What the 2026 Index Says About Pakistan
Pakistan has climbed four places in the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s (WIPO) Global Innovation Index 2026 Pakistan report, landing at 95th among 139 economies — up from 99th in 2025. The improvement marks a recovery after a slide that saw the country drop from 87th in 2022 to 91st in 2024 and then 99th last year, according to a Dawn report on the latest findings.
More significant than the headline rank, Pakistan has regained WIPO’s “overperformer” designation — a label the UN agency reserves for economies that deliver innovation results above what their income level would predict. It is the fourth time Pakistan has earned the tag, after previously holding it in 2022 and 2024. WIPO’s explanation, quoted by Dawn, is that overperformance shows innovation does not follow a direct path from income level to outcomes: economies can generate outsized results by focusing on their specific strengths.
The Global Innovation Index 2026 Pakistan data also splits the picture into two halves. Pakistan ranked 121st in innovation inputs — institutions, infrastructure, human capital — but a notably stronger 72nd in innovation outputs, meaning the country is squeezing more innovation out of the resources it has. Both scores improved compared with last year.
The Digital Sector Is Doing the Heavy Lifting
Where exactly is that outperformance coming from? The report points squarely at the digital sector. Pakistan’s core strengths were concentrated in mobile application development, software spending, high-tech imports, and information and communication technology (ICT) services exports — the same IT services segment that has become one of the country’s brightest export stories.
WIPO’s own data tables underline the point. Pakistan ranks an impressive 19th globally in high-tech imports as a share of total trade, and its youthful demographic dividend — 55.8% of the population being young, ranked 25th worldwide — is flagged as a long-term innovation asset. University quality and scientific output also drew a mention from the report as supports for the country’s growing digital economy.
The seven-year trend line tells a comeback story. Pakistan ranked 107th in 2020, improved to 99th in 2021, then leapt to 87th in 2022 before slipping to 88th in 2023, 91st in 2024 and 99th in 2025. The 2026 recovery to 95th puts the country back on an upward path, even if it remains well short of its 2022 high.
How Pakistan Compares in the Region
Regionally, Pakistan placed 15th among 36 lower-middle-income economies and 8th among the 11 economies evaluated in Central and Southern Asia. In South Asia itself, the Global Innovation Index 2026 Pakistan ranking of 95th sits just behind Sri Lanka (94th) and ahead of Nepal (104th) and Bangladesh (105th). India led the region at 38th, with Bhutan at 74th.
Globally, the top of the table was unchanged: Switzerland held first place for a 16th consecutive year, followed by Sweden and the United States, with South Korea and Singapore rounding out the top five. WIPO noted that overall innovation activity faces a more demanding environment — global economic growth is projected to slow from about 3.4% in 2025 to around 3% in 2026 — but AI infrastructure investment, expected to exceed $1 trillion across 2025 and 2026, continues to drive technological progress.
For Pakistan’s policymakers, the message of the index is double-edged. The “overperformer” badge is recognition that the country’s tech talent and digital exports punch above their weight. But the 121st-place input ranking — weak institutions, low education spending, thin research funding — is a reminder that the foundations under that performance remain fragile. The gap between what Pakistan achieves (72nd) and what it invests (121st) is both the country’s biggest asset and its biggest risk.
Sources: WIPO — Global Innovation Index 2026 (official report); Beflaz summary of the Dawn report on Pakistan’s ranking
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