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Ghana vs Uganda

On research quality in 2022-now, Uganda ranks #47 in the world and Ghana #58, of 189 countries. Ghana stands higher in 11 of the 19 fields both publish in, Uganda in 8.

Research profiles alike: 0.91very similar shapes of research, whatever their size. How it is measured

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Ghana

World rank, 2022-now
#58
#68 all time
Works, 2022-now
27k
fractional
Top-10% rate
10.8%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
65%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Library and Information Sciences, Horticulture, Research and Theory.

Uganda

World rank, 2022-now
#47
#49 all time
Works, 2022-now
13k
fractional
Top-10% rate
9.5%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
71%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Virology, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, Infectious Diseases.

Who leads, measure by measure?

Uganda leads on 6 of 9 measures: research quality, excellence for its fields, citations per work, open access, international co-authorship and growth. Ghana leads on 2 of 9 measures: output and top-10% rate. The two are level on institutions in the world top 100.

Ghana 21 level6 Uganda
  1. #58Research qualityworld rank of 189 countries, 2022-now#47
  2. 1.00×Excellence for its fieldsits top-10% rate against what its topics predict; 1.00× is as expected1.05×
  3. 27kOutputfractional works, 2022-now13k
  4. 10.8%Top-10% rateshare of its works among the world's most cited9.5%
  5. 12.1Citations per workall time, per fractional work14.5
  6. 0World top 100institutions it holds among the world's best 1000
  7. 65%Open accessof its works free to read, all time71%
  8. 33%Internationalof its works written with co-authors abroad, all time41%
  9. +42%Growthworks in 2022-25 against 2018-21; half a bar is no change+75%

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?

Ghana stands higher in 11 of 19 fields, Uganda in 8. Ghana leads most in Economics, Econometrics and Finance (#41 against #58); Uganda leads most in Medicine (#35 against #58). Each bar is that side's standing among all countries ranked in the field: the full bar is first place.

Ghana 118 Uganda
  1. #43Agricultural and Biological Sciences#46
  2. #55Arts and Humanities-
  3. #61Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology#58
  4. #46Business, Management and Accounting#52
  5. #62Computer Science#66
  6. #45Decision Sciences-
  7. #58Earth and Planetary Sciences-
  8. #41Economics, Econometrics and Finance#58
  9. #57Energy-
  10. #72Engineering#63
  11. #52Environmental Science#64
  12. #42Health Professions#35
  13. #40Immunology and Microbiology#31
  14. #70Materials Science-
  15. #60Mathematics-
  16. #58Medicine#35
  17. #40Nursing#33
  18. #58Psychology#49
  19. #59Social Sciences#54

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 Ghana rankUganda rank Ghana top 10%Uganda top 10% Ghana worksUganda works
Agricultural and Biological Sciences #43 #46 11.0% 10.4% 2.3k 1k
Arts and Humanities #55 - 11.5% - 746 -
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology #61 #58 9.3% 9.6% 637 384
Business, Management and Accounting #46 #52 12.9% 7.9% 2.3k 793
Computer Science #62 #66 10.8% 9.8% 1.4k 458
Decision Sciences #45 - 9.5% - 458 -
Earth and Planetary Sciences #58 - 11.4% - 207 -
Economics, Econometrics and Finance #41 #58 13.1% 6.4% 1.6k 502
Energy #57 - 9.8% - 235 -
Engineering #72 #63 8.0% 11.9% 1.7k 529
Environmental Science #52 #64 9.1% 7.4% 1.9k 779
Health Professions #42 #35 13.2% 11.5% 1.1k 683
Immunology and Microbiology #40 #31 12.1% 12.1% 295 293
Materials Science #70 - 7.5% - 206 -
Mathematics #60 - 11.1% - 277 -
Medicine #58 #35 10.1% 10.5% 4.3k 3.7k
Nursing #40 #33 11.6% 9.3% 396 222
Psychology #58 #49 8.7% 8.7% 1k 477
Social Sciences #59 #54 11.6% 8.0% 5k 2.1k

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.

