The United States is rated the fifth country in the world when it comes to innovation, according the World Economic Forum. When you are ranked that high, almost everyone has their sights set on you. Here are the rest of the most innovative countries:
- Finland
- Switzerland
- Israel
- Japan
- United States
* Taiwan/China is ranked 10th
Many are people are shocked and concerned that the U.S. didn’t top the list. Innovation contributes to the growth and success of the business community and helps drive these countries’ economic engines. Innovation also provides the unique capabilities that enable the intelligence community and equip the military to address the various security issues we all face.
While what actually drives innovation is hotly debated. However, skills, education and opportunities to explore the new and unknown have to be at the top of those forces. The World Economic Forum also looked at how countries rate when it comes to skills and education. Under the heading of human capital, here are the top 10 rated countries:
- Finland
- Norway
- Switzerland
- Canada
- Japan
- Sweden
- Denmark
- Netherlands
- Sweden
- Belgium
That is right: The U.S. did not make the top 10. It came in at 17th. The World Economic Forum used 46 different indicators to come up with the rating so it was a reasonably solid model.
By now, many of us have heard the talk about the importance of STEM, or science, technology, engineering and math education. Discussions within the U.S. about initiatives to drive STEM education and increase the number of college graduates are occurring but they appear to be off to a crawl. With so much at stake, you would think that addressing the shortage in STEM human capital would be one of the highest priorities of the administration, our businesses and within our homes, but it doesn’t appear to be.
Huawei, Chinese multinational networking and telecommunications company, named the United States the most connected country in the world. As such, the U.S. will lead the list when it comes to demand for cybersecurity professionals. Cisco put the shortage of cybersecurity resources at a million and other reports suggest it is actually worse. Cyberattacks are getting more frequent and increasing in severity. At the same time, resources to combat this trend are becoming scarcer. That means the U.S. will have an increasingly more difficult time protecting the innovative ideas that are generated here. That is a recipe for disaster.
If this is not fixed, you can bet the U.S. ranking will fall in many categories. That will in turn negatively affect the nation’s economy and national security.
