Poland named New East’s number one nation for innovation

Poland has been named the New East’s top nation for innovation in a new survey released by Bloomberg.

The 2019 Innovation Index ranked countries based on seven equally weighted categories, patent activity, productivity, the number of people enrolled into higher education, and the density of local tech firms.

13 New East countries made the top 50, with Poland leading the region in 22nd place. It was followed by the Czech Republic, which jumped three places to reach 25th spot, and Russia, which came in at 27.

Both Romania and Slovenia performed well in this year’s table. Romania took 29th position, rising six places on its 2018 year score, while Slovenia featured in the table for the first time, taking 31st position. Ukraine meanwhile suffered a blow, falling seven places and crashing out of the top 50.

The 2019 index began the ranking process by gathering information on 200 economies. Nations that didn’t report data for at least six of the company’s seven categories were eliminated, trimming the total list to 95. Global rankings saw South Korea keep the number one spot for another year, followed by Germany and Finland.