In this article, we take a look at the 12 most advanced countries in science. You can skip our detailed analysis of scientific progress, the consequent technological benefits and 21st century scientific trends, and go directly to 5 Most Advanced Countries in Science.
Science is the greatest tool required to solve some of the biggest problems humanity faces. Recently, the US Department of Energy announced a breakthrough in fusion energy. It was a net-gain in the energy output compared to the input energy that was used to heat the fuel source.
The breakthrough is likely to result in increasing investment in fusion energy, accelerating further understanding and if the engineering and economic challenges are not great enough, it might lead to an effective fusion power plant by 2030.
Economics of Science
Progress in pure sciences results in the increase in technological output. For instance, the rocket equation, Kepler’s three laws of planetary motion and Newton’s laws of motion and gravitation together make space travel possible. Engineers use these laws for calculations relating to rocket design, its orbital mechanics and trajectory corrections.
Technological growth, on the other hand, leads to greater economic output. In this sense, pure science is indirectly correlated to economic growth.
In fact, it has been shown that correlation coefficient for Total-Factor-Productivity (TFP) and long-term economic growth in advanced economies is a strong 0.60, with technological output being one of the three main factors in TFP.
Scientific Infrastructure
Scientific research used to be limited to academia. However, as societies have become more complex, the infrastructure for scientific R&D has also evolved, incorporating non-academic government institutes and private/public corporations as well.
This is especially true in research surrounding AI. While research in the field is dominated by academia, corporate research comprises a meaningful 19.2% of the total AI papers published globally. In China and the EU, the second major share in AI-research comes from non-academic governmental institutes, at 15.6% and 17.2%, respectively.
Scientific Trends, and Corporations/Institutes Dominating Them
Going by the papers published by academic institutes and corporations, AI and biotechnology are the fastest growing scientific fields in the world. On Academic front, Harvard University, Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) dominate research in the US, with fractional-counts of 70.67, 39.85 and 37.69, respectively, in papers published in the Nature journal in 2018.
On the corporate front, tech corporations like Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) dominate R&D in AI.
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), through its subsidiary DeepMind, has designed deep learning algorithms like AlphaFold and AlphaTensor. The former has solved 98.5% of human proteins’ structures, which was a major problem for half a century.
AlphaTensor, on the other hand, is designed to find novel methods for matrix multiplications, and is expected to speed up computers through discovery of new algorithms.
On the other hand, Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY), Novo Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) and Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) are some of the prominent corporate names in biotechnology.
Some of the biggest advances in science are happening in countries like the United States and Germany.
For our list of most advanced countries in science, we’ve ranked them based on the h-indexscore for their papers in 2021. The h-indexmeasures the aggregate impact of scholarly output. An h-index of 20 implies that for all publications by a researcher, 20 of them have been cited by other researchers at-least 20 times.
According to Dr. Jorge E. Hirsch, an American physics professor and the pioneer of h-index, an h-index of 20 is usually considered good, 40 is considered outstanding, while an h-index of 60 can be thought of as exceptional.
For the number of papers in 2021 and their h index, we’ve sourced the data from SCImago Country Rankings.
We’ve also mentioned the respective countries’ top academic institutes. The results come from SCImago Institutions Ranking. Further, we’ve discussed the R&D share of countries’ GDPs and sourced the data from the World Bank.
12. Spain
Number of Papers in 2021: 122,688
Total h-Index Score: 1,073
Spain is located in Southern Europe. In 2021, a total of 122,688 papers were published by Spanish scholars, with an average of 1.20 citations per paper. The total h-index score for all its 2021 papers was 1,073.
The country's top three institutes for scientific research include Spanish National Research Council, Carlos III Health Institute and University of Barcelona. Spain spent 1.14% of its GDP on research and development in 2020.
11. China
Number of Papers in 2021: 860,012
Total h-Index Score: 1,112
China is the second largest economy in the world, with a GDP of $18 trillion as of 2021. A huge economy allows China to spend a significant amount of money on research and development. It allocated 2.40% of its GDP in 2020 to R&D across different sectors.
In 2021, a total of 860,012 papers were published by the Chinese citizens that had an overall h-index score of 1,112. The mean number of citations per paper was 0.98.
The top three research facilities in China are the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ministry of Education for People’s Republic of China and Tsinghua University.
China also has one of the highest contributions in the global Knowledge-and-Technology-Intensive (KTI) industries output. Its 2018 exports comprised 17% of KTI products and services. However, medium-tech made up the majority of the KTI share.
10. Switzerland
Number of Papers in 2021: 57,331
Total h-Index Score: 1,142
Switzerland is located in Central Europe. It's one of the most advanced countries in Science, with an h-index score of 1,142 compared to 57,331 papers published by Swiss scholars in 2021. These were 4.3 papers per 1,000 Swiss citizens. The average number of citations per paper was 1.60.
Switzerland spent 3.15% of its 2019 GDP on research and development. Its top two research institutes are Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and University of Zurich.
9. Japan
Number of Papers in 2021: 144,778
Total h-Index Score: 1,171
Japan is one of the most advanced Asian countries in science. It is located in far-east Asia. Its huge economy, coupled with its high human development, has resulted in Japan becoming one of the frontier countries in scientific research.
Its KTI contribution to the world was the third highest in the world in 2019, comprising 8% of the global output. In the same year, research-and-development-industry output comprised 14% of Japan’s overall GDP. Out of this, 3% related to high-tech R&D.
Japanese citizens published 144,778 papers in 2021, with a mean of 0.82 citations per paper. Its h-index score for the year was 1,171. Japan’s top research/academic institutes include University of Tokyo, Kyoto University and Osaka University.
Japan is one of the few countries in Asia where companies like Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY), Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) and Novo Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) operate.
8. Italy
Number of Papers in 2021: 154,304
Total h-Index Score: 1,189
In the year 2021, 154,304 papers were published by Italians, with an h-index score of 1,189 and average of 1.38 citations per paper. In 2020, the country spent 1.53% of its GDP for R&D purposes.
Italy's top three research institutes include the National Research Council, Sapienza University of Rome and University of Milan.
7. Australia
Number of Papers in 2021: 125,211
Total h-Index Score: 1,193
Australia is located in Oceania. Australia contributes significantly to global scientific research. A PLOS Biology study puts 443 researchers from Australia in the top 2% of the world.
Australians published over 120,000 scientific papers in 2021. These had an average of 1.46 citations and an h-index score of 1,193.
The top three research institutions in the country are University of Melbourne, University of Sydney and The University of Queensland by order of mention. The University of Melbourne has had eight Nobel laureates in science study, teach and research in the university.
In 2019, the country spent 1.83% of its GDP in science-and-technology endeavors. Some notable scientific contributions from the country include isolating resistance genes against Wheat Rust disease, Koala genome sequencing, and establishing a technique to identify individual nanoparticles released from cells.
Australia has many corporations involved in R&D. On top of that, it also hosts corporations like Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY), Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) and Novo Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK).
6. The Netherlands
Number of Papers in 2021: 74,317
Total h-Index Score: 1,206
The Netherlands is a Northwestern-European country with considerable contributions to science. Its top three research institutes — Utrecht University, University of Amsterdam and Hubrecht Institute — are globally recognized for their scholarly prestige.
The Netherlands is also widely regarded as one of the most advanced countries in agricultural science.
In 2021, the Dutch published a total of 74,317 scientific papers, with a mean of 1.54 citations per paper. Its h-index score is relatively higher than most other countries mentioned on the list especially in relation to the number of total papers. Its expenditures in scientific research comprised 2.29% of its GDP in 2020.
