The UAE enters the world’s top 25 most innovative economies for the first time, rising five places to 25th in the 2026 Global Innovation Index (GII) published by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). The country ranks first globally in four key indicators related to innovation, according to the Emirates News Agency (WAM), a partner of TV BRICS.
The UAE improves on its 30th-place ranking in 2025, recording its strongest result in the index in a decade. It also ranks first among the economies of the region in several areas of innovation performance.
The country takes the top global position in entrepreneurial policies and culture, attraction of international students, financing for start-ups and scale-ups, and new investment in research and development and advanced technologies.
UAE Minister of Economy and Tourism Abdullah bin Touq Al Marri says the country’s progress reflects efforts to create an environment that supports innovation and strengthens the competitiveness of the national economy. He adds that the UAE’s institutional, human and technological capabilities are enabling it to expand investment in knowledge and technology.
The country records strong results across a number of indicators. It ranks sixth globally for the value of brands among the world’s 5,000 largest brands, seventh for mobile application creation, ninth for creative goods exports and 13th for high-tech exports. It also ranks 19th for intellectual property revenue as a share of total trade.
According to the index, UAE brands included among the world’s 5,000 largest have a combined value of about US$101.66 billion in 2026, up 15 per cent from 2025. Applications developed by UAE-based companies and developers record around 2.91 billion downloads worldwide in 2025, an increase of 9.81 per cent year on year. The country’s high-tech exports reach about US$68.05 billion in 2024, rising 36.35 per cent from the previous year.
The UAE ranks among the world’s top eight economies in six sub-pillars of the index. It comes first globally in higher education, second in the business environment, fifth in both general infrastructure and knowledge absorption, seventh in information and communication technologies, and eighth in credit.
The country also improves its performance in both innovation inputs and outputs. It moves to 12th globally in innovation inputs, compared with 14th in 2025, and advances by five places in innovation outputs.
Across the seven main pillars of the GII, the UAE ranks ninth globally in institutions, 13th in human capital and research, 13th in infrastructure, 14th in market sophistication and 25th in business sophistication. It ranks 47th in knowledge and technology outputs and 36th in creative outputs.
The UAE performs above the average for high-income economies in five of the seven pillars – institutions, human capital and research, infrastructure, market sophistication and business sophistication. Its performance also exceeds the regional average across all seven pillars.