Ireland has moved up three places in a list of the most innovative countries while the US has fallen out of the top ten for the first time in six years.
The State was ranked in 13th place overall out of 50 countries in the latest Bloomberg Innovation Index, which scores economies using factors including research and development spending and the concentration of high-tech public companies.
South Korea remained top of the list of most innovative countries overall followed by Sweden, Singapore, Germany and Switzerland.
Ireland was ranked in first place in a number of subcategories including value-added manufacturing and productivity. This compares to second place and sixth place respectively in these subcategories a year earlier.
The State’s performance was less impressive in other sub-categories however such as researcher concentration, R&D intensity and patient activity.
The US dropped two places to rank in 11th spot overall largely on the back of a big fall in education-efficiency. The UK was unchanged in 17th place and China moved up two spots to 19th.
The biggest losers this year were New Zealand and Ukraine, which each dropped four places.
Morocco remained in last place overall however, followed by Iran, South Africa and Cyprus.
