2023 Research Leaders: Leading countries/territories in biological sciences

The 2023 Research Leaders are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022.

Table criteria

Position Country/territory Share 2021 Share 2022 Count 2022 Change in Adjusted Share* 2021–2022
1 United States of America (USA) 9453.87 8450.17 11398 -3.5% Decrease
2 China 2152.13 2508.68 3591 25.8% Increase
3 United Kingdom (UK) 1657.42 1419.49 3162 -7.6% Decrease
4 Germany 1490.52 1305.52 2836 -5.5% Decrease
5 Japan 761.59 720.58 1271 2.1% Increase
6 France 739.10 681.37 1564 -0.5% Decrease
7 Canada 599.50 585.20 1391 5.4% Increase
8 Switzerland 533.34 476.59 1156 -3.6% Decrease
9 Australia 452.83 395.66 1033 -5.7% Decrease
10 Netherlands 379.43 318.31 966 -9.5% Decrease
11 Sweden 279.56 271.82 790 4.9% Increase
12 Spain 301.15 269.93 840 -3.3% Decrease
13 South Korea 219.30 228.79 459 12.6% Increase
14 Italy 262.16 227.62 748 -6.3% Decrease
15 Israel 280.07 219.50 451 -15.4% Decrease
16 Denmark 184.60 160.67 541 -6.1% Decrease
17 Austria 147.66 143.11 450 4.6% Increase
18 Belgium 154.11 141.10 463 -1.2% Decrease
19 Singapore 124.25 116.84 317 1.5% Increase
20 India 134.12 115.85 245 -6.8% Decrease
21 Finland 68.06 81.61 314 29.4% Increase
22 Taiwan 93.52 75.07 186 -13.4% Decrease
23 Brazil 68.73 74.07 294 16.3% Increase
24 Norway 75.84 72.93 280 3.8% Increase
25 Portugal 50.73 57.64 196 22.6% Increase
26 Czech Republic 56.50 54.80 190 4.7% Increase
27 Russia 36.22 43.11 171 28.5% Increase
28 New Zealand 32.21 37.48 140 25.6% Increase
29 Poland 37.30 37.02 167 7.1% Increase
30 South Africa 32.85 35.52 165 16.7% Increase
31 Hungary 33.54 34.85 106 12.1% Increase
32 Ireland 30.39 33.96 151 20.6% Increase
33 Argentina 27.78 32.73 135 27.2% Increase
34 Mexico 28.72 27.93 114 5.0% Increase
35 Chile 24.14 22.46 103 0.4% Increase
36 Greece 18.55 16.78 104 -2.4% Decrease
37 Turkey 9.80 15.65 90 72.3% Increase
38 Saudi Arabia 11.90 13.43 80 21.8% Increase
39 Estonia 16.80 12.88 69 -17.3% Decrease
40 Iceland 10.67 9.80 48 -0.8% Decrease
41 Kenya 12.07 8.81 44 -21.2% Decrease
42 United Arab Emirates 12.68 8.31 43 -29.3% Decrease
43 Luxembourg 2.28 8.28 35 291.3% Increase
44 Thailand 14.20 7.81 57 -40.6% Decrease
45 Slovenia 9.40 7.56 27 -13.2% Decrease
46 Qatar 10.16 6.80 35 -27.8% Decrease
47 Croatia 5.38 6.63 37 32.8% Increase
48 Colombia 6.66 6.40 55 3.7% Increase
49 Peru 3.91 6.07 32 67.5% Increase
50 Uruguay 3.41 5.56 19 76.3% Increase

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 and health 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 145 natural-science and health-science journals. The journals were selected on reputation by an independent panel of leading scientists in their fields. The list is reviewed periodically and journals may be removed or added. Articles from eLife were no longer included in the Nature Index from 2023 after the journal changed its publishing model.
  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 research leaders.