	Trinidad and Tobago	59
51	Andorra	59
52	Ukraine	56
53	Brazil	53
54	Iran	50
55	Mongolia	47
56	Panama	47
57	United Arab Emirates	44
58	Zambia	42
59	Saudi Arabia	40
60	Bahrain	37
61	Thailand	34
62	Uruguay	33
63	Argentina	29
64	Costa Rica	28
65	Viet Nam	23
66	Georgia	23
67	Barbados	22
68	Qatar	18
69	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	18
70	Colombia	17
71	Jamaica	16
72	India	16
73	Algeria	15
74	Belarus	15
75	El Salvador	14
76	Kazakhstan	14
77	Namibia	14
78	Peru	13
79	Philippines	13
80	Morocco	13
81	Iraq	11
82	Dominican Republic	10
83	Moldova	10
84	Ghana	10
85	Oman	8
86	Sri Lanka	5
87	Egypt	5
88	Honduras	4
89	Azerbaijan	4
90	Cuba	4
91	Paraguay	4
92	Uzbekistan	3
93	Syria	3
94	Kyrgyzstan	3
95	Zimbabwe	2
96	Bosnia and Herzegovina	2
97	Kuwait	2
98	Bangladesh	1
99	Guatemala	1
100	Ecuador	1
101	Pakistan	1
102	Cyprus	1
103	Madagascar	1
104	Bhutan	1
105	Venezuela	1
106	Armenia	1
107	Greece	0
108	Ethiopia	0
109	Uganda	0
110	Myanmar	0

Monaco and Luxembourg stand far above the rest, but their rankings are likely shaped by their role as legal hubs for intellectual property rather than where innovation physically takes place.

This pattern continues with Ireland and Switzerland, which also rank highly due to favorable tax and regulatory environments for holding patents.

Among major industrial economies, South Korea stands out with 2,536 patents per 100,000 people, outperforming Japan, the U.S., and China. Home to global tech giants like Samsung and LG, the country has built a strong ecosystem for innovation.

Across Europe, several smaller economies also rank highly. Nordic countries in particular combine modest populations with strong research and development investment, with Iceland reaching 2,418 patents per 100,000 people.

By contrast, the U.S. records 1,051 patents per 100,000 people, placing it behind much of Western Europe on this metric.

China’s reputation as the maker of cheap goods and toys has evolved significantly in recent years, and today it is known as a technology leader. The country leads in raw numbers with 5.6 million active patents but when adjusting for population, it sits behind 34 other countries at just 404 patents per 100,000 people.

Innovation Isn’t Always Registered Where It Is Made

Patent data often reflects where intellectual property is registered rather than where innovation actually occurs.

Multinational companies frequently shift patents across borders to benefit from tax advantages, royalty structures, or legal protections.

As a result, countries with favorable IP regimes can appear disproportionately strong in per-capita rankings, even if much of the underlying innovation originates elsewhere.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

To learn more about patents, check out this graphic which ranks the countries with the most AI patents.

• Source: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-countries-patents-per-capita/