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Saudi Arabia vs Sweden

On research quality in 2022-now, Saudi Arabia ranks #14 in the world and Sweden #15, of 189 countries. Saudi Arabia stands higher in 17 of the 26 fields both publish in, Sweden in 9.

Saudi Arabia

World rank, 2022-now
#14
#29 all time
Works, 2022-now
156k
fractional
Top-10% rate
23.4%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
58%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: General Dentistry, Orthodontics, Modeling and Simulation.

Sweden

World rank, 2022-now
#15
#12 all time
Works, 2022-now
121k
fractional
Top-10% rate
24.7%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
41%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Public Administration, Research and Theory, Equine.

Who leads in each field?

Saudi Arabia stands higher in 17 of 26 fields, Sweden in 9. Each bar is that side's standing among all countries ranked in the field: the full bar is first place.

How has their output grown?

20k40k60kSaudi Arabia45k in 2025Sweden31k in 20251990200020102020

Fractional works per year. The latest, partial year is left off.

Which publishes more research, Saudi Arabia or Sweden?

Saudi Arabia publishes 1.3× as much research as Sweden in 2022-now (156k against 121k fractional works).

Whose research has more impact, Saudi Arabia or Sweden?

24.7% of Sweden's research reaches the world's top 10% most cited, against 23.4% for Saudi Arabia.

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%.

Saudi Arabia

  1. 1King Saud University25.0% top 10% · 19k works
  2. 2King Khalid University27.1% top 10% · 7.5k works
  3. 3Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University29.3% top 10% · 5.3k works
  4. 4King Abdullah University of Science and Technology28.3% top 10% · 5.7k works
  5. 5King Faisal University28.5% top 10% · 4.8k works
  6. 6King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals26.2% top 10% · 7.2k works

Sweden

  1. 1Uppsala University24.8% top 10% · 11k works
  2. 2Lund University24.7% top 10% · 12k works
  3. 3Karolinska Institutet26.3% top 10% · 8.9k works
  4. 4University of Gothenburg27.3% top 10% · 8k works
  5. 5Stockholm University28.8% top 10% · 6.6k works
  6. 6Linköping University25.1% top 10% · 5.7k 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, 16.5% (why not 10%): 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.

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