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Lithuania reaches highest-ever GII rank
Lithuania rose two places in the 2025 Global Innovation Index (GII), landing at 33rd out of 139 countries — its best performance to date. The jump reflects sustained progress in building an innovation-led economy and an increasingly competitive startup ecosystem focused on digital products, mobile development, and high-value tech exports.
Why this matters for the tech sector
The GII is compiled annually by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and assesses around 80 indicators across R&D, human capital, infrastructure, and market sophistication. A higher placement signals stronger links between science, business, and digital innovation — key ingredients for scaling startups and attracting investment.
Lithuania’s rating highlights concrete technology strengths:
- 3rd globally for the share of women with higher education employed — a strong indicator of diverse human capital in tech and research.
- 8th for mobile app development, underlining the country’s software and product engineering capabilities.
- Continued leadership in unicorn value relative to GDP, showing the disproportionate impact of successful scaleups on the national economy.
Acting Minister of Economy and Innovation Lukas Savickas said this milestone underlines the country’s direction toward a high value-added, startup-driven economy even amid geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty.
Progress and remaining gaps
Kotryna Tamoševičienė, Head of Research and Analysis at Innovation Agency Lithuania, emphasized that targeted investments in research infrastructure, science-business collaboration, and skills are paying off. At the same time, she pointed to structural constraints that could limit future growth:
- Limited access to domestic credit for private sector scaling
- Demographic challenges among younger cohorts
- Weaker international R&D-business partnerships compared with top-ranked innovation hubs
Addressing these gaps is important for converting Latvia’s and Estonia’s regional momentum into broader international R&D collaboration and sustained venture capital inflows.
Regional and global context
Switzerland retained the top spot in the GII. Among Lithuania’s Baltic neighbors, Estonia ranked 16th and Latvia 41st; Poland placed 39th. The index also noted a global shift: after a decade of rapid growth in R&D and venture capital, investment momentum is slowing — still positive, but at the weakest pace since 2010.
This moment presents both opportunity and risk for technology ecosystems. For Lithuania, continued emphasis on talent, mobile and software engineering, and stronger links with international R&D and financing networks could help convert its rising GII rank into long-term competitive advantage and more technology-driven exports.
"The ranking is a signal, not a finish line," one analyst observed. "Sustained policy focus and private investment will determine whether Lithuania consolidates its place among Europe’s emerging innovation hubs."
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