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Singapore vs South Korea

On research quality in 2022-now, South Korea ranks #13 in the world and Singapore #16, of 189 countries. Singapore stands higher in 5 of the 26 fields both publish in, South Korea in 21.

Singapore

World rank, 2022-now
#16
#21 all time
Works, 2022-now
70k
fractional
Top-10% rate
26.6%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
34%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Health Informatics, Hardware and Architecture, Acoustics and Ultrasonics.

South Korea

World rank, 2022-now
#13
#23 all time
Works, 2022-now
358k
fractional
Top-10% rate
18.2%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
43%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Leadership and Management, Polymers and Plastics, Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

Who leads in each field?

Singapore stands higher in 5 of 26 fields, South Korea in 21. Each bar is that side's standing among all countries ranked in the field: the full bar is first place.

Singapore 521 South Korea
  1. #47Agricultural and Biological Sciences#22
  2. #65Arts and Humanities#33
  3. #20Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology#13
  4. #49Business, Management and Accounting#14
  5. #9Chemical Engineering#6
  6. #12Chemistry#15
  7. #10Computer Science#12
  8. #36Decision Sciences#10
  9. #37Dentistry#18
  10. #31Earth and Planetary Sciences#21
  11. #50Economics, Econometrics and Finance#20
  12. #10Energy#2
  13. #9Engineering#7
  14. #20Environmental Science#18
  15. #30Health Professions#13
  16. #19Immunology and Microbiology#13
  17. #7Materials Science#8
  18. #41Mathematics#10
  19. #19Medicine#13
  20. #17Neuroscience#12
  21. #30Nursing#2
  22. -Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics#12
  23. #16Physics and Astronomy#17
  24. #18Psychology#14
  25. #24Social Sciences#30
  26. -Veterinary#26

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.

How has their output grown?

50k100kSouth Korea93k in 2025Singapore19k in 20251990200020102020

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

Which publishes more research, Singapore or South Korea?

South Korea publishes 5.1× as much research as Singapore in 2022-now (358k against 70k fractional works).

Whose research has more impact, Singapore or South Korea?

26.6% of Singapore's research reaches the world's top 10% most cited, against 18.2% for South Korea.

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%.

Singapore

  1. 1National University of Singapore29.6% top 10% · 20k works
  2. 2Nanyang Technological University32.2% top 10% · 17k works
  3. 3Agency for Science, Technology and Research29.3% top 10% · 3k works
  4. 4Singapore Management University29.4% top 10% · 2.2k works
  5. 5Singapore University of Technology and Design30.3% top 10% · 1.9k works
  6. 6National University Health System28.0% top 10% · 1.3k works

South Korea

  1. 1Seoul National University20.0% top 10% · 16k works
  2. 2Sungkyunkwan University21.4% top 10% · 11k works
  3. 3Korea University23.7% top 10% · 11k works
  4. 4Yonsei University20.9% top 10% · 15k works
  5. 5Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology23.6% top 10% · 9.6k works
  6. 6Hanyang University21.3% top 10% · 8.5k 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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