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Total Patent Grants 1980-2021

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Inventions by Country 2024

There are thousands of human inventions across borders, around the world, and through the ages. Countries known for the most inventions include The United States, Japan, South Korea, German, and Taiwan.

Inventions by Country for Countries with Most Inventions

Invention rarely happens in a single burst of insight. It’s usually a steady incremental process guided by intuition, research, and thorough work.

Country
Total Patent Grants 1980-2021
Japan 7,279,805
United States 5,906,709
China 3,809,679
South Korea 2,234,200
Germany 2,195,481
Russia 1,509,434
France 1,072,193
United Kingdom 579,889
Switzerland 443,122
Netherlands 389,377

The United States

The U.S. is the hub of all innovative inventions. Most new technology was invented in America -- from personal computers, lasers, mobile phones, video games, photocopiers, and even the internet.

Other inventions from the U.S. include hearing aid, micro-ovens, steamboats, submarines, refrigerators, telegraphs, dishwashers, vacuum cleaners, cash registers, electric cookers, electronic TV, credit cards, air conditioners, and much more.

Japan

Out of total global inventions, Japan has achieved 15.85% innovations. Japanese have invented numerous electronic gadgets, such as compact disks, DVD, CD-ROM, B.D., Battery(lithium-ion), dry cell Battery, MiniDisk, Optical Fiber, Light Emitting Diode, and White L.E.D.

South Korea

South Korea has brought a lot of innovations in fields such as agriculture, technology, and astrology. They invented soybean cultivation, water gauge, heated greenhouse, pluviometer, Homi, refrigeration, underfloor heating, Korean pagoda, star charts, astronomical observatory, Internet café, table computer, M.P. man, and I.P.S. panel, etc.

Germany

German inventors have discovered many inventions, from household items to medical devices. Among their inventions are contact lenses, Bayer aspirin, accordion, automobile, bacteriology, gummy bears, Christmas tree, jeans, printing press, newspaper, pocket watch, motorcycle, automated calculator, parachute, x-rays, and coffee filters, among others.

Taiwan

Besides their popular inventions like the electrical gadgets including floating gate transistor, woodball, xiaoluren, integrated laptop projector, and connect 6, Taiwan inventors have discovered great food products like bubble tea, instant noodles, bubble tea, and a plastic cup.

China

Some famous inventions are paper making, gunpowder, printing, the compass, silk, tea production, alcohol, mechanical clock, earthquake detector, porcelain, bronze, kite, seed drill, toothbrush, paper money, acupuncture, and others.

France

France has produced inventions such as braille software, mayonnaise, pencil sharpeners, pasteurization, stethoscopes, canned food, hot air balloons, hairdryers, pressure cookers, submarines, ambulance services, photography, animation, and helicopters.

United Kingdom

The first programmable computer was invented in the United Kingdom, a discovery which makes the heart of other new inventions. Other inventions from the U.K are postage stamps, fire extinguishers, magazines, alternating current, vaccinations, railway, antiseptic surgery, radio, etc.

Canada

Canada has made 1.70% of inventions out of the total global inventions. Canadians are highly innovative. Their inventions include an electric wheelchair, insulin, light bulb, wonder bra, zipper, Robertson screw, artificial pacemaker, five-pin bowling, etc.

India

India has contributed a lot of inventions from mathematics, astronomy, cartography, and metrology. The most significant invention from India is the “zero,” without which mathematics couldn’t exist.

  • Patents fall into two broad categories: resident and abroad. A resident application is filed when the applicant is located in the country in which the application is filed (for example, a US citizen applying for a US patent). An abroad application is filed when the applicant is located in a different country, such as a US-based company filing an application with the French patent office.
  • Not every country releases patent data for each category. As such, anomalies may occur, such as the number of abroad or resident patents exceeding the total number of patents.
  • Patents are valid globally regardless of where they are granted.
  • If the country that originally issued the patent no longer exists, the patents have been credited to the country's modern successor (USSR to Russia, Czechoslovakia to the Czech Republic, East Germany to Germany).

