2019 tables: Countries/territories - biological sciences

The 2019 tables are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2018.

Table criteria

# Country/territory Share 2017 Share 2018 Count 2018 Change in Adjusted Share* 2017–2018
1 United States of America (USA) 8708.62 9104.30 12195 -2.1%
2 United Kingdom (UK) 1407.49 1565.62 3181 4.2%
3 China 1198.44 1449.08 2553 13.2%
4 Germany 1232.96 1335.09 2792 1.4%
5 Japan 702.57 723.81 1302 -3.5%
6 France 688.88 673.87 1547 -8.4%
7 Canada 563.96 602.67 1335 0.1%
8 Australia 400.40 459.98 1065 7.6%
9 Switzerland 413.53 454.09 1079 2.8%
10 Netherlands 293.84 312.62 916 -0.4%
11 Spain 259.02 287.75 770 4.0%
12 Sweden 246.83 248.59 690 -5.7%
13 Italy 238.43 222.11 708 -12.8%
14 South Korea 185.09 206.05 418 4.3%
15 Israel 212.40 202.58 432 -10.7%
16 Denmark 120.51 166.68 513 29.5%
17 Belgium 126.92 149.67 437 10.4%
18 Austria 127.74 130.42 383 -4.4%
19 Singapore 118.04 116.23 314 -7.8%
20 India 97.19 110.33 209 6.3%
21 Taiwan 81.01 73.46 181 -15.1%
22 Norway 64.94 71.29 268 2.8%
23 Finland 72.15 67.53 259 -12.3%
24 Portugal 44.04 59.10 203 25.7%
25 Brazil 62.32 58.09 224 -12.7%
26 Czech Republic 41.99 42.18 163 -5.9%
27 New Zealand 34.27 38.20 132 4.4%
28 Ireland 30.84 33.58 132 2.0%
29 Argentina 25.85 31.12 92 12.8%
30 Russia 27.66 29.84 169 1.1%
31 Mexico 20.95 28.10 95 25.6%
32 Poland 27.56 27.87 141 -5.3%
33 Hungary 26.98 26.51 93 -8.0%
34 South Africa 20.07 25.22 109 17.7%
35 Greece 19.06 18.26 89 -10.3%
36 Chile 13.93 16.73 66 12.5%
37 Iceland 14.24 13.83 50 -9.0%
38 Saudi Arabia 16.96 10.60 84 -41.5%
39 Thailand 7.67 8.37 55 2.1%
40 Estonia 8.00 7.71 63 -9.8%
41 Panama 6.22 7.31 33 10.0%
42 Turkey 7.64 6.87 64 -15.8%
43 Kenya 3.30 6.13 36 74.2%
44 Iran 5.39 5.53 33 -3.9%
45 United Arab Emirates 3.65 5.40 32 38.4%
46 Slovenia 7.52 4.71 23 -41.4%
47 Qatar 1.32 4.59 29 225.5%
48 Croatia 4.95 4.01 32 -24.1%
49 Malaysia 1.92 3.94 40 92.4%
50 Luxembourg 3.25 3.80 15 9.5%

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.