The innovative capacity of the Netherlands

Impact

Factsheet

What is the innovative capacity of the Netherlands in comparison to other (European) countries? In this fact sheet we look at the innovative capacity of the Netherlands (the potential to create innovations) on the basis of three reports.

Photo: Hans van Rhoon/Hollandse Hoogte

In short

  • The proportion of innovative companies in Dutch industry is higher than the EU-27 average.
  • The Netherlands was in 10th position according to the 2019 edition of the Global Competetiveness Index of the World Economic Forum.
  • Since 2022 the Netherlands belongs to the group of innovation leaders.

Innovation is a broad concept that can be put into practice in different ways. First of all, we can distinguish between technological and non-technological innovation. Technological innovation applies to both products and processes. Non-technological innovation applies to organisation and marketing. In essence, innovative capacity is the degree to which organisations in the Netherlands are capable of making such advances.

This factsheet measures the Netherlands’ innovative capacity in three ways:

  1. Eurostat’s Community Innovation Survey
  2. The World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index
  3. The European Commission’s European Innovation Scoreboard
     

Number of innovative companies

Eurostat’s Community Innovation Survey (CIS) asks companies what kind of innovation activities they perform. The figure below shows that the proportion of innovative companies in Dutch industry (50%), is higher than the EU-27 average (47%). 

Source: Eurostat (CIS 2022); Reworking: Rathenau Institute
Notes: The category other includes innovative companies that have not developed any new innovations between and innovative companies whose could not be classified by type. 

Innovative capacity according to the Global Competitiveness Index

Every year the World Economic Forum publishes its Global Competitiveness Index, which scores countries’ competiveness. Innovation is one of the twelve ‘pillars’ on which the index is based. In 2018 the GCI 4.0 was introduced. In the preceding years the Nederlands slowly entered the top ten for the innovation pillar. The table below shows the position of the Netherlands for this pillar since the introduction of the GCI 4.0. The Netherlands was in 10th position in the 2019 edition. The regular ranking has been postponed in 2020 due to the special corona measures of countries. In the special 2020 edition, the World Economic Forum shows how recovery from the corona crisis can lead to productive, sustainable and inclusive economic systems.

2019 2018 2017
Germany 1 1 1
United States 2 2 2
Switzerland 3 3 3
Taiwan, China 4 4 4
Sweden 5 5 6
Korea, Rep. 6 8 10
Japan 7 6 7
United Kingdom 8 7 5
France 9 11 11
Netherlands 10 9 8
Denmark 11 12 14
Finland 12 10 9
Singapore 13 14 13
Austria 14 15 15
Israel 15 16 17
Canada 16 13 12
Belgium 17 17 16
Australia 18 18 19
Luxembourg 19 19 18
Norway 20 20 20
Source: World Economic Forum, Global Competitiveness Report; Reworking: Rathenau Instituut

Innovative capacity according to the European Innovation Scoreboard

The European Commission has developed a scoreboard for the innovation capacity of European countries. The European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS; known as the Innovation Union Scoreboard in the period 2010-2015) shows the position of EU countries on a summary indicator of countries' innovation performance. Countries are divided into four groups: innovation leaders, strong innovators, moderate innovators and modest innovators. Until 2015, the Netherlands belonged to the group of strong innovators; from 2015 onwards, the Netherlands was an innovation leader. After that, the Netherlands remained an innovation leader, with the exception of 2021, when it was a strong innovator for one year only. In 10 of the 12 dimensions, the Netherlands performs at or above the EU-27 average.

Source: European Innovation Scoreboard 2026
Notes: The indices are relative to the EU-average in 2026 (EU = 100). The scoreboard is based on four groups of indicators: 1) “framework conditions”, the main drivers of innovative performance external to the enterprises, 2) "investments", public and private investment in research and innovation; 3) "innovation activities", the innovation efforts at the level of the firm and 4) "impacts", the effects of firms’ innovation activities. Together there are 32 indicators. The countries are divided into four groups: innovation leaders, strong innovators, moderate innovators and modest innovators. The figure includes only the first two groups.

From Statistics Netherlands: ICT, Knowledge and the Economy.

The Community Innovation Survey distinguishes between several types of innovation:

  1. Product innovation: the company has introduced one or more new or considerably improved products. They may be goods or services that are new to the market, or simply new to the company.
  2. Process innovation: the company has started using one or more new or considerably improved processes or methods. These new processes and methods may concern the production of goods or services; input (goods or services) logistics (delivery or distribution); activities in support of processes such as maintenance systems or purchasing, accounting or calculation methods. The processes or methods may be new to the market, or simply new to the company.
  3. Organisational innovation: the company has introduced one or more of the following innovations: new company procedures; new methods of organising professional responsibilities and taking decisions; new methods of organising external relations with other companies or institutions.
  4. Marketing innovation: the company has introduced innovations in the aesthetic design or packaging of products; the way it uses new media to promote its products; the way it positions products in the market or uses new sales channels; or the way in which it prices its products.

For an explanation of the used definitions and abbreviations we refer to the webpage Definitions for Science in Figures.

Footnotes

    Underlying data

  • The share of innovative enterprises
  • The innovative performance of the Netherlands, the provinces, and the EU-27