Download Table Data

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Country
Total Patent Grants 1980-2021
# Patent Grants Resident 1980-2021
# Patent Grants Abroad 1980-2021
Resident Patent Grants 2021
Abroad Patent Grants 2021
Total Patent Grants 2021
Japan 7,279,805 4,715,161 2,564,683 141,853 136,290 278,143
United States 5,906,709 3,508,892 2,397,817 149,538 149,092 298,630
China 3,809,679 3,522,222 287,461 584,891 54,438 639,329
South Korea 2,234,200 1,658,928 575,272 110,351 48,152 158,503
Germany 2,195,481 899,712 1,295,775 29,347 6,800 97,347
Russia 1,509,434 1,464,426 45,008 15,342 3,850 19,192
France 1,072,193 522,974 549,219 20,378 28,770 49,148
United Kingdom 579,889 206,694 373,195 8,100 20,953 29,053
Switzerland 443,122 101,582 359,432 4,428 22,354 26,782
Netherlands 389,377 101,616 287,761 4,539 16,405 20,944
Italy 360,949 191,796 218,776 9,763 13,405 23,168
Sweden 318,932 102,870 216,062 3,472 14,929 18,401
Canada 275,826 67,552 208,274 2,272 11,340 13,612
Finland 166,453 52,722 113,731 1,726 5,851 7,577
Austria 158,577 65,562 93,015 2,237 6,513 8,750
Belgium 140,725 42,126 101,107 1,880 6,302 8,182
Spain 133,257 78,856 54,401 1,443 3,940 5,383
Australia 125,979 31,913 95,654 1,070 5,284 6,354
India 116,767 47,288 69,480 6,384 8,238 14,622
Denmark 109,708 24,569 85,139 1,414 5,530 6,944
Poland 109,433 100,703 8,730 3,484 1,054 4,538
Israel 101,078 16,640 94,994 1,006 8,026 9,032
Ukraine 90,489 84,860 6,260 990 250 1,240
Iran 74,081 73,386 726 2,704 84 2,788
Norway 65,598 19,869 45,729 805 3,224 4,029
North Korea 56,111 55,970 318 19 19
Czech Republic 54,912 45,604 9,315 537 711 1,248
Romania 47,921 46,302 1,619 372 165 537
Singapore 43,539 8,381 35,160 431 3,603 4,034
South Africa 41,637 25,740 15,927 565 748 1,313
Brazil 35,204 21,805 14,857 2,552 1,055 3,607
Hungary 34,439 22,601 11,838 147 479 626
Turkey 31,727 23,496 8,529 3,377 775 4,152
Belarus 30,683 20,903 10,520 343 608 951
New Zealand 29,167 12,301 16,866 69 1,264 1,333
Luxembourg 25,874 6,061 21,721 400 1,855 2,255
Kazakhstan 23,980 21,369 3,802 565 333 898
Greece 22,854 18,872 4,157 308 344 652
Ireland 20,751 3,457 36,330 547 3,423 3,970
Saudi Arabia 19,098 2,426 17,270 373 1,944 2,317
Mexico 17,709 9,434 8,275 618 689 1,307
Argentina 16,884 13,482 3,402 281 221 502
Hong Kong 16,304 2,206 14,099 283 1,747 2,030
Malaysia 14,293 7,292 7,001 1,040 543 1,583
Liechtenstein 14,292 3,129 11,163 201 575 776
Bulgaria 12,449 10,660 1,789 192 243 435
Portugal 8,431 3,818 4,613 295 542 837
Uzbekistan 7,976 7,741 235 203 30 233
Chile 6,111 3,370 2,741 253 307 560
Slovenia 6,073 4,490 3,817 290 290
Azerbaijan 5,271 3,059 2,212 129 193 322
Thailand 5,073 2,449 2,624 182 444 626
Moldova 4,372 3,923 461 57 25 82
Slovakia 4,228 2,370 1,858 125 181 306
Cameroon 4,197 2,456 3,966 30 484 514
Latvia 4,068 3,124 1,077 89 55 144
Georgia 3,763 3,607 156 42 19 61
Colombia 3,554 2,601 979 221 139 360
Armenia 3,420 2,976 444 26 41 67
Lithuania 3,210 2,608 602 92 111 203
Indonesia 3,131 2,977 441 736 20 756
Ivory Coast 2,978 175 2,807 25 400 425
Sudan 2,862 2,852 14 4 4
Barbados 2,689 9 6,213 466 466
Morocco 2,653 2,215 545 99 104 203
Egypt 2,612 1,957 655 63 66 129
Malta 2,510 561 1,978 32 233 265
