Science Explorer Back to mapMap
Compare · Countries

Denmark vs Japan

On research quality in 2022-now, Denmark ranks #15 in the world and Japan #16, of 189 countries. Denmark stands higher in 14 of the 26 fields both publish in, Japan in 12.

Research profiles alike: -0.03different shapes of research, whatever their size. How it is measured

Compare other countries
vs

Denmark

World rank, 2022-now
#15
#14 all time
Works, 2022-now
99k
fractional
Top-10% rate
12.5%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
40%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Public Administration, Architecture, Medical Terminology.

Japan

World rank, 2022-now
#16
#17 all time
Works, 2022-now
558k
fractional
Top-10% rate
6.0%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
42%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Condensed Matter Physics, Structural Biology, Gastroenterology.

Who leads, measure by measure?

Denmark leads on 5 of 9 measures: research quality, excellence for its fields, top-10% rate, citations per work and international co-authorship. Japan leads on 3 of 9 measures: output, open access and growth. The two are level on institutions in the world top 100.

Denmark 51 level3 Japan
  1. #15Research qualityworld rank of 189 countries, 2022-now#16
  2. 1.25×Excellence for its fieldsits top-10% rate against what its topics predict; 1.00× is as expected0.64×
  3. 99kOutputfractional works, 2022-now558k
  4. 12.5%Top-10% rateshare of its works among the world's most cited6.0%
  5. 26.7Citations per workall time, per fractional work17.2
  6. 1World top 100institutions it holds among the world's best 1001
  7. 40%Open accessof its works free to read, all time42%
  8. 28%Internationalof its works written with co-authors abroad, all time12%
  9. -6%Growthworks in 2022-25 against 2018-21; half a bar is no change-5%

A rank is drawn as its standing: the longer the bar, the nearer the top. Anything else is drawn against the larger of the two, and two values a hair apart are called level. Quality, excellence and the top-10% rate are explained in the methodology.

Who leads in each field?

Denmark stands higher in 14 of 26 fields, Japan in 12. Denmark leads most in Energy (#10 against #21); Japan leads most in Dentistry (#12 against #21). Each bar is that side's standing among all countries ranked in the field: the full bar is first place.

Denmark 1412 Japan
  1. #13Agricultural and Biological Sciences#16
  2. #16Arts and Humanities#22
  3. #12Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology#13
  4. #15Business, Management and Accounting#26
  5. #17Chemical Engineering#13
  6. #21Chemistry#14
  7. #18Computer Science#16
  8. #16Decision Sciences#25
  9. #21Dentistry#12
  10. #17Earth and Planetary Sciences#15
  11. #16Economics, Econometrics and Finance#17
  12. #10Energy#21
  13. #17Engineering#16
  14. #14Environmental Science#20
  15. #13Health Professions#22
  16. #17Immunology and Microbiology#15
  17. #22Materials Science#12
  18. #21Mathematics#14
  19. #11Medicine#18
  20. #17Neuroscience#16
  21. #15Nursing#18
  22. #16Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics#13
  23. #18Physics and Astronomy#10
  24. #18Psychology#23
  25. #12Social Sciences#26
  26. #13Veterinary#17

Standing is the percentile of world rank within each field, 2022-now; the printed number is the rank itself. A dash means the field is too small there to rank. How sides are compared.

The numbers behind each field

Click a heading to sort. The side that does better in a pair of columns is shaded: a lower rank, a higher rate, more works.

Field Denmark rankJapan rank Denmark top 10%Japan top 10% Denmark worksJapan works
Agricultural and Biological Sciences #13 #16 15.1% 6.4% 3.1k 16k
Arts and Humanities #16 #22 11.6% 9.5% 3.2k 5.2k
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology #12 #13 13.3% 5.5% 6.2k 41k
Business, Management and Accounting #15 #26 11.8% 6.2% 3.2k 5.2k
Chemical Engineering #17 #13 11.6% 4.8% 337 2.5k
Chemistry #21 #14 10.9% 4.8% 955 12k
Computer Science #18 #16 10.6% 5.1% 5k 37k
Decision Sciences #16 #25 10.8% 5.7% 1.1k 2.9k
Dentistry #21 #12 13.6% 7.7% 283 2.9k
Earth and Planetary Sciences #17 #15 11.8% 6.7% 1.5k 8.7k
Economics, Econometrics and Finance #16 #17 12.6% 7.4% 1.9k 6.1k
Energy #10 #21 14.0% 6.9% 822 3.6k
Engineering #17 #16 11.9% 4.6% 11k 94k
Environmental Science #14 #20 12.0% 6.0% 4.9k 21k
Health Professions #13 #22 11.7% 6.9% 3.2k 8.9k
Immunology and Microbiology #17 #15 11.5% 6.3% 1.2k 7k
Materials Science #22 #12 10.3% 4.9% 1.7k 27k
Mathematics #21 #14 12.4% 6.3% 769 6.9k
Medicine #11 #18 14.0% 6.6% 27k 167k
Neuroscience #17 #16 12.5% 5.2% 2.1k 14k
Nursing #15 #18 13.0% 5.6% 520 2.8k
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics #16 #13 10.8% 6.5% 302 2.6k
Physics and Astronomy #18 #10 13.7% 7.4% 1.9k 22k
Psychology #18 #23 10.4% 6.2% 4.4k 14k
Social Sciences #12 #26 11.3% 7.1% 12k 27k
Veterinary #13 #17 12.1% 5.0% 271 773

What is each known for?

