The U.S. has dropped out of the top 10 of the Bloomberg Innovation Index for the first time in the ranking’s six-year history, tumbling to 11th from the No. 9 spot last year.
The index scores countries using seven criteria, including research and development spending and the concentration of high-tech public companies. South Korea ranks No. 1, followed by Sweden, Singapore, Germany and Switzerland.
The U.S. decline is due mainly to a slump in a post-secondary education category, which includes new science and engineering graduates in the labor force, Bloomberg says. The nation also declined in value-added manufacturing even though it did improve in productivity.
“Other nations have responded with smart, well-funded innovation policies like better R&D tax incentives, more government funding for research, more funding for technology commercialization initiatives,” says Robert D. Atkinson, president of the Washington D.C.-based Information Technology & Innovation Foundation.
