SZ-HK-GZ cluster tops Global Innovation Index second year running

A view of Shenzhen's Nanshan District. File photo

The Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou cluster ranked first among the world’s top 100 innovation clusters in the Global Innovation Index 2026 report released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) yesterday.

This is the second year running that the Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou cluster has topped the list of the world’s leading innovation clusters.

China had 25 clusters listed among the global top 100, retaining its position as the country with the largest number of ranked clusters for the fourth consecutive year. Beijing ranked fifth, while the Shanghai-Suzhou cluster placed sixth. Tokyo-Yokohama of Japan, San Jose-San Francisco of the United States and Seoul of South Korea ranked second, third and fourth, respectively.

An innovation cluster in WIPO’s Global Innovation Index, released annually, refers to a city or group of cities. The rankings are based on three indicators: the locations of inventors named in publicly available Patent Cooperation Treaty applications, the locations of institutions affiliated with authors of published scientific papers, and the locations of companies receiving venture capital funding. WIPO analyzes and ranks these indicators to identify the regions with the highest concentration of innovation activity worldwide.

This year’s report showed that China, with 25 ranked clusters, and the United States, with 20, together accounted for nearly half of the world’s top 100 innovation clusters. Germany followed with seven clusters, led by Munich. India had four clusters on the list, headed by Bengaluru, while the United Kingdom also had four, led by London.

In addition to China and India, six other middle-income economies had clusters among the global top 100: Brazil, represented by São Paulo; Egypt, represented by Cairo; Iran, represented by Tehran; Malaysia, represented by Kuala Lumpur; Mexico, represented by Mexico City; and Türkiye, represented by Istanbul.

Sasha Wunsch-Vincent, head of the Composite Indicators Research Section in WIPO’s Department of Economics and Data Analytics, said that China’s innovation clusters account for a substantial share of global innovation activity. He said the scale of clusters such as Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou means that their evolution is crucial to the direction of the global technological frontier. “Their rapid development shows that dense innovation ecosystems can be built within a single generation, offering a practical model for middle-income economies,” he said.

WIPO Director General Daren Tang said that the world’s leading innovation clusters are the foundation of national innovation ecosystems, highlighting the importance of close connections among research, businesses, talent and investment.