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Spain vs Sweden

On research quality in 2022-now, Spain ranks #10 in the world and Sweden #12, of 189 countries. Spain stands higher in 22 of the 26 fields both publish in, Sweden in 4.

Research profiles alike: 0.51similar shapes of research, whatever their size. How it is measured

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Spain

World rank, 2022-now
#10
#10 all time
Works, 2022-now
435k
fractional
Top-10% rate
11.0%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
52%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Life-span and Life-course Studies, General Social Sciences, General Arts and Humanities.

Sweden

World rank, 2022-now
#12
#12 all time
Works, 2022-now
121k
fractional
Top-10% rate
13.6%
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, measure by measure?

Sweden leads on 4 of 9 measures: excellence for its fields, top-10% rate, citations per work and international co-authorship. Spain leads on 3 of 9 measures: research quality, output and open access. The two are level on institutions in the world top 100 and growth.

Spain 32 level4 Sweden
  1. #10Research qualityworld rank of 189 countries, 2022-now#12
  2. 1.08×Excellence for its fieldsits top-10% rate against what its topics predict; 1.00× is as expected1.28×
  3. 435kOutputfractional works, 2022-now121k
  4. 11.0%Top-10% rateshare of its works among the world's most cited13.6%
  5. 19.1Citations per workall time, per fractional work32.8
  6. 0World top 100institutions it holds among the world's best 1000
  7. 52%Open accessof its works free to read, all time41%
  8. 23%Internationalof its works written with co-authors abroad, all time27%
  9. +1%Growthworks in 2022-25 against 2018-21; half a bar is no change+1%

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?

Spain stands higher in 22 of 26 fields, Sweden in 4. Spain leads most in Chemistry (#7 against #19); Sweden leads most in Veterinary (#10 against #11). Each bar is that side's standing among all countries ranked in the field: the full bar is first place.

Spain 224 Sweden
  1. #7Agricultural and Biological Sciences#12
  2. #5Arts and Humanities#13
  3. #10Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology#11
  4. #7Business, Management and Accounting#12
  5. #12Chemical Engineering#16
  6. #7Chemistry#19
  7. #12Computer Science#14
  8. #11Decision Sciences#10
  9. #6Dentistry#14
  10. #13Earth and Planetary Sciences#12
  11. #10Economics, Econometrics and Finance#12
  12. #9Energy#18
  13. #13Engineering#14
  14. #8Environmental Science#11
  15. #9Health Professions#11
  16. #12Immunology and Microbiology#14
  17. #10Materials Science#15
  18. #9Mathematics#11
  19. #12Medicine#10
  20. #12Neuroscience#13
  21. #5Nursing#13
  22. #10Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics#15
  23. #9Physics and Astronomy#13
  24. #10Psychology#11
  25. #6Social Sciences#11
  26. #11Veterinary#10

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 Spain rankSweden rank Spain top 10%Sweden top 10% Spain worksSweden works
Agricultural and Biological Sciences #7 #12 13.0% 15.3% 17k 3.3k
Arts and Humanities #5 #13 11.6% 15.9% 35k 3.5k
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology #10 #11 10.3% 12.7% 22k 7k
Business, Management and Accounting #7 #12 14.0% 16.2% 10k 3.4k
Chemical Engineering #12 #16 8.9% 10.2% 1.4k 362
Chemistry #7 #19 9.7% 10.7% 6.2k 1.3k
Computer Science #12 #14 11.8% 12.3% 25k 8k
Decision Sciences #11 #10 13.2% 12.6% 3k 1.2k
Dentistry #6 #14 17.3% 17.4% 1.7k 501
Earth and Planetary Sciences #13 #12 9.6% 13.1% 7.1k 1.8k
Economics, Econometrics and Finance #10 #12 12.2% 13.1% 8.2k 2.2k
Energy #9 #18 8.6% 12.0% 3.2k 793
Engineering #13 #14 9.5% 11.6% 39k 16k
Environmental Science #8 #11 10.3% 12.9% 21k 6.6k
Health Professions #9 #11 12.2% 13.7% 11k 4.1k
Immunology and Microbiology #12 #14 10.1% 12.1% 4.8k 1.5k
Materials Science #10 #15 8.9% 10.6% 9.5k 3.2k
Mathematics #9 #11 10.9% 11.4% 4.6k 1.4k
Medicine #12 #10 10.1% 14.9% 100k 27k
Neuroscience #12 #13 9.6% 11.6% 7.3k 2.5k
Nursing #5 #13 12.7% 14.8% 1.9k 523
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics #10 #15 11.2% 12.6% 1k 260
Physics and Astronomy #9 #13 11.0% 12.7% 10k 3.3k
Psychology #10 #11 11.6% 12.9% 17k 5.6k
Social Sciences #6 #11 12.3% 15.7% 66k 16k
Veterinary #11 #10 12.2% 14.0% 690 255

