There’s a connection between America’s Silicon Valley with a small country halfway around the world: Israel. The Jewish nation on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea has established itself as a global force when it comes to technology, ranking ahead of the U.S. in some measures.
Israel was ranked No. 5 in the world in the Bloomberg Innovation Index,
The Times of Israel reported. The criteria were research and development, tech education, patents, and other marks of technology prowess. Israel fared well in research and development, ranking second in the world. The country also scored high for the percentage of its labor force owning advanced degrees and the ratio of research professionals per million residents.
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To put the fifth-place ranking in perspective, Israel beat countries such as France, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States. And it was a sign that the country is moving in the right direction at a rapid pace, since it was ranked 30th in the world the year before. The big move up was due to improvement in manufacturing.
Going back to 2011, Israel had firmly established itself as a place with the infrastructure necessary to support a bustling tech economy.
According to Al-Monitor, citing a study by the Tel Aviv-based firm Fahn Kanne & Co., Israel was second only to South Korea in infrastructure and helping new tech companies get off the ground.
The Israel Advanced Technology Industries annual report from 2014 showed a history of the nation outperforming much larger countries. According to the report, Israel bested Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and the United States in gross domestic expenditure on research and development as a percentage of gross domestic product in all years 2004 to 2011.
According to a report from Israel21c, the nation is ranked No. 2 in the world for venture capital funds, just behind the United States. Also, Israel leads the world with the number of scientists and technicians in the workforce, with a rate of 145 per 10,000 citizens. For comparison, the United States had 85, Japan had 70 and Germany had less than 60. Israel ranked No. 1 in the world in terms of percentage of the workforce employed in technical professions, at 25 percent.
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Israel is a country of about 8 million citizens that deals with war threats daily. None of that, however, has slowed the Jewish country from achieving worldwide fame for its tech prowess.
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