Countries by Domestic Patents
Complete ranking of 124 countries • applications • Data refreshed May 5, 2026
Leader
China
Field size
124 countries
Lowest rank
Samoa
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About Patent Applications (Residents) Rankings
China leads all 124 countries in Patent Applications (Residents) with a value of 1.43 million applications, while Samoa ranks last at 1.00 applications. This represents a 1,426,644-fold difference between the highest and lowest values.
What Patent Applications (Residents) Measures
Patent Applications (Residents) from World Bank Open Data, using the latest available country values in TerraBrawl.
Why This Ranking Matters
Examining Patent Applications (Residents) across all countries reveals patterns that might not be obvious at the national level. Regional clusters, outlier nations, and historical trajectories all become clearer when the full global picture is assembled in a single ranking.
Global Range
Values range from 1.00 applications (Samoa) to 1.43 million applications (China) — a 1.43 million-fold difference across 124 countries.
Regional Patterns
European countries lead with 9 entries in the top 20, though representation spans multiple continents. Regional factors clearly play a role, but outliers from other parts of the world show that national policy and geography matter as much as continental trends.
The distribution is highly right-skewed — a few countries have exceptionally high values that pull the average well above the median. The median (146 applications) is far more representative than the mean (18.5K applications).
Notable Outliers
China stands far above the rest, with a value 444% higher than second-place United States. This extraordinary lead suggests unique national circumstances — geographic scale, resource endowment, or policy choices — that set it apart from even its closest competitors.
Continental Leaders
Highest Patent Applications (Residents)
The 5 strongest Patent Applications (Residents) reads.
Lowest Patent Applications (Residents)
The 5 lowest Patent Applications (Residents) reads.
Data Note
Rankings are based on the latest available data from World Bank Open Data, covering 124 of 249 countries and territories. Countries without data for this metric are excluded from the ranking. All values represent the most recently reported figures.
