Patent Applications per Million People
Patent Applications per Million People by country
Commentary
Notable countries
South Korea leads by a wide margin with 3,599.3 patent applications per million people, ahead of Taiwan at 2,885 and Japan at 1,770. China also stands out at 1,010.1, while the United States is the top North American country at 790.1 and Germany leads Europe at 479. At the bottom, Madagascar records just 0.2, with Uganda and El Salvador at 0.3 and Bangladesh and Bolivia at 0.4. A notable surprise is Barbados ranking ninth globally at 259.1, ahead of many much larger economies.
Regional trends
Asia has by far the highest continental average at 322.1 patent applications per million people, well above every other region. North America (100.2) and Europe (94.22) form a second tier, while Oceania is lower at 61.77. South America averages 13.02 and Africa 4.893, showing much lower patenting intensity overall.
Data source
The data come from the World Bank, based on WIPO, for 2021, and the unit is patent applications per million people. Coverage includes 112 countries. Values are normalized by population, so they show patenting intensity rather than total patent volume.
Interpretation
Higher values indicate more patent applications relative to population, which generally points to stronger innovation activity and greater use of formal intellectual property systems. Lower values suggest weaker patenting intensity, though they do not by themselves explain why, since economic structure and access to patent systems can differ widely. Overall, the data show a highly uneven global landscape, with a few countries far above the mean of 141.4 and many countries clustered at very low levels.