2017 tables: Countries/territories - Earth & environmental sciences

The 2017 tables are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2016.

Table criteria

# Country/territory Share 2015 Share 2016 Count 2016 Change in Adjusted Share* 2015–2016
1 United States of America (USA) 2832.34 2956.83 4112 -2.6%
2 China 723.44 915.47 1350 18.1%
3 United Kingdom (UK) 479.46 521.69 1100 1.5%
4 Germany 429.40 466.78 942 1.5%
5 France 363.54 373.34 805 -4.2%
6 Australia 294.38 308.22 594 -2.3%
7 Japan 259.47 301.88 492 8.6%
8 Canada 318.16 285.71 571 -16.2%
9 Switzerland 207.20 196.69 431 -11.4%
10 Netherlands 116.69 132.54 313 6.0%
11 Italy 131.29 120.84 260 -14.1%
12 Spain 113.71 116.16 245 -4.7%
13 Sweden 99.34 86.80 251 -18.5%
14 South Korea 73.26 82.21 142 4.7%
15 Norway 62.19 75.31 212 13.0%
16 Denmark 66.43 70.13 180 -1.5%
17 India 53.53 59.06 109 3.0%
18 Belgium 46.81 54.97 133 9.6%
19 Israel 48.62 52.45 92 0.7%
20 Singapore 35.03 43.15 86 15.0%
21 New Zealand 49.87 42.50 117 -20.5%
22 Taiwan 51.81 42.38 84 -23.7%
23 Finland 36.53 37.98 90 -3.0%
24 Brazil 25.92 35.41 88 27.5%
25 Austria 25.92 34.72 152 25.0%
26 Russia 25.65 29.70 105 8.1%
27 Czech Republic 17.21 25.66 59 39.2%
28 Saudi Arabia 14.23 21.60 58 41.6%
29 Portugal 16.36 19.68 52 12.3%
30 South Africa 13.20 16.96 52 19.9%
31 Chile 14.17 15.41 51 1.5%
32 Ireland 11.68 14.86 48 18.8%
33 Greece 16.88 12.84 37 -29.0%
34 Mexico 10.07 12.49 41 15.8%
35 Iceland 10.33 9.96 30 -10.0%
36 Argentina 8.66 9.52 36 2.6%
37 Poland 12.13 7.62 35 -41.4%
38 Turkey 15.77 7.49 23 -55.7%
39 Colombia 3.59 6.68 19 73.6%
40 Indonesia 3.63 6.37 27 63.8%
41 Thailand 0.36 5.57 17 1351.4%
42 Luxembourg 2.83 4.41 8 45.3%
43 Panama 1.31 4.40 21 214.5%
44 Hungary 2.64 4.29 16 52.0%
45 Peru 2.65 3.94 16 38.6%
46 Ecuador 1.02 3.88 16 255.7%
47 Estonia 1.19 3.19 11 150.6%
48 Slovenia 3.88 3.01 4 -27.7%
49 Iran 1.34 2.99 7 108.4%
50 Kenya 1.22 2.87 14 119.1%

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.

*The change in adjusted Share accounts for the small annual variation in the total number of articles in Nature Index journals. Share values have been adjusted to 2022 levels to calculate the percentage change. For more information on the adjustment, please see the Adjusted metric explainer.