**

Pakistan has climbed four places to 95th among 139 economies in the World Intellectual Property Organisation's Global Innovation Index 2026, up from 99th in 2025, according to a Dawn report published on 29 October 2026.

It is the fourth time Pakistan has held that status, having previously done so in 2022 and 2024, according to the report. The longer trend shows movement rather than a steady rise: Pakistan ranked 107th in 2020, 99th in 2021, 87th in 2022, 88th in 2023, 91st in 2024 and 99th in 2025, before returning to 95th in 2026.

Outputs ahead of inputs

The most striking feature of the profile is the gap between what Pakistan puts in and what it produces. WIPO ranks Pakistan 121st for innovation inputs but 72nd for innovation outputs, a spread that suggests comparatively strong results from a weaker base of institutions, infrastructure and research funding.

That pattern matters for how the result should be read. A four-place rise is real progress in the ranking, but 95th overall still leaves Pakistan in the lower half of the 139 economies covered, and the input ranking points to the constraints behind the headline. Switzerland, Sweden and the United States remained the top three innovation economies, with Switzerland first for a 16th consecutive year.

Where the strengths — and gaps — sit

The report places Pakistan 15th among 36 lower middle-income economies and 8th among 11 economies assessed in Central and Southern Asia. Its core strengths were concentrated in the digital sector, including mobile application development, software spending, high-tech imports and information and communication technology services exports.

Those strengths point to where Pakistan's innovation activity is most visible: software and digital services that can reach global markets without the same heavy capital investment as large-scale manufacturing or laboratory research.

**Wikimedia Commons photo subject suggestion:** National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad campus, or an Islamabad cityscape.

---

Sources: WIPO Global Innovation Index 2026; Dawn.