Ghana

▲ 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. Epidemiology1,614▲ 1.30×136 topics
  2. Sustainability1,476▲ 1.93×109 topics
  3. Climate Change1,179▲ 1.39×111 topics
  4. Globalization1,054▲ 1.72×132 topics
  5. Environmental Impact932▲ 1.75×67 topics
  6. Renewable Energy815▲ 1.80×53 topics
  7. Sustainable Development808▲ 1.65×89 topics
  8. Education786▲ 1.46×101 topics
  9. Economic Growth786▲ 3.1×34 topics
  10. Social Capital700▲ 4.3×21 topics
  11. Public Health690▲ 1.52×65 topics
  12. Mental Health661▲ 1.48×43 topics
  13. Risk Management650▲ 4.4×18 topics
  14. Supply Chain Management597▲ 2.1×26 topics
  15. Maternal Mortality544▲ 7.8×5 topics
  16. Corporate Governance529▲ 2.3×27 topics
  17. Poverty Reduction517▲ 13×7 topics
  18. Consumer Behavior514▲ 2.6×18 topics
  19. Community Health Workers479▲ 17×2 topics
  20. Biodiversity Conservation456▲ 3.9×17 topics
  21. Health Inequalities456▲ 12×5 topics
  22. Urbanization456▲ 3.6×13 topics
  23. Child Development449▲ 3.5×8 topics
  24. Leadership447▲ 2.9×35 topics
  25. Socio-economic Factors435▲ 12×3 topics
  26. Child Mortality432▲ 19×1 topic
  27. Health Systems432▲ 19×1 topic
  28. Smallholder Farmers429▲ 6.5×6 topics
  29. Social Networks417▲ 4.9×13 topics
  30. Governance412▲ 4.0×15 topics
  31. Development397▲ 3.6×19 topics
  32. Sustainable Agriculture395▲ 4.1×15 topics
  33. Gender Inequality381▲ 8.8×6 topics
  34. Global Burden of Disease372▲ 4.8×4 topics
  35. Poverty Alleviation372▲ 12×3 topics
  36. Vulnerability370▲ 5.1×8 topics
  37. ICT305▲ 7.3×5 topics
  38. Maternal and Child Undernutrition305▲ 12×1 topic
  39. Water Sanitation Hygiene305▲ 12×1 topic
  40. Institutional Quality302▲ 9.2×3 topics

Uganda

▲ 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. Epidemiology1,464▲ 2.4×135 topics
  2. Sustainability576▲ 1.52×105 topics
  3. Climate Change570▲ 1.35×104 topics
  4. Antiretroviral Therapy528▲ 21×6 topics
  5. Public Health472▲ 2.1×63 topics
  6. Globalization448▲ 1.47×113 topics
  7. Maternal Mortality443▲ 13×5 topics
  8. Vaccine430▲ 6.9×11 topics
  9. Immune Response417▲ 4.7×23 topics
  10. Risk Factors396▲ 2.3×37 topics
  11. Mental Health380▲ 1.71×45 topics
  12. Community Health Workers376▲ 27×2 topics
  13. Health Inequalities348▲ 18×5 topics
  14. Global Burden341▲ 4.0×12 topics
  15. Socio-economic Factors339▲ 20×3 topics
  16. Child Mortality336▲ 30×1 topic
  17. Health Systems336▲ 30×1 topic
  18. Diagnosis323▲ 2.2×40 topics
  19. Mortality Rates307▲ 21×2 topics
  20. Drug Resistance293▲ 6.5×9 topics
  21. HIV Transmission287▲ 24×2 topics
  22. Social Capital277▲ 3.4×19 topics
  23. Viral Load273▲ 23×2 topics
  24. Genetic Diversity272▲ 4.0×21 topics
  25. Poverty Reduction271▲ 13×6 topics
  26. Child Development268▲ 4.2×8 topics
  27. Pathogenesis263▲ 3.3×24 topics
  28. Preexposure Prophylaxis259▲ 34×1 topic
  29. Stigma and Discrimination259▲ 34×1 topic
  30. Vaccine Development259▲ 6.5×11 topics
  31. Global Burden of Disease229▲ 6.0×4 topics
  32. Smallholder Farmers196▲ 6.0×6 topics
  33. HIV Infection194▲ 12×4 topics
  34. Gender Inequality191▲ 8.9×6 topics
  35. Maternal and Child Undernutrition189▲ 15×1 topic
  36. Water Sanitation Hygiene189▲ 15×1 topic
  37. HIV Prevention179▲ 20×2 topics
  38. Global Health174▲ 7.2×8 topics
  39. HIV173▲ 13×4 topics
  40. Adolescent Health170▲ 13×3 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?

