Topping the list was South Korea for the second year in a row, followed by Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Finland, Singapore, Japan, Denmark, the United States and Israel.

The index analyzes factors such as research and development (R&D), spending and the number of hi-tech companies in each country. Israel achieved first place in the “Researcher Concentration Category,” which counts the number of professionals—including PhD students—engaged in research and development per million people in the country. The Jewish state ranked second behind South Korea in the “R&D Intensity” category, which calculates what percent of the gross domestic product is invested in R&D. Israel also did well in “Hi-Tech Density”—the number of local hi-tech public companies—placing third behind the US and France.

“We have a very strong R&D community, both in terms of academic excellence and industrial R&D,” Avi Hasson, the Economy Ministry’s chief scientist, told the Jerusalem Post. He also noted that 300 multinational companies have built R&D centers here. “It doesn’t go without saying that we’re going to stay [in the top 10], but it really shows what has happened here in the past 20 years.”