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.

Spain

▲ 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. Epidemiology25k▲ 1.30×140 topics
  2. Climate Change16k▲ 1.20×131 topics
  3. Education15k▲ 1.76×160 topics
  4. Globalization14k▲ 1.47×185 topics
  5. Sustainability12k◆ 1.03×139 topics
  6. Inflammation11k◆ 1.07×83 topics
  7. Quality of Life9,809▲ 1.38×61 topics
  8. History9,611▲ 2.8×66 topics
  9. Mental Health8,938▲ 1.27×48 topics
  10. Public Health8,852▲ 1.23×77 topics
  11. COVID-198,630▲ 1.35×34 topics
  12. Treatment8,507▲ 1.42×52 topics
  13. Gender8,303▲ 3.1×58 topics
  14. Cultural Heritage7,636▲ 2.9×40 topics
  15. Innovation7,337▲ 1.44×90 topics
  16. Literature7,334▲ 2.7×64 topics
  17. Educational Technology7,276▲ 1.25×47 topics
  18. Identity7,246▲ 2.0×80 topics
  19. Human Rights7,119▲ 1.41×91 topics
  20. Risk Factors7,034▲ 1.30×37 topics
  21. Cardiovascular Disease6,815▲ 1.21×39 topics
  22. Diagnosis6,484▲ 1.41×41 topics
  23. Latin America5,627▲ 6.0×23 topics
  24. Communication5,371▲ 3.5×25 topics
  25. Ethics5,319▲ 2.1×62 topics
  26. Culture5,048▲ 1.96×40 topics
  27. Technology4,954▲ 1.92×44 topics
  28. Social Movements4,727▲ 3.2×33 topics
  29. Welfare State4,694▲ 12×4 topics
  30. Urban Development4,392▲ 2.5×23 topics
  31. Society4,274▲ 4.5×26 topics
  32. Historiography4,146▲ 6.9×15 topics
  33. Spain3,916▲ 22×5 topics
  34. Informal Learning3,128▲ 4.9×6 topics
  35. Iberian Peninsula2,928▲ 21×3 topics
  36. Participation2,747▲ 5.8×5 topics
  37. Political Power2,708▲ 12×5 topics
  38. Family Support2,484▲ 7.8×2 topics
  39. Social Work2,467▲ 7.6×4 topics
  40. Migrant Integration2,432▲ 15×2 topics

