Zurich ranks 13th among the world's innovation clusters in terms of intensity

(CONNECT) Zurich is the only innovation cluster in Switzerland to make it into the world's top 100. The 2026 Global Innovation Index, published by the Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), ranks the Greater Zurich Area 40th. The index measures innovative activities in cities and regions around the world. These include the absolute numbers of international patent applications, scientific publications, and venture capital transactions that were identified.

In this assessment, Zurich’s performance over the past five years is based on 4,031 patent applications, 23,704 scientific publications, and 1,491 venture capital deals. Most patents were filed by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH, 180), followed by SIKA (139) and IBM (134). Most of the publications came from ETH Zurich (5,881), the University of Zurich (4,107), and the ETH Domain (1,104).

59 percent of all patents are filed in collaboration with innovators outside the Zurich cluster. These are primarily from Basel, San Jose-San Francisco, and Bern. 84 percent of the articles published by the Greater Zurich Innovation Cluster were produced in collaboration with organisations outside the cluster. They are based primarily in Bern, London, and Paris.

The Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou region ranks first in the list of innovation clusters sorted by size. It has a population of over 30 million. It is followed by Tokyo-Yokohama, San Jose-San Francisco, Seoul, and Beijing. London, ranked 8th, and Paris, ranked 10th, are the highest-ranked European innovation clusters.

Another WIPO ranking lists the innovation clusters with the highest level of activity. In this list, the number of inventions and scientific publications is compared to the population of the city or region being evaluated. The Greater Zurich Area, with its 2.03 million residents (as of 2025), ranks 13th. This places it behind Helsinki (8th), Eindhoven (9th), Stockholm (11th), and Copenhagen (12th), but ahead of Munich, London, and Paris. As in the previous year, San Jose-San Francisco and Cambridge took the top two spots. Next on the list are Ningde (China), Boston-Cambridge (U.S.), and Oxford (United Kingdom). ce/mm