2021 tables: Countries/territories - chemistry

The 2021 tables are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020.

Table criteria

# Country/territory Share 2019 Share 2020 Count 2020 Change in Adjusted Share* 2019–2020
1 China 7837.35 7652.64 9327 -2.6%
2 United States of America (USA) 5210.45 5217.99 7207 -0.1%
3 Germany 1762.35 1735.13 2782 -1.8%
4 Japan 1371.30 1444.58 1984 5.0%
5 United Kingdom (UK) 1038.66 1036.49 1826 -0.5%
6 South Korea 641.96 685.31 983 6.4%
7 France 657.58 633.50 1238 -3.9%
8 India 547.85 569.68 721 3.7%
9 Spain 464.90 490.04 921 5.1%
10 Canada 461.99 452.85 782 -2.3%
11 Switzerland 479.51 420.55 767 -12.5%
12 Australia 389.71 386.94 811 -1.0%
13 Italy 251.88 299.09 618 18.4%
14 Singapore 290.14 290.24 533 -0.3%
15 Netherlands 257.20 281.22 538 9.0%
16 Sweden 178.49 191.15 436 6.8%
17 Taiwan 162.24 185.94 339 14.3%
18 Israel 157.70 181.79 273 14.9%
19 Russia 138.38 176.12 362 26.9%
20 Belgium 118.33 132.41 300 11.6%
21 Poland 101.00 113.34 255 11.9%
22 Austria 111.57 110.95 242 -0.8%
23 Denmark 86.54 95.34 243 9.9%
24 Czech Republic 92.68 85.75 179 -7.7%
25 Saudi Arabia 66.44 75.61 210 13.5%
26 Finland 53.23 53.00 149 -0.7%
27 Brazil 49.83 50.60 103 1.3%
28 Ireland 45.75 43.52 96 -5.2%
29 Hungary 22.26 38.41 82 72.0%
30 Portugal 35.45 37.69 105 6.0%
31 Norway 23.17 30.43 86 30.9%
32 Iran 17.77 27.96 53 56.9%
33 New Zealand 32.20 27.63 59 -14.4%
34 Greece 28.52 26.76 67 -6.4%
35 Thailand 19.82 23.60 49 18.7%
36 Turkey 23.08 19.46 55 -15.9%
37 Argentina 22.11 18.54 49 -16.4%
38 Mexico 22.65 17.28 45 -23.9%
39 South Africa 16.24 16.12 45 -1.0%
40 Slovenia 19.02 15.51 43 -18.7%
41 Croatia 7.87 10.43 25 32.2%
42 Chile 8.88 8.14 31 -8.6%
43 Ukraine 7.85 7.67 23 -2.6%
44 Egypt 5.99 7.12 48 18.5%
45 Slovakia 7.73 6.73 26 -13.1%
46 Luxembourg 5.27 6.08 15 15.0%
47 Iceland 1.51 5.59 9 269.3%
48 Vietnam 3.20 5.28 18 64.6%
49 United Arab Emirates 10.08 4.91 18 -51.4%
50 Estonia 8.19 4.28 12 -47.9%

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.

*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.