The keywords that describe each side's research, by fractional works in 2022-now and weighted toward what it does more of than the world.

Denmark

▲ more of its work than of the world's◆ about the world's share▼ less than the world's
All 40 words, with their numbers
  1. Epidemiology5,822▲ 1.32×139 topics
  2. Climate Change3,473▲ 1.16×126 topics
  3. Inflammation3,217▲ 1.37×83 topics
  4. Sustainability2,750◆ 1.02×131 topics
  5. Machine Learning2,504▼ 0.68×97 topics
  6. Quality of Life2,278▲ 1.43×60 topics
  7. Globalization2,263◆ 1.04×176 topics
  8. Cardiovascular Disease2,174▲ 1.73×39 topics
  9. Education2,081◆ 1.10×147 topics
  10. Renewable Energy2,029▲ 1.27×60 topics
  11. Treatment1,861▲ 1.39×52 topics
  12. Public Health1,829◆ 1.14×75 topics
  13. Oxidative Stress1,800◆ 0.99×63 topics
  14. Environmental Impact1,744◆ 0.93×73 topics
  15. Metabolic Syndrome1,625▲ 1.82×24 topics
  16. Depression1,460▲ 1.50×26 topics
  17. Qualitative Research1,416▲ 1.51×42 topics
  18. Risk Factors1,404▲ 1.16×37 topics
  19. Diagnosis1,396▲ 1.36×41 topics
  20. Obesity1,290▲ 1.52×29 topics
  21. Genetics1,241▲ 1.59×27 topics
  22. Pedagogy1,199▲ 2.2×30 topics
  23. Embodiment1,183▲ 5.7×7 topics
  24. Heart Failure1,160▲ 2.4×14 topics
  25. Ethics1,134▲ 2.0×59 topics
  26. Guidelines1,049▲ 2.0×13 topics
  27. Social Sciences1,023▲ 6.4×21 topics
  28. Tacit Knowledge969▲ 19×3 topics
  29. Ethical Guidelines909▲ 16×4 topics
  30. Social Science874▲ 22×8 topics
  31. Pragmatism857▲ 31×4 topics
  32. Dementia Care831▲ 62×2 topics
  33. Interactional Expertise826▲ 69×1 topic
  34. Technical Decision-making826▲ 69×1 topic
  35. Discourse Analysis817▲ 3.1×11 topics
  36. Glycemic Control744▲ 4.2×4 topics
  37. Gender Studies738▲ 4.4×18 topics
  38. Special Education709▲ 11×6 topics
  39. Methodology706▲ 13×7 topics
  40. Quantitative Methods681▲ 47×2 topics

Japan

▲ more of its work than of the world's◆ about the world's share▼ less than the world's
All 40 words, with their numbers
  1. Epidemiology32k▲ 1.28×140 topics
  2. Inflammation21k▲ 1.54×83 topics
  3. Deep Learning18k▼ 0.85×85 topics
  4. Machine Learning14k▼ 0.67×97 topics
  5. Treatment12k▲ 1.59×52 topics
  6. Oxidative Stress12k◆ 1.15×63 topics
  7. Climate Change12k▼ 0.69×132 topics
  8. Chemotherapy11k▲ 2.6×25 topics
  9. Quality of Life11k▲ 1.17×61 topics
  10. Cancer11k▲ 1.24×59 topics
  11. Diagnosis10k▲ 1.78×41 topics
  12. Nanoparticles9,087◆ 1.14×44 topics
  13. Biomedical Applications8,930▲ 1.20×36 topics
  14. Cardiovascular Disease8,839▲ 1.23×39 topics
  15. Immunotherapy8,823▲ 1.94×19 topics
  16. Neural Networks8,643◆ 0.89×42 topics
  17. Risk Factors8,023▲ 1.16×37 topics
  18. Clinical Practice Guidelines7,936▲ 2.3×14 topics
  19. Management7,655▲ 1.52×40 topics
  20. Mechanical Properties6,915◆ 1.12×39 topics
  21. Prognostic Factors6,756▲ 2.5×14 topics
  22. Surgical Management6,288▲ 2.4×20 topics
  23. Neurological Disorders5,916▲ 1.64×20 topics
  24. Tumor Microenvironment5,642▲ 1.98×8 topics
  25. Genetic Mutations5,620▲ 2.0×23 topics
  26. Clinical Trials5,573▲ 1.32×19 topics
  27. Guidelines5,493▲ 1.84×13 topics
  28. Aging5,443▲ 1.58×19 topics
  29. Complications5,433▲ 1.73×17 topics
  30. Heart Failure5,273▲ 1.87×14 topics
  31. Radiotherapy5,136▲ 2.1×13 topics
  32. Neoadjuvant Therapy4,824▲ 3.2×5 topics
  33. Prognosis4,800▲ 2.3×9 topics
  34. Surgery4,267▲ 1.94×12 topics
  35. Survival Analysis4,083▲ 2.4×7 topics
  36. Echocardiography4,000▲ 2.3×8 topics
  37. Modernization3,683▲ 3.2×5 topics
  38. Molecular Characterization3,645▲ 3.3×6 topics
  39. Endoscopic Resection3,093▲ 4.9×2 topics
  40. Adjuvant Therapy3,069▲ 3.9×2 topics

