Countries by Patent applications, residents
China ranked 1st in resident patent applications in 2021 with 1,426,644 filings, more than five times the United States at 2nd with 262,244. At the bottom of the 148-country ranking, twelve countries each recorded just 1 application. The gap between the top and bottom of this ranking spans over 142 million percent.
Ranking 2021
Analysis
This metric counts patent applications filed by residents within a given country, capturing domestic inventive activity as recorded by national patent offices or through international filing procedures. Coverage spans 148 countries, with 87.2% of entries drawn from data within the last seven years and 100% classified as official data. The reference year is 2021, though not all countries report for the same year. Values are absolute counts, so larger countries with bigger economies and research sectors tend to score higher by default.
The top of the ranking is heavily concentrated. China (rank 1, 1,426,644) alone accounts for the vast majority of all applications in the dataset. The United States (rank 2, 262,244), Japan (rank 3, 222,452), and Korea, Rep. (rank 4, 186,245) follow at a considerable distance. Germany (rank 5, 39,822) leads European countries, while India (rank 6, 26,267) and the Russian Federation (rank 7, 19,569) represent large middle-income economies with notable filing volumes. These seven countries are identified as extreme outliers under a 3-sigma threshold, reflecting the degree to which the distribution is skewed at the top.
Notable anomalies appear in the middle ranks. Korea, Dem. People's Rep. (rank 13, 6,937) places ahead of Canada (rank 14, 4,710) and Brazil (rank 15, 4,666), a placement that may reflect specific national reporting practices rather than directly comparable inventive output. Iran, Islamic Rep. (rank 11, 10,210) outranks France (rank 8, 13,386) only narrowly. Barbados (rank 79, 73) records more applications than the United Arab Emirates (rank 81, 69), despite a far smaller economy. At the lower end, twelve countries including Bhutan, Cambodia, and Tanzania each filed exactly 1 application in the reference year.
This metric has several limitations specific to its nature. Absolute counts do not adjust for population size or economic output, so comparisons between large and small countries are inherently asymmetrical. Not all countries report for the same reference year, and 76.4% of entries reflect 2021 data specifically. The dataset includes 10 extreme outliers at the 3-sigma level, which can distort any aggregate interpretation. Differences in national patent office procedures, filing incentives, and what qualifies as a patentable invention can affect comparability across jurisdictions. The metric counts applications, not grants, so it does not reflect whether inventions were ultimately protected.
Methodology
Data are drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code IP.PAT.RESD, with a reference year of 2021. The source defines patent applications as follows: 'Patent applications are worldwide patent applications filed through the Patent Cooperation Treaty procedure or with a national patent office for exclusive rights for an invention--a product or process that provides a new way of doing something or offers a new technical solution to a problem. A patent provides protection for the invention to the owner of the patent for a limited period, generally 2[0 years].' The ranking covers 148 countries. All 148 datapoints are classified as official quality. 87.2% of entries reflect data from within the last seven years, and 76.4% correspond specifically to 2021. The dataset contains 10 extreme outliers identified at the 3-sigma threshold. Values range from 1 to 1,426,644, a spread of over 142 million percent. Average year-over-year change across the dataset is 48.8%. Figures represent absolute application counts and are not adjusted for population, GDP, or any other normalizing factor.