The UAE has entered the world’s top 25 innovation economies for the first time, climbing five places to 25th among 139 economies in the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s Global Innovation Index 2026. It ranked 30th in 2025.
The country ranked first globally in four indicators: entrepreneurship policies and culture, attraction of international students, startup and scale-up funding, and new investment in research and development and advanced technologies.
The UAE outperformed the regional average across all seven pillars and exceeded the high-income average in five, including institutions, human capital and infrastructure. It also rose two places to 12th in the Innovation Input Index and gained five places on innovation outputs.
UAE-based brands in the global top 5,000 were valued at around $101.66 billion, up 15%. Apps developed in the country recorded roughly 2.91 billion downloads in 2025.
High-tech exports reached about $68.05 billion in 2024, a 36.35% annual increase. Economy Minister Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri linked the result to the UAE’s We the UAE 2031 vision.
Source: Gulf Economist
