Innovation Cluster Ranking 2026
The Global Innovation Index's Innovation cluster ranking maps out where innovation activity is concentrated globally. By analyzing patent filings, scientific publications, and venture capital deals, it identifies the areas with the densest populations of inventors, scientific authors, and venture capitalists.
WIPO locates and ranks Innovation clusters through a geocoding method, mapping addresses and names pulled from documents to city level accuracy or better for 99.9% of inventor addresses, 99.8% of scientific author addresses, and 99.5% of venture capital deals.
Top innovative clusters in the world
- Shenzhen–Hong Kong–Guangzhou (China and Hong Kong, China)
- Tokyo–Yokohama ( Japan)
- San Jose–San Francisco (United States)
- Seoul (Republic of Koea)
- Beijing (China)
Together, these five clusters account for approximately 32.9% of global PCT patent applications filed in 2026, roughly one in every three PCT applications worldwide.
Innovation clusters with most intensive activity
Innovation clusters with the most intensive innovation activity, in proportion to population density are:
- San Jose–San Francisco (United States)
- Cambridge (United Kingdom)
- Ningde (China)
- Boston–Cambridge (United States)
- Oxford (United Kingdom)
San Jose–San Francisco and Cambridge retain the top two positions for a second consecutive year, while Ningde (China) rises to third — up from fourth in 2025 — driven by the dominant patent activity of CATL, a global leader in battery technology.
World regions of the top 100 innovation clusters
The top 100 innovation clusters continue to be predominantly located in three regions — Asia-Pacific, Europe, and Northern America — accounting for 89 of the world's top 100 clusters:
- South-eastern Asia, Eastern Asia and Oceania (36 clusters)
- Europe (30 clusters)
- Northern America (23 clusters)
- Central and Southern Asia (5 clusters)
- Northern Africa and Western Asia (4 clusters)
- Latin America and the Caribbean (2 clusters)
Economies of the top 100 innovation clusters
The top 100 innovation clusters are concentrated in the following economies:
- China: leads with the most clusters (25).
- The United States (20) with San Jose–San Francisco as the leading cluster.
- Germany (7) with Munich as the top cluster.
- India (4) with Bengaluru as the most innovative cluster.
- The United Kingdom (4) with London as the most significant cluster.
China leads with 25 clusters — one more than in 2025 — while China and the United States (20 clusters) together account for almost half of the world's top 100 innovation clusters.
Which cities entered the top 100 ranking of the most innovative clusters?
This year, 2 clusters entered the top 100 for the first time:
- Riyadh (92nd) in Saudi Arabia
- Fuzhou (96th) in China
Salt Lake City and Ann Arbor, both in the United States, drop out of the top 100, while Riyadh's entry marks Saudi Arabia's first-ever appearance in the top 100 innovation clusters, led by SABIC Global Technologies as its top PCT applicant and King Saud University as its top publishing organization.
Top 100 Innovation Clusters worldwide 2026
Note: Blue points (noise) refer to all inventor/author rounded locations, with at least five records, not classified as being within a cluster.
Source: WIPO Statistics Database, June 2026.