About

How We Measure The Readiness Of Countries For Industry 5.0

As described by the European Commission, Industry 5.0 provides a vision of industry that aims beyond efficiency and productivity as the sole goals and reinforces the role and the contribution of industry to society. It places the well-being of the worker at the center of the production process and uses new technologies to provide prosperity beyond jobs and growth while respecting the production limits of the planet. It also complements the existing “Industry 4.0” approach by specifically putting research and innovation at the service of the transition to a sustainable, human-centric, and resilient industry.

2025 is our inaugural edition of the Industry 5.0 Index, an analysis of 92 countries globally. These countries are geographically diverse, representing seven regions — North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East & North Africa, Asia & Pacific, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Countries included in this index represent a broad spectrum of income groups and geographical regions. This ensures a comprehensive overview of the global landscape of readiness for Industry 5.0. The number of countries included was limited only based on data availability across the broad range of selected metrics.

As industries evolve toward Industry 5.0, they aim to create a holistic balance between technological advancement, talent focus, and sustainable practices. This index assesses countries based on their readiness and adoption of Industry 5.0 principles, focusing on three key pillars:

Talent. Leveraging of human-AI augmentation and technological innovation to enhance labor productivity, promote a digitally skilled workforce, and enable collaborative manufacturing through interconnected infrastructure.

Sustainability. Long-term protection of the environment and well-being of workers by using green technologies, conserving resources, reducing emissions, and ensuring social and legal protections.

Resilience. Preparedness for disruptions by building decentralized and reliable supply chains, safeguarding critical infrastructure and services, enhancing cybersecurity, and fostering adaptability.

2025 Index Methodology

The Industry 5.0 Index uses three dimensions with horizontal groups of enablers to rank readiness of the countries:

• Research and technology: innovation capabilities within the industrial sector
• Human capital: skills and competencies of the workforce
• Policy, financing, and incentives: governmental support for Industry 5.0 adoption

Across all of the enablers, readiness is evaluated based on 30 metrics, distributed fairly equally across the pillars. Those are grouped in 21 sub-groups. Results of the pillars enable a more granular view of countries’ readiness across specific components. The broader scope allows the index to capture in a comprehensive manner how countries are preparing and adapting measures to ensure readiness for the Industry 5.0 era.

1st Pillar: Talent

The Talent pillar is based on the following groups of KPIs:

• Talent innovation
• Talent training and upskilling
• Talent participation rate in high-tech industries
• Women participation in the workforce
• Data protection and privacy
• National AI strategy
• Quality of life

2nd Pillar: Sustainability

The Sustainability pillar is based on the following groups of KPIs:

• Sustainable innovation
• Circular economy/recycling
• Talent participation in green industries
• Public expenditure on environmental protection
• Public expenditure on environmental innovation
• Environmental protection
• Sustainable trade facilitation

3rd Pillar: Resilience

The Resilience pillar is based on the following groups of KPIs:

• Supply chain innovation
• Digital infrastructure
• Technology innovation
• Digital literacy
• Legislation effectiveness
• Innovation/R&D spending
• Investments in technology firms

Index Structure and Reliability

For each KPI, the latest available year for each country was applied in the calculations. Raw data points are then adjusted to reduce the effect of extremely high or low values that might skew the results, making sure that only the most relevant information is considered for analysis. Values are then proportionally normalized to scores between 0 and 100 (100 is the best value; 0 is the worst value) based on KPI relative value versus other countries. In case the data for respective KPIs is not available for a specific country, the value is kept empty. Only KPIs with significant coverage are selected, and the overall approach is used to ensure data integrity. In the final calculation process, the KPIs in the pillars are assigned with equal weights, which are then used to calculate the index result for each country using a simple average across all pillars.

This report was finalized on November 20, 2025.

About The Art

This index is about disruption, evolution, and adaption that offers profound opportunities for businesses and governments. But to realize this potential, they will have to look inward to their economic DNA.

For the design, we turned to the world of genes and adaptive code to underscore that economic evolution. The double helix, a universal symbol of growth and identity, became the visual metaphor. Each country is represented as a unique DNA strand with its own living, evolving model.

Each helix represents a country with colors that reflect its performance across the index’s three pillars: Warm tones portray the Talent pillar and evoke the empathy, creativity, and connection that is so vital in putting humans at the center of tech- driven prosperity.

Green tones reflect the Sustainability pillar and the growth, balance, and renewal rooted in protecting the environment with maturing and new clean technology. And blue tones symbolize the Resilience pillar, eliciting steel-like qualities of stability and strength.

These helixes are animated and interactive, mirroring the human touch that drives the Industry 5.0 era. They are living, shifting, and responsive — the qualities that economies must possess to remain competitive. In contrast, the structural design of the content is rigid, clean, and minimal, built around black and white tones. This grid-like foundation conveys the precision, logic, and clarity that defines our research philosophy.

Data visualizations in the report embody this duality. They merge structured, linear compositions with the fluidity and interconnectedness of the helixes. And given that Industry 5.0 is all about human-machine collaboration, artificial intelligence tools were used to augment chart designs and functionalities.

Ultimately, this creative concept celebrates diversity and unity, technology and humanity, structure and nature. Just as DNA carries building blocks of our development, this design visualizes how nations evolve — each unique strand contributing to a shared, dynamic, and ever-adapting global landscape.