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Cover of the Global AI Rankings 2026 report
Rankings report

Global AI Rankings 2026

The 2026 edition covers 195 governments across six equally weighted pillars, computed from published pillar data under a stated composite rule. Absent evidence is recorded as absent rather than estimated, and year-on-year movement is shown only where the source publishes it.

Published 11 August 2026 pdf / 0.6 MB · 15 pp

Download the report What is inside →

Inside the 2026 report Under development

What the edition actually found.

A summarized preview of the full document. Every figure below is computed from the same register the report is built on.

Download the full report pdf / 0.6 MB · 15 pp

195

Governments assessed — complete register, no sampling

43.6

Mean composite score, against a median of 41.1

36

Point mean spread across a government’s own six pillars

177

Record policy capacity above zero — 91% of the register

01

The leaders are outliers, not a leading group

The composite mean is 43.6 against a maximum of 87.7. The top decile begins more than thirty points above the median government. Read from the top the field looks close; read from the middle it does not.

02

Governments are uneven within themselves

The average government varies 36.2 points across its own six pillars — wider than the standard deviation of the whole register. A single composite conceals more variation than it reveals, which is why the report leads with pillar profiles rather than positions.

03

One weakness is nearly universal at the top

Of the leading 25 governments, 20 record development and diffusion as their weakest pillar. It is the lowest-scoring pillar register-wide. Capacity to govern AI is running ahead of capacity to build and spread it, and the pattern holds regardless of rank.

04

The strategy-to-delivery gap runs both ways

97 of 195 governments score higher on policy capacity than on delivery. The remaining 98 are the reverse case — deploying without a published policy position. The familiar claim that governments write strategies they do not implement describes about half the register, and the other half carries the accountability risk it does not.

What is in the document

01–03

Executive summary

The four findings, the register at a glance, and how the rest of the document should be read.
04–05

Scope and method

What is assessed and what is deliberately excluded; the six pillars, the equal-weighting decision and the composite rule stated to the decimal place.
06–07

Distribution and ledger

Where the register actually sits, and the leading governments with the pillar range each composite conceals.
08–09

Pillar profiles and regions

The leading governments as profiles rather than positions, and why a regional mean is the least informative statistic in the report.
10–12

The central finding

Policy capacity against delivery, what the pillars agree and disagree about, and how far the ordering moves under a different weighting.
13–15

Coverage and limitations

What is recorded absent and why nothing is imputed; what the edition cannot support; sources, licenses and the standing legal notice.

Global AI Rankings is under development. Scores are synthesized from publicly available data and presented as aggregated estimates produced by a stated method. They are not audited findings, certifications, ratings or statements of fact about any government, institution, company or individual, and they are subject to revision without notice.

Discuss the 2026 findings with the research team.

Methodology questions, indicator-level data requests, briefings for policy and executive audiences, and media inquiries are handled directly by the assessment team.

Contact the research team