Philippines 2,429 1,228 1,201 50 117 167
Cuba 2,406 1,144 1,522 13 68 81
Kyrgyzstan 2,346 1,949 406 39 11 50
Iceland 2,323 503 1,820 45 118 163
Iraq 2,257 2,241 32 6 6
United Arab Emirates 2,239 53 2,315 3 373 376
Serbia 2,155 1,291 864 46 63 109
Mongolia 2,116 2,088 49 69 3 72
Sri Lanka 2,076 1,928 160 66 32 98
Croatia 2,042 840 1,202 10 57 67
Senegal 1,975 116 1,863 7 112 119
Monaco 1,947 629 1,318 20 73 93
Vietnam 1,858 1,466 392 153 74 227
Venezuela 1,857 1,757 542 9 9
Estonia 1,742 539 1,203 20 102 122
Cyprus 1,297 181 2,726 234 234
Uruguay 1,201 324 1,056 41 41
Syria 1,078 1,048 63 1 1
Pakistan 891 679 216 46 17 63
Peru 879 638 242 21 27 48
Tunisia 874 830 197 14 14
Bahamas 852 15 1,419 21 21
Mali 820 47 774 9 148 157
Panama 751 145 790 4 18 22
Algeria 715 664 55 99 5 104
Jordan 713 292 422 10 24 34
Burkina Faso 681 40 643 5 80 85
Benin 624 36 590 4 64 68
Nigeria 606 585 82 2 2
Niger 601 35 570 7 114 121
Bangladesh 568 542 112 23 23
Republic of the Congo 511 53 483 10 160 170
Mauritius 481 11 633 53 53
Macau 480 6 476 137 137
Costa Rica 477 138 339 60 60
Togo 436 25 411 5 80 85
North Macedonia 415 410 29 44 1 45
Lebanon 399 327 323 46 46
Kenya 392 154 238 14 46 60
Gabon 376 22 363 7 112 119
Tajikistan 365 317 212 49 49
Chad 329 19 320
San Marino 314 113 355 10 22 32
Guatemala 275 216 60 6 6
Seychelles 271 3 634 1 24 25
Zambia 253 63 190
Guinea 246 11 238 3 48 51
Zimbabwe 244 240 251 2 2
Dominican Republic 241 177 84 8 5 13
Trinidad and Tobago 241 144 116 3 3
Haiti 235 235 2
Turkmenistan 231 231 52
Bosnia and Herzegovina 209 166 47 5 5
Qatar 206 14 398 4 31 35
Ecuador 177 113 107 7 7
Equatorial Guinea 175 175
Central African Republic 160 9 154 1 16 17
Jamaica 158 76 113 2 4 6
Mauritania 136 8 131 1 16 17
Montenegro 134 125 19 6 6
Honduras 130 126 6 1 1
Madagascar 122 108 14
Belize 106 162 13 13
Samoa 105 4 240 33 33
Yemen 99 44 56 1 1
El Salvador 95 80 26 2 2
Mozambique 81 81 3
DR Congo 76 73 7
Burundi 74 28 63 1 1
Namibia 71 51 45 3 3
Eswatini 65 1,846 6 6
Andorra 65 7 183 4 14 18
Bolivia 59 57 22 2 2
Oman 55 3 110 5 5
Albania 50 34 21 2 5 7
Brunei 49 14 119 8 8
Paraguay 47 11 63 1 1
Bahrain 37 3 114 11 11
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 32 159 2 2
Guyana 31 31 3 21 21
Nepal 28 26 11 2 2
Tanzania 27 6 30 6 6
Ethiopia 25 6 21 1 1
Malawi 24 22 4
Nicaragua 18 16 8 1 1
Rwanda 17 16 3
Guinea Bissau 17 1 16 1 16 17
Botswana 16 2 21
Liberia 15 15 11 1 1
Ghana 14 13 27 1 1
Comoros 11 11
Lesotho 8 8 12
Cambodia 6 9 3 3
Uganda 5 4 6
Sao Tome and Principe 4 6
Dominica 4 17
Fiji 2 2 9 1 1
Bhutan 2 2 1
Somalia 1 1
Papua New Guinea 1 3 1 1
Laos 1 3 2 2
Myanmar 8 2 2
Afghanistan 39 1 1
Angola 7
South Sudan 1
Sierra Leone 9
Libya 5 1 1
Kuwait 773 26 26
Eritrea 4
Djibouti 1
Suriname 6
Cape Verde 3
Maldives 2
Vanuatu 27
Curacao 126 35 35
Saint Lucia 4 2 2
Kiribati 43
Grenada 5
Tonga 35
Antigua and Barbuda 134 62 62
Saint Kitts and Nevis 86 9 9
Sint Maarten 3 2 2
Marshall Islands 40 3 3
Palau 13
Cook Islands 27 1 1
Nauru 1
showing: 193 rows

Which country has the most inventions?

The United States is the top most inventive country in the world.

Frequently Asked Questions

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