Patent applications
DerivedTotal patent applications filed with national offices, residents plus nonresidents.
Ingestedfrom Humanity VectorfreshJSON export
Current value, World
3.4Mapplications per year
period 2021- Geography
- World (WLD)
- Observation date
- 2021
- Unit
- applications per year
- Frequency
- annual
- Ingested
- 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC
1-year change+119,200contextual+3.63%2020 to 2021from 3.28M to 3.4M applications per year
10-year trend+4.65% per yearcontextual+57.59%2011 to 2021compound annual growth rate; total +1.24M applications per year, from 2.16M to 3.4M applications per year
Historical series
Patent applications, World
Derived
Data table (37 rows)
| Period | Value (applications per year) | Source revision | Ingested at |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 3,401,100 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 2020 | 3,281,900 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 2019 | 3,232,800 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 2018 | 3,332,600 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 2017 | 3,169,000 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 2016 | 3,125,000 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 2015 | 2,886,200 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 2014 | 2,679,900 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 2013 | 2,564,100 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 2012 | 2,356,500 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 2011 | 2,158,200 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 2010 | 1,997,400 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 2009 | 1,855,900 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 2008 | 1,930,000 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 2007 | 1,874,700 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 2006 | 1,791,700 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 2005 | 1,703,200 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 2004 | 1,568,200 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 2003 | 1,483,900 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 2002 | 1,443,900 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 2001 | 1,456,800 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 2000 | 1,377,500 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 1999 | 1,268,600 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 1998 | 1,214,900 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 1997 | 1,163,200 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 1996 | 1,088,500 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 1995 | 1,047,900 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 1994 | 942,800 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 1993 | 943,300 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 1992 | 943,600 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 1991 | 888,200 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 1990 | 997,500 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 1989 | 1,014,400 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 1988 | 1,009,700 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 1987 | 994,900 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 1986 | 947,700 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
| 1985 | 921,800 | v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 | 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC |
Definition
What this measures
Sum of resident and nonresident patent applications as published by WIPO through the World Bank (series IP.PAT.RESD and IP.PAT.NRES). Computed by Humanity Vector for each geography and year where both components are present. Patent counts are an activity measure, not a quality measure, and filing behaviour differs across offices, so direction is contextual.
- Direction
- contextual, not scored
- Geography level
- world, regions, countries
- Slug
- patent-applications
Science & Knowledge
Related metrics
Provenance and methodologysource, series, ingestion, revisions
- Classification
- Derivedcomputed by a versioned formula over observed values
- Source organization
- Humanity Vector, Humanity Vector documented derivations
- Series ID
patent-applications@1.0- Source links
- Methods: /methods
- License and attribution
- Public display approvedHumanity Vector, derived from cited sources, formulas published on the metric page
- Last source update
- v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13(source revision label as published by the provider)
- Last ingestion
- last successful runfresh
- Last run
- success2026-09-07 05:31 UTC
- Parser version
- humanity-vector-derived/1.0.0
- Methodology version
- 1.0
- Formula
IP.PAT.RESD + IP.PAT.NRES- Method versions
Version 1.0, effective 2026-01-01 00:00 UTC
patent_applications(geo, year) = IP.PAT.RESD(geo, year) + IP.PAT.NRES(geo, year)Patent applications, version 1.0
Formula. For each geography and year, total applications = resident applications (World Bank series IP.PAT.RESD) + nonresident applications (World Bank series IP.PAT.NRES).
Units. Applications per year, unchanged from the components.
Missing data. If either component is missing for a geography and year, no value is produced for that year. No interpolation, smoothing or rebasing is applied.
Revision. The derived value is recomputed after every ingestion of the component series. A changed component value produces a new observation row; earlier rows are kept.
Source revision label.
v1.0/<resident lastupdated>+<nonresident lastupdated>so a value can be traced to the exact source releases it was computed from.- Quality and confidence
- Depends on both component series being reported for the same year. Years with only one component are left empty rather than partially summed.Ingestion rejects values outside 0 to 200,000,000 applications per year.37 periods with values for this geography, 1985 to 2021.
- Revisions
- Values reported for the latest period (2021) by each source revision ingested. Earlier rows are never deleted; the newest ingested row is shown as current.
Source revision Value (applications per year) Ingested at Status v1.0/2026-07-13+2026-07-13 3,401,100 2026-09-07 05:31 UTC current No superseded rows for this geography: every period has been ingested once.