Pakistan 'overperformer' in innovation, climbs 4 ranks globally in 2026: report

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan rose to 95th place among the 139 economies of the world featured in the ‘Global Innovation Index 2026’ published by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), it emerged on Thursday. Advancing in rank from 99th place in 2025, Pakistan also reclaimed its “overperformer” status for the fourth time, a status given to economies identified as performing above expectations for their level of economic development. It also held the status in 2022 and 2024. The global index report showed that Pakistan performed better in innovation outputs than innovation inputs in 2026. This year, Pakistan ranked 121st in innovation inputs and 72nd in innovation outputs — both higher than last year. “Innovation overperformance shows that innovation does not follow a straight line from income to results,” the report said.

“The 2026 overperformers show that economies can generate more innovation than expected for their level of development when they build on focused strengths. ” A list of countries that performed above expectations for their level of development in innovation in 2026, according to the Global Innovation Index 2026. — screengrab from WIPO report WIPO highlighted that Pakistan’s strengths were concentrated in the digital economy , particularly mobile app creation, ICT services exports, high-tech imports, and software spending. It added that the country’s “relatively strong” scientific production and university quality supported a developing digital economy. In the 2026 index, Pakistan ranked 15th among the 36 lower middle-income group economies and eighth among the 11 economies in central and southern Asia. It did not rank among the top innovation clusters in any specific innovation pillar of the index (including ‘human capital and research’,…