Which Countries Have the Most Active Patents?

Where are the world’s active patents concentrated?

This visualization compares the 20 countries with the largest number of active patents, highlighting the scale and geographic distribution of patent activity around the world.

China leads with more than 5.6 million active patents, followed by the United States, Japan and South Korea. Together, the data provide a snapshot of where patent-protected innovation is most heavily concentrated.

Patent counts alone do not measure the quality or economic value of innovation, but they offer one way to understand the scale of intellectual property activity across different countries.

Source: World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), 2024 data

Visualization: Voronoi / Visual Capitalist