Revisiting the 2025 GII Ranking of World’s Top 100 Innovation Clusters: New Venture Capital Deals Metric

The Global Innovation Index (GII) 2025 ranks the world’s top 100 innovation clusters, emphasizing their important contribution to national innovation systems.

In 2025, the methodology expanded to include venture capital deal locations alongside the existing metrics of scientific publications and patent inventors under the WIPO Patent Cooperation Treaty, providing a more comprehensive view of innovation ecosystems.

This year's GII identifies Shenzhen–Hong Kong–Guangzhou (China and Hong Kong, China) as the new leading innovation cluster globally, followed by Tokyo–Yokohama (Japan), San Jose–San Francisco (United States), Beijing (China), and Seoul (Republic of Korea).

Figure 1. 2025 GII Ranking of World’s Top 100 Innovation Clusters

Source: WIPO Statistics Database, May 2025

The leading innovation clusters for most economies or cross-border regions remained consistent between 2024 and 2025 (Map 1), though several notable shifts occurred. In Spain, Barcelona (45th) surpassed Madrid (48th) to claim the country's top position.

Additionally, the top 100 ranking now includes new entrants from previously unrepresented countries: Dublin (71st) emerged as Ireland's flagship innovation hub, Mexico City (79th) established Mexico's presence while becoming Latin America's second cluster, and Oslo (85th) marked Norway's debut in the prestigious rankings.

Map 1. Top innovation cluster by economy or cross-border region ranked among the top 100, 2025

Note: Circles show the top innovation cluster in each economy, with the number inside indicating its rank, and the color representing the region. Source: WIPO Statistics Database, May 2025

The top 100 innovation clusters demonstrate remarkable concentration, accounting for around half of all scientific publications and roughly 70% of global PCT filings and VC deal activity (see Figure 2).  

Figure 2. Global concentration of top 100 innovation clusters by metric, 2025

Source: WIPO Statistics Database, May 2025

This concentration intensifies at the top tier, with the leading 10 clusters alone generating over 15% of global scientific publications and around 40% of all PCT filings and 35% of all VC deals (see Figure 3).

Beijing (ranked 4th) leads globally in the share of scientific publications, contributing 4% of the total, followed by Shanghai–Suzhou (6th), both clusters located in China. In terms of international patent activity, Tokyo–Yokohama (Japan, 2nd) holds the highest global share of PCT applications at 10%, followed by Shenzhen–Hong Kong–Guangzhou (China and Hong Kong, China, 1st) at 9%, and Seoul (Republic of Korea, 5th) at 5.4%. For venture capital (VC) deal activity, San Jose–San Francisco (3rd) tops the list with a 7% global share, followed by New York City (11th) at 5%—both US clusters—and London (8th), Europe’s leading cluster, at 4%.

This diversity shows that clusters achieve global prominence through different strengths—some through science, some through patents, and others through dynamic venture capital ecosystems.

Figure 3. Global concentration of top 10 clusters by metric, 2025

Venture capital deal activity has played a pivotal role in reshaping the rankings of global innovation clusters in 2025, adding a new dimension to how cluster prominence is measured.

While Asia—particularly China, Republic of Korea, and Japan—dominates in scientific publications and patents, while the United States lead in VC activity. At the forefront is the San Jose–San Francisco cluster, which lies at the heart of Silicon Valley and ranks third overall globally. Alongside New York (7th) and London (8th)—Europe’s strongest VC hub—these clusters exemplify how dynamic venture capital ecosystems fuel innovation.

The inclusion of VC shifts cluster rankings primarily within regions rather than drastically changing the global landscape. Across North America, several clusters experience notable advancement: Austin rises to 37th place, Miami climbs to 67th, and Salt Lake City secures 92nd position—all breaking into the coveted top 100. European clusters demonstrate similar upward momentum, with Dublin ascending to 71st, Oslo reaching 85th, and Manchester claiming 94th place. The most dramatic improvements occur within India's innovation ecosystem, where Bengaluru surges to 21st, Delhi advances to 26th, and Mumbai captures 46th position, collectively signaling the maturation of the region's venture capital landscape. Southeast Asia also showcases strong performance, with Singapore establishing itself at 16th place while Ningbo enters the top 100 at 93rd, both capitalizing on robust VC activity (see Figure 4).

Figure 4. Regional changes between old and new ranking

Source: WIPO Statistics Database, May 2025

Background

The 2025 GII Ranking of World’s Top 100 Innovation Clusters, identifies local concentrations of world-leading innovation hubs. Innovation clusters are established through the analysis of three innovation metrics: scientific article publication, patent-filing and venture capital activity, documenting the geographical areas around the world with the highest density of innovation.

Scientific article publication is sourced from the Web of Science’s Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE). The SCIE data set comprises 8.2 million articles published between 2019 and 2023, containing 28.5 million listed author addresses.

Patent-filing is sourced from published applications under WIPO’s Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). The PCT patent data set consists of approximately 1.3 million patent applications published between 2020 and 2024, containing 4.2 million inventor addresses.

PitchBook VC Capital Database is used for venture capital deal activity. The data set consists of 66,755 locations between 2019 and 2023, containing 236,046 deals.

Further cluster information is available in our cluster briefs found on our Innovation cluster ranking page.