Ghana has out-published Uganda every year since 2004, when it overtook it.

still counting2.5k5k7.5kGhana7,317 in 2025Uganda4,088 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 counting0.050%0.10%0.15%Ghana0.12% in 2025Uganda0.069% 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%Ghana11.1% in 2025Uganda9.8% 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.

Ghana 03 level2 Uganda
  1. 0In the world top 500
  2. 0In the top 1000
  3. 0In the top 5000
  4. 0In the top 1,0001
  5. #51Elite capacityrank among 204 countries#44

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, Ghana or Uganda?

Ghana publishes 2.1× as much research as Uganda in 2022-now (27k against 13k fractional works).

Whose research has more impact, Ghana or Uganda?

10.8% of Ghana's research reaches the world's top 10% most cited, against 9.5% for Uganda.

Is Ghana or Uganda growing faster?

Output in 2022-25 was +75% against 2018-21 for Uganda, and +42% for Ghana.

Which has more open access research, Ghana or Uganda?

71% of Uganda's research is free to read, against 65% of Ghana's.

Which has more world-class institutions, Ghana or Uganda?

Ghana holds 0 of the world's top 100 research institutions and Uganda 0; in the top 1,000 it is 0 against 1.

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%.

Ghana

  1. 1University of Ghana11.0% top 10% · 5.3k works
  2. 2University of Cape Coast12.8% top 10% · 2.8k works
  3. 3Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology10.8% top 10% · 4.5k works
  4. 4University for Development Studies11.1% top 10% · 1.9k works
  5. 5University of Education, Winneba8.0% top 10% · 1.4k works
  6. 6Takoradi Technical University13.8% top 10% · 404 works

Uganda

  1. 1Makerere University9.6% top 10% · 3.7k works
  2. 2Kampala International University12.9% top 10% · 1.4k works
  3. 3Mbarara University of Science and Technology9.8% top 10% · 741 works
  4. 4Kyambogo University6.5% top 10% · 574 works
  5. 5Gulu University9.0% top 10% · 426 works
  6. 6Kabale University8.8% top 10% · 337 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.

Ghana

  1. 1 Richard Gyan Aboagye #22,347 worldwide 39k citations · 250 works
  2. 2 Emmanuel Joel Aikins Abakah #27,882 worldwide 4.7k citations · 132 works
  3. 3 Martin Amogre Ayanore #33,207 worldwide 54k citations · 181 works
  4. 4 Robert Kokou Dowou #33,244 worldwide 25k citations · 109 works
  5. 5 Hubert Amu #37,771 worldwide 49k citations · 190 works

Uganda

  1. 1 Mahadih Kyambade #22,796 worldwide 818 citations · 67 works
  2. 2 Afulah Namatovu #24,940 worldwide 658 citations · 49 works
  3. 3 Adoke Yeka #39,181 worldwide 5.6k citations · 116 works
  4. 4 Jimmy Opigo #56,186 worldwide 2.3k citations · 144 works
  5. 5 Moses Robert Kamya #68,808 worldwide 28k citations · 864 works