2016 tables: Countries/territories - Earth & environmental sciences

The 2016 tables are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2015.

Table criteria

# Country/territory Share 2015 Count 2015
1 United States of America (USA) 2832.34 3908
2 China 723.44 1115
3 United Kingdom (UK) 479.46 1018
4 Germany 429.40 859
5 France 363.54 739
6 Canada 318.16 590
7 Australia 294.38 557
8 Japan 259.47 427
9 Switzerland 207.20 423
10 Italy 131.29 266
11 Netherlands 116.69 267
12 Spain 113.71 252
13 Sweden 99.34 233
14 South Korea 73.26 134
15 Denmark 66.43 166
16 Norway 62.19 187
17 India 53.53 106
18 Taiwan 51.81 104
19 New Zealand 49.87 125
20 Israel 48.62 87
21 Belgium 46.81 120
22 Finland 36.53 89
23 Singapore 35.03 77
24 Brazil 25.92 70
25 Austria 25.92 92
26 Russia 25.65 83
27 Czech Republic 17.21 62
28 Greece 16.88 36
29 Portugal 16.36 41
30 Turkey 15.77 32
31 Saudi Arabia 14.23 45
32 Chile 14.17 41
33 South Africa 13.20 56
34 Poland 12.13 38
35 Ireland 11.68 44
36 Iceland 10.33 31
37 Mexico 10.07 36
38 Argentina 8.66 29
39 United Arab Emirates 3.95 12
40 Slovenia 3.88 11
41 Indonesia 3.63 17
42 Colombia 3.59 14
43 Serbia 2.84 6
44 Luxembourg 2.83 5
45 Peru 2.65 16
46 Hungary 2.64 15
47 Cyprus 2.47 7
48 Vietnam 2.35 11
49 Philippines 1.98 10
50 Ukraine 1.69 9

Footnote

Each year, the Nature Index publishes tables based on counts of high-quality research outputs in the previous calendar year. Users please note:

  1. The data behind the tables are based on a relatively small proportion of total research papers, they cover the natural sciences only and outputs are non-normalized (that is, they don’t reflect the size of the country or institution, or its overall research output).
  2. The Nature Index is one indicator of institutional research performance. The metrics of Count and Share used to order Nature Index listings are based on an institution’s or country’s publication output in 82 natural-science journals through 2022, in 2023 64 health-science journals were added to the Index. The 146 journals in the Nature Index were selected on reputation by an independent panel of leading scientists in their fields.
  3. Nature Index recognizes that many other factors must be taken into account when considering research quality and institutional performance; Nature Index metrics alone should not be used to assess institutions or individuals.
  4. Nature Index data and methods are transparent and available under a creative commons licence at nature.com/nature-index/.
  5. Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

The Nature Index database undergoes regular updating, corrections, adjustment of institutional hierarchies, and removal of retracted papers and thus the live website can differ from the frozen annual tables.