Australia barely scrapes into the top 20 most innovative countries

Australia’s not exactly a world leader when it comes to innovation. (Photo: Getty)

We may have a couple of tech ‘unicorns’ and a burgeoning fintech industry, but when it comes to innovation, Australia lags behind a whole host of European and Asian countries.

Australia has slipped one spot since last year in Bloomberg’s Innovation Index, dropping from 18th to 19th place.

The crown of most innovative country goes to South Korea, which has held the title since 2014.

This year’s runner-up was Germany, who leapt ahead two spots on the list since last year, followed by Finland and Switzerland.

Israel pulled ahead five places to come in fifth at the expense of Singapore and Sweden, which fell three and five spots respectively.

The US also wrestled its way back into the top ten to eighth place. China pulled ahead by three spots to 16th place, coming ahead of Australia for the first time on the Bloomberg Innovation leaderboard.

Here’s the full list of the top 60 most innovative countries according to Bloomberg:

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