According to the European Commissions’ Innovation Scoreboard based on data gathered in 2016, The Netherlands is the fourth best country for innovation.

Sweden took the top spot with Denmark, Finland, and The United Kingdom following.

About the study

The Commission assessed 27 indicators of innovative power and ranked EU countries accordingly. These included investments in skills, entrepreneurship and public-private cooperation.

The overall trend

The report showed that innovation performance had improved amongst 15 countries, of which the Netherlands, Lithuania, Malta, Austria and UK were the fastest growing innovators.

Still, there remain large differences between the existing Member States. When looking at international competitiveness on a global scale, the EU appears to be catching up with Canada and the US. Still, South Korea and Japan are coming up close behind them with China progressing the fastest.

How the Netherlands did

The Netherlands scored well with its innovative power increasing 10,4 percent more than the average in the last six years.

Furthermore, it showed impressive improvement of the quality of scientific publications, the proportion of SMEs that contributed to innovation and cooperation between companies.

"Our public investment in innovation is above the European average, but Dutch companies' own investments are under. It is now important that entrepreneurs invest more in innovation," claims Minister Henk Kamp of Economic Affairs. 

Top 20 countries for innovation

Here are the top 20 countries for innovation:
1. Sweden
2. Denmark
3. Finland
4. The Netherlands
5. The United Kingdom
6. Germany
7. Iceland
8. Austria
9. Luxembourg
10. Belgium
11. Norway
12. Ireland
13. Israel
14. France
15. Slovenia
16. Czech Republic
17. Portugal
18. Estonia
19. Lithuania
20. Spain

To compare countries, check out the European Innovation Scoreboard.