Top 10 innovative regions in Europe 2008

Statistics are made for innovation, too. One of the more adequate measures is the innovation index developed by the Statistical Office of Baden-Württemberg, a federal state in Germany.

According to their index the ten most innovative regions in Europe are:

1. Baden-Württemberg, a state in the south-west of Germany (our home state)
2. Berlin (state), the capital of Germany
3. Ile de France, the region around Paris, the capital of France
4. Bayern (Bavaria), a state in the south-east of Germany
5. Finnland
6. Bremen, a state in the north-west of Germany
7. Sweden
8. Hessen, a state in the mid-west of Germany
9. Denmark
10. The Grand-Duché of Luxembourg

There is a nice colored map that depicts the innovation level across the different regions in Europe. We have put the top 10 spots on a Google map for your convenience:

View Larger Map

It is interesting to understand how the ranking is determined. The index is derived by an as-is (niveau) part and a dynamic part, which measures the average change rates of the as-is part across years.

As you have seen in the ranking above, larger countries such as France and Germany are split into smaller regions (so called NUTS2 regions), while smaller countries such as Finnland and Sweden are ranked as a whole.

Besides R&D expense and R&D personell also the share of employees in high-tech industries is measured. Further the share of employees in knowledge intensive services as well as the number of people working in so-called HRSTO jobs (science, education and technical jobs). The last metric part of the index calculation is the number of patents issued per resident.