2016 tables: Countries/territories - life 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) 8,918.54 11,530
2 United Kingdom (UK) 1,418.86 2,848
3 Germany 1,239.32 2,476
4 China 888.54 1,708
5 Japan 764.14 1,328
6 France 678.40 1,468
7 Canada 643.74 1,291
8 Australia 376.60 894
9 Switzerland 360.71 890
10 Spain 298.62 719
11 Netherlands 287.18 810
12 Italy 272.23 718
13 Sweden 237.31 613
14 Israel 225.36 452
15 South Korea 206.92 399
16 Denmark 126.37 412
17 Belgium 121.42 359
18 Austria 114.07 318
19 Singapore 110.77 295
20 India 91.54 180
21 Taiwan 81.50 188
22 Finland 70.58 239
23 Norway 56.89 208
24 Brazil 50.55 179
25 Portugal 43.33 147
26 Ireland 36.42 131
27 Argentina 33.57 97
28 New Zealand 33.51 108
29 Russia 32.73 132
30 Poland 29.44 113
31 Czech Republic 26.41 111
32 Hungary 24.40 95
33 Chile 19.30 61
34 South Africa 19.21 93
35 Mexico 18.55 63
36 Greece 15.90 82
37 Saudi Arabia 12.32 127
38 Thailand 9.06 48
39 Iceland 8.46 33
40 Estonia 7.57 51
41 Turkey 6.25 56
42 Slovenia 6.12 26
43 Panama 5.68 30
44 Colombia 4.63 40
45 Kenya 4.55 28
46 Croatia 4.41 39
47 Malaysia 3.41 27
48 United Arab Emirates 3.39 19
49 Iran 3.38 19
50 Uruguay 2.80 12

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, 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/.

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.