Size is fractional works in the topics tagged with each word; colour is the word's share of the side's work against its share of the world's. Each word links to the topic it comes from most.

How has their output grown?

Japan has out-published Denmark every year since 1980.

still counting50k100k150kJapan144k in 2025Denmark22k in 20251990200020102020

Fractional works per year.

Their share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share, because all of science grows. Each line is a side as a percentage of every work published that year.

still counting5.0%10%Japan2.5% in 2025Denmark0.38% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

The share of each side's works, year by year, that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. The average of all institutions is 10.0% (why not 10%).

still counting5%10%15%Denmark13.3% in 2025Japan6.4% in 2025200020102020

A year with under 1% of the side's peak output is left out: a rate over a handful of papers says nothing. The latest years are still being cited.

Who holds more of the world's best institutions?

A country's average quality and the number of institutions it holds at the very top can disagree, and both are worth knowing. The counts are nested: an institution in the top 50 is also in the top 100.

Denmark 11 level3 Japan
  1. 1In the world top 500
  2. 1In the top 1001
  3. 5In the top 5008
  4. 8In the top 1,00016
  5. #18Elite capacityrank among 204 countries#13

Institutions ranked on research quality, 2022-now. Elite capacity counts a country's institutions by their worldwide rank, weighted so a place at #1 counts for more than one at #480.

Which publishes more research, Denmark or Japan?

Japan publishes 5.6× as much research as Denmark in 2022-now (558k against 99k fractional works).

Whose research has more impact, Denmark or Japan?

12.5% of Denmark's research reaches the world's top 10% most cited, against 6.0% for Japan.

Is Denmark or Japan growing faster?

Output in 2022-25 was -5% against 2018-21 for Japan, and -6% for Denmark.

Which has more open access research, Denmark or Japan?

42% of Japan's research is free to read, against 40% of Denmark's.

Which has more world-class institutions, Denmark or Japan?

Denmark holds 1 of the world's top 100 research institutions and Japan 1; in the top 1,000 it is 8 against 16.

Which institutions lead in each country?

The highest-ranked institutions on each side on research quality, 2022-now. The percentage is each institution's own top-10% rate: the share of its works that are among the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. Every figure stands alone, so they do not add up to 100%.

Denmark

  1. 1University of Copenhagen14.7% top 10% · 20k works
  2. 2Aarhus University12.2% top 10% · 18k works
  3. 3University of Southern Denmark13.1% top 10% · 8.4k works
  4. 4Technical University of Denmark11.8% top 10% · 11k works
  5. 5Aalborg University11.1% top 10% · 12k works
  6. 6Novo Nordisk Foundation22.6% top 10% · 696 works

Japan

  1. 1The University of Tokyo8.1% top 10% · 26k works
  2. 2Kyoto University7.5% top 10% · 16k works
  3. 3RIKEN11.4% top 10% · 4.7k works
  4. 4The University of Osaka7.0% top 10% · 13k works
  5. 5Nagoya University6.8% top 10% · 10k works
  6. 6Tohoku University7.6% top 10% · 14k works

The number is the rank inside the country. The track on each row is the top-10% rate; the tick is the average of all institutions, 10.0% (how it is set): teal above it, red below. The ranking is the quality score, which compares the rate with what each institution's own topics predict and adds a small reward for size, so the rates do not fall in order.

Who are the top researchers on each side?

The most cited researchers on each side, among those ranked.

Denmark

  1. 1 Kannan Govindan #15 worldwide 54k citations · 477 works
  2. 2 Jens K. Nørskov #52 worldwide 260k citations · 883 works
  3. 3 Eske Willerslev #151 worldwide 74k citations · 463 works
  4. 4 Benjamin Kenneth Sovacool #435 worldwide 71k citations · 1,014 works
  5. 5 Seiji Fujimoto #675 worldwide 14k citations · 418 works

Japan

  1. 1 Md. Rabiul Awual #6 worldwide 41k citations · 208 works
  2. 2 Ayyoob Sharifi #295 worldwide 23k citations · 468 works
  3. 3 A. S. Bell #544 worldwide 76k citations · 479 works
  4. 4 Noboru Mizushima #728 worldwide 143k citations · 420 works
  5. 5 Haoshen S. Zhou #1,003 worldwide 71k citations · 809 works

Other comparisons

Compare any two