China Leads Again with the Most Science & Technology Clusters in Global Top 100

In a recent pre-release ahead of the September 2024 launch of Global Innovation Index (GII) 2024, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) revealed its 2024 top 100 science and technology (S&T) cluster ranking, which identified local concentrations of world-leading S&T activity and the world's top 100 S&T hubs. 

The GII has compiled the top 100 GII S&T clusters worldwide since 2016 using two innovation metrics, the first metric focusing on the location of inventors listed in published patent applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), and the second considering the authors listed on published scientific articles.

This year, Tokyo–Yokohama in Japan was the leading S&T cluster globally, followed by Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou (China), both thanks to a large output of PCT applications, the former mainly contributed by patents filed by Mitsubishi Electric and the latter by Huawei. The said top two were followed by Beijing (China), Seoul (Korea), and Shanghai-Suzhou (China).

By country, China led with 26 clusters among the top 100 for the second consecutive year, followed by the US (20), Germany (8), India (4), and Korea (4). And China also hosted the two fastest growing clusters globally – Hefei (up 22.7%) and Zhengzhou (up 18.9%).

In 2024, four clusters entered the top 100 for the first time, namely, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia, ranked 93rd), Nanchang (China, 94th), Cairo (Egypt, 95th), Kunming (China, 98th), and Macao Special Administrative Region–Zhuhai (China, 100th).