WIPO GII: Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou, Tokyo-Yokohama, San Jose-San Francisco, Seoul and Beijing Are World’s Biggest “Innovation Clusters”
Geneva,
September 8, 2026
PR/2026/958
Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou, Tokyo-Yokohama, San Jose-San Francisco, Seoul and Beijing are the world’s five biggest “GII Innovation Clusters,” or concentrations of innovative activity identified by WIPO through the analysis of international patent filings, scientific publications and venture capital deals.
The Global Innovation Index (GII) cluster initiative maps the cities or regions that bring together universities, researchers, inventors, venture capital and R&D activity, guiding policymakers and business leaders in creating the conditions in which breakthrough ideas flourish.
China (with 25 clusters) and the United States (20) together host nearly half of the world’s 100 biggest innovation clusters. Germany follows with seven clusters, led by Munich (28th), while India, led by Bengaluru (24th), and the United Kingdom, led by London (8th), have four each.
The world’s leading clusters are building blocks of national innovation ecosystems and show the importance of strong connections among research, enterprise, talent and investment. Their spread across regions reflects the increasing capacity of economies to translate innovation into economic and social impact.
WIPO Director General Daren Tang
The 2026 Ranking of World’s Top 100 Innovation Clusters chapter excerpt was released ahead of the public GII unveiling on September 29, 2026.
The GII clusters chapter reflects the widening reach of innovation across regions.
Beyond China and India, six other middle-income economies host top 100 clusters: Brazil (São Paulo), Egypt (Cairo), the Islamic Republic of Iran (Tehran), Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Mexico (Mexico City) and Türkiye (Istanbul). Cairo (86th) is the sole African cluster in the top 100, while São Paulo (49th) and Mexico City (82nd) are the two clusters in Latin America.
Paris (10th, France) enters the top 10, joining London (8th) as the second European cluster. Riyadh (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 92nd) enters the top 100 for the first time while Ningde (China) records the year’s biggest climb, rising 24 places to 75th.
Video: View the World’s Top 100 Innovation Clusters
GII Ranking of World’s Top 10 Innovation Clusters by Size, 2026
| Rank | Cluster name | Economy |
|---|---|---|
|
Shenzhen–Hong Kong–Guangzhou |
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Other Key Findings
- Philadelphia (20th, United States) enters the top 20 and Stockholm (30th, Sweden) the top 30. Other climbers include Miami (60th, United States), Chennai (79th) and Mumbai (43rd, both India).
- Regionally, South-eastern Asia, Eastern Asia and Oceania host the most top 100 clusters (36), followed by Europe (30) and Northern America (23). The remaining 11 clusters are spread across Central and Southern Asia (5), Northern Africa and Western Asia (4) and Latin America and the Caribbean (2).
- Measured by innovative activity relative to population size, or intensity, San Jose-San Francisco (United States) and Cambridge (United Kingdom) lead, followed by Ningde (China), Boston-Cambridge (United States) and Oxford (United Kingdom). Daejeon (Republic of Korea) enters the intensity top 10 for the first time, in 10th place.
Browse detailed briefs on each of the World’s Top 100 Innovation Clusters including information on the main scientific and patenting contributors and enterprises.
About WIPO’s GII World’s Innovation Clusters
The Ranking of the World’s Top 100 Innovation Clusters is published each year as part of WIPO’s Global Innovation Index (GII), now in its 19th edition. While the GII ranks the innovation performance of nearly 140 economies, the cluster ranking looks below the national level. Using a bottom-up method that looks beyond administrative and political borders, it identifies the geographic areas with the world’s highest density of inventors, scientific authors and/or venture capital activity.
Three metrics determine the top 100: the locations of inventors listed in patent applications filed under the WIPO Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), the affiliations of authors of published scientific articles, and the locations of companies receiving venture capital funding.
The GII is a widely used policy tool. In a 2026 WIPO survey, 93 of the 120 responding Member States (78%) reported using the GII, most often to improve their innovation ecosystems and policies.
The GII 2026, under the theme “Powering entrepreneurs at the frontier of science”, examines how scientific breakthroughs become deep science startups and spinouts. It will be launched at WIPO headquarters in Geneva on September 29, 2026. More information, including GII Economy Briefs for close to 140 economies, is available at www.wipo.int/gii.
About WIPO
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is the United Nations agency that serves the world’s innovators and creators, ensuring that their ideas travel safely to the market and improve lives everywhere.
We do so by providing services that enable creators, innovators and entrepreneurs to protect and promote their intellectual property (IP) across borders and acting as a forum for addressing cutting-edge IP issues. Our IP data and information guide decisionmakers the world over. And our impact-driven projects and technical assistance ensure IP benefits everyone, everywhere.
For more information, please contact the News and Media Division at WIPO:
- Tel: (+41 22) 338 81 61 / 338 72 24
