Most Innovative Countries in the EU

Key Takeaways

• Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands are the most innovative countries in the EU in 2026. Their top scores are linked to strong workforce skills.
• Estonia and Lithuania recorded the EU’s fastest innovation growth between 2019 and 2026. One shared driver was a sharp rise in money invested in young, fast-growing companies.
• Malta made the EU’s biggest innovation jump between 2025 and 2026. Malta’s Summary Innovation Index score rose mainly because companies there spent more on innovation.
• Romania ranks last among EU countries on innovation and is falling further behind. Weak workforce skills and falling investment in new ideas both hold down Romania’s Summary Innovation Index score.
• Countries with high or fast-rising Summary Innovation Index scores often share two things: skilled workers and money flowing into new ideas.

Innovation Performance Across EU Countries

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Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands Are the Most Innovative Countries in the EU

In the 2026 European Innovation Scoreboard, Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands are the most innovative countries in the EU.

To compare countries, the European Innovation Scoreboard looks at 32 different measures, such as research spending, digital skills, and patent applications. It turns them into one number called the Summary Innovation Index score. A score of 100 equals the EU average.

The European Innovation Scoreboard sorts countries into four groups based on their Summary Innovation Index score:

• Innovation Leaders: above 125
• Strong Innovators: 100 to 125
• Moderate Innovators: 70 to 100
• Emerging Innovators: below 70

In 2026, only Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands made it into the Innovation Leaders group.

So what puts Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands at the top? One strength they all share is a skilled workforce.

Skills matter because new ideas start with knowledge. When workers know more, they can create more new products and services.

The European Innovation Scoreboard measures workforce skills with its human resources score. This score looks at how skilled and educated a country’s workers are.

Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands rank in the EU’s top five on the human resources score.

Within the human resources score, lifelong learning is where the three Innovation Leaders stand out most. Lifelong learning means adults keep studying or training after they finish school.

The lifelong learning rate measures the share of adults aged 25 to 64 who recently took part in education or training. This matters because adults who keep learning keep adding to their knowledge.

Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands have lifelong learning rates about two to three times the EU average:

• Sweden: 38%
• Denmark: 31%
• Netherlands: 26%
• EU average: 14%

Sweden and Denmark have the two highest lifelong learning rates in the EU.

Money for New Ideas Helped Estonia, Lithuania, and Malta Climb the EU Innovation Ranking

Every EU country improved its innovation performance between 2019 and 2026. The European Innovation Scoreboard measures this growth in points, starting from the EU’s 2019 Summary Innovation Index score. The EU average rose 11.6 points.

Estonia made the EU’s biggest gain in Summary Innovation Index score. Estonia’s score rose 19.8 points, just ahead of Lithuania’s 19.7 points.

Growing faster than the EU average is how a country catches up. Estonia and Lithuania both grew about 70% faster than the EU average.

One driver Estonia and Lithuania have in common is a sharp rise in venture capital. Venture capital is money that investors put into young, fast-growing companies in exchange for owning part of the business.

Venture capital matters because new ideas need money to become real products. More venture capital gives young companies the cash to build and sell their ideas.

Malta shows a similar money effect over a single year. Malta made the EU’s biggest innovation jump between 2025 and 2026, as its Summary Innovation Index score rose from 88.4 to 101.1. That lifted Malta from the Moderate Innovators group into the Strong Innovators group.

Malta’s higher Summary Innovation Index score came mainly from companies spending more on innovation, such as new machinery, equipment, and patent licenses. This kind of spending counts toward the score because it shows companies putting new technology to work.

Romania Is Falling Further Behind the EU on the Summary Innovation Index

Romania ranks last among EU countries on the Summary Innovation Index. Innovation scores across the EU have moved slightly closer together since 2019, but Romania has not kept up.

Romania’s Summary Innovation Index score has risen 8.2 points since 2019. That is less than the EU average of 11.6 points. Because the rest of the EU grew faster, Romania fell further behind.

The money that helped Estonia, Lithuania, and Malta climb moved the other way in Romania. Since 2019, Romania has seen sharp drops in venture capital and in company spending on innovation beyond research, such as new machinery and equipment. These drops held back Romania’s Summary Innovation Index score while other countries pulled ahead.

Money is only part of the story, since skills also help explain Romania’s low Summary Innovation Index score. Romania has the EU’s lowest shares on two key skills measures:

• Adults aged 25 to 34 who finished university or college: 23%, against an EU average of 45%
• People with above-basic digital skills: 11%, against an EU average of 31%

Countries with high or fast-rising Summary Innovation Index scores often share two things: skilled workers and money flowing into new ideas.