Sweden

▲ 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. Epidemiology6,544▲ 1.18×140 topics
  2. Climate Change4,486▲ 1.19×130 topics
  3. Machine Learning3,820▼ 0.83×95 topics
  4. Sustainability3,715◆ 1.09×137 topics
  5. Inflammation3,539▲ 1.20×83 topics
  6. Deep Learning3,371▼ 0.70×84 topics
  7. Globalization3,192▲ 1.17×178 topics
  8. Quality of Life2,646▲ 1.32×61 topics
  9. Mental Health2,575▲ 1.30×48 topics
  10. Public Health2,428▲ 1.20×74 topics
  11. Cardiovascular Disease2,363▲ 1.49×39 topics
  12. Education2,204◆ 0.92×157 topics
  13. Oxidative Stress2,176◆ 0.95×63 topics
  14. Environmental Impact2,085◆ 0.88×72 topics
  15. Treatment1,949◆ 1.15×52 topics
  16. Renewable Energy1,903◆ 0.95×61 topics
  17. Risk Factors1,892▲ 1.24×37 topics
  18. Depression1,857▲ 1.52×26 topics
  19. Cancer1,618◆ 0.87×59 topics
  20. Qualitative Research1,570▲ 1.33×44 topics
  21. Pedagogy1,566▲ 2.2×30 topics
  22. Genetics1,468▲ 1.49×27 topics
  23. Big Data1,423◆ 1.07×36 topics
  24. Biomarkers1,375▲ 1.42×18 topics
  25. Metabolic Syndrome1,372▲ 1.22×24 topics
  26. Obesity1,261▲ 1.18×29 topics
  27. Global Burden1,216▲ 1.61×12 topics
  28. Health Effects1,214▲ 1.44×24 topics
  29. Anxiety1,175▲ 1.78×12 topics
  30. Ethics1,128▲ 1.60×61 topics
  31. Resilience1,072▲ 1.57×19 topics
  32. Learning985▲ 2.4×17 topics
  33. Social Sciences983▲ 4.9×23 topics
  34. Neoliberalism978▲ 1.95×29 topics
  35. Discourse Analysis974▲ 2.9×11 topics
  36. Prevalence974▲ 1.71×15 topics
  37. Special Education874▲ 11×6 topics
  38. Gender Studies862▲ 4.1×20 topics
  39. Methodology806▲ 12×7 topics
  40. Quantitative Methods780▲ 43×2 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?

Spain has out-published Sweden every year since 1990, when it overtook it.

still counting50k100k150kSpain111k in 2025Sweden31k 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 counting1.0%2.0%3.0%Spain1.9% in 2025Sweden0.53% 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%Sweden13.1% in 2025Spain10.8% 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.

Spain 32 level0 Sweden
  1. 0In the world top 500
  2. 0In the top 1000
  3. 15In the top 5009
  4. 37In the top 1,00012
  5. #7Elite capacityrank among 204 countries#14

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, Spain or Sweden?

Spain publishes 3.6× as much research as Sweden in 2022-now (435k against 121k fractional works).

Whose research has more impact, Spain or Sweden?

13.6% of Sweden's research reaches the world's top 10% most cited, against 11.0% for Spain.

Is Spain or Sweden growing faster?

Output in 2022-25 was +1% against 2018-21 for Spain, and +1% for Sweden.

Which has more open access research, Spain or Sweden?

52% of Spain's research is free to read, against 41% of Sweden's.

Which has more world-class institutions, Spain or Sweden?

Spain holds 0 of the world's top 100 research institutions and Sweden 0; in the top 1,000 it is 37 against 12.

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%.

Spain

  1. 1Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas11.1% top 10% · 26k works
  2. 2Universitat de Barcelona11.6% top 10% · 16k works
  3. 3Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona12.5% top 10% · 13k works
  4. 4Universitat Pompeu Fabra15.6% top 10% · 4.1k works
  5. 5University of the Basque Country11.3% top 10% · 10k works
  6. 6Universidad Autónoma de Madrid11.2% top 10% · 12k works

Sweden

  1. 1Karolinska Institutet16.4% top 10% · 12k works
  2. 2Uppsala University13.3% top 10% · 11k works
  3. 3University of Gothenburg14.4% top 10% · 9.8k works
  4. 4Lund University13.0% top 10% · 12k works
  5. 5Stockholm University14.7% top 10% · 7.1k works
  6. 6Chalmers University of Technology12.9% top 10% · 5.3k 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.

Spain

  1. 1 Manuel Delgado‐Baquerizo #190 worldwide 47k citations · 611 works
  2. 2 Cecilio García-Quirós #204 worldwide 57k citations · 198 works
  3. 3 J. Calderón Bustillo #251 worldwide 86k citations · 281 works
  4. 4 D. Keitel #327 worldwide 89k citations · 319 works
  5. 5 T. Dent #357 worldwide 96k citations · 327 works

Sweden

  1. 1 Fredrik Bäckhed #256 worldwide 117k citations · 348 works
  2. 2 Carl Folke #294 worldwide 182k citations · 488 works
  3. 3 Patrik K. E. Magnusson #1,844 worldwide 120k citations · 734 works
  4. 4 Anna Maria Langkilde #2,063 worldwide 23k citations · 310 works
  5. 5 Garry Peterson #2,140 worldwide 33k citations · 234 works

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