World Tech Rankings
All technologies

Quantum computing

Computers that use quantum bits to tackle problems out of reach of conventional machines.

The United States leads quantum computing research, with 34.9% of the 10% most cited papers published 2021–2025; China is second with 11.2%.

US
FirstUnited States34.9%
CN
SecondChina11.2%
3.1×lead, by share of the 10% most cited papers, 2021–2025

Standings

1USUnited States34.9%2CNChina11.2%3DEGermany6.0%4GBUnited Kingdom5.9%5CHSwitzerland3.7%6JPJapan3.4%7CACanada3.3%8–9NLNetherlands3.0%8–9AUAustralia2.9%10ITItaly2.8%

Share of the 10% most cited papers, 2021–2025; 2,014 papers. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

Year by year

United States

0204060% United States 28.1%

Everyone else, on a larger scale

051015% 20212022202320242025 China 11.8%United Kingdom 6.5%Germany 6.0%Switzerland 3.4%Japan 2.9%

Share of the 10% most cited papers published in each year. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

Inside the field

Always the top 10%Pilot

Each paper sorted into one sub-area by an AI model reading its title and abstract, then credited as usual. On 200 hand-labelled papers it chose the same sub-area, or a defensible second, 92% of the time.

Sub-areaPapersFirstSecondThird
Quantum algorithms and applications (incl. quantum machine learning, optimisation, chemistry)748USUnited States32.7%CNChina10.5%GBUnited Kingdom7.1%
Superconducting qubits233USUnited States49.9%CNChina18.3%CHSwitzerland3.9%
Quantum software, compilers, control and benchmarking181USUnited States39.7%DEGermany7.4%CHSwitzerland5.6%
Quantum error correction156USUnited States46.8%GBUnited Kingdom9.0%DEGermany6.5%
Spin and semiconductor qubits128NLNetherlands23.1%USUnited States17.5%AUAustralia11.6%
Photonic quantum computing87CNChina27.5%USUnited States14.7%DEGermany8.4%
Trapped-ion qubits66USUnited States47.6%ATAustria13.9%GBUnited Kingdom7.7%
Neutral-atom qubits45USUnited States62.8%FRFrance8.3%DEGermany6.6%
Topological and other qubit platforms28USUnited States33.7%CNChina14.2%GBUnited Kingdom13.8%

Share of each sub-area's papers in the top 10%. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

Earlier and recent

The same top 10%, split into 2021–2023 and 2024–2025.

FallingRising2021–20232024–2025Change
USUnited States 39.6%29.8%−9.8 pts
CNChina 9.9%12.6%+2.7 pts
DEGermany 5.7%6.4%+0.7 pts
GBUnited Kingdom 6.0%5.8%−0.3 pts
CHSwitzerland 3.6%3.8%+0.2 pts
JPJapan 3.8%2.9%−1.0 pts
CACanada 3.5%3.0%−0.5 pts
NLNetherlands 3.2%2.8%−0.4 pts

Share of the 10% most cited papers: 1,044 papers in 2021–2023, 970 in 2024–2025. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

2026 so far: a different count

Not the most cited papers: every 2026 paper matched so far (4,145), and a paper counts in full for each country on it. This year's papers are too new to rank by citations, so these shares cannot be compared with the ones above.

  1. USUnited States21.9%of 2026 papers have an author here
  2. CNChina21.1%of 2026 papers have an author here
  3. DEGermany9.3%of 2026 papers have an author here
  4. GBUnited Kingdom7.0%of 2026 papers have an author here
  5. INIndia6.8%of 2026 papers have an author here

With home citations removed

Home bias removed

Removes only the home citations above what the country's share of the field predicts. This is the fair test.

All citationsBias removedAll citationsBias removed
USUnited States 34.9%34.9%
CNChina 11.2%9.4%
DEGermany 6.0%6.2%
GBUnited Kingdom 5.9%6.3%
CHSwitzerland 3.7%3.8%
JPJapan 3.4%3.2%

Every home citation removed

Removes all citations from a paper's own countries. A country that writes most of a field loses most, whatever its habits.

All citationsForeign onlyAll citationsForeign only
USUnited States 34.9%29.8%
CNChina 11.2%7.7%
DEGermany 6.0%6.8%
GBUnited Kingdom 5.9%6.8%
CHSwitzerland 3.7%4.1%
JPJapan 3.4%3.5%

Share of the 10% most cited papers, 2021–2025; 2,014 papers in each version; both panels on the same scale. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

Who cites the top papers

How much more often a country's top papers are cited from home than its size predicts. Expected is the country's share of all papers in the field; the bar is the excess, in percentage points. Home citers include authors citing their own earlier work.

HomeExpectedExcess
USUnited States 42.5%25.5%+17.0
CNChina 47.9%22.0%+25.9
DEGermany 37.0%9.4%+27.6
GBUnited Kingdom 36.4%7.3%+29.1
CHSwitzerland 32.2%3.2%+29.0
JPJapan 42.5%6.6%+35.9
CACanada 36.3%4.6%+31.7
NLNetherlands 31.8%2.7%+29.1

Every paper in the top 10%, counted once per citing paper. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

Behind the share

Institutions with the most credit

  1. 1USGoogle (United States)Company2.6%
  2. 2USCalifornia Institute of Technology1.8%
  3. 3USLos Alamos National LaboratoryResearch facility1.6%
  4. 4USYale University1.5%
  5. 5USHarvard University1.5%
  6. 6USMassachusetts Institute of Technology1.4%
  7. 7USIBM Research - Thomas J. Watson Research CenterResearch facility1.2%
  8. 8USUniversity of California, Berkeley1.2%
  9. 9NLDelft University of Technology1.1%
  10. 10CHIBM Research - ZurichResearch facility1.1%

Share of the top 10%. Institutions across all 45 technologies

Who does the work

SectorAllUSCNDE
Universities61.3%
55.0%
71.6%
58.7%
Research facilities20.2%
21.6%
15.0%
33.8%
Companies13.8%
20.6%
9.7%
6.0%
Government labs2.7%
1.6%
3.8%
0.4%

Share of credit by type of institution, overall and for the three leading countries.

Across borders

43.1% of the top 10% have authors in more than one country.

  1. DEUSGermany with United States91
  2. CAUSCanada with United States86
  3. GBUSUnited Kingdom with United States71
  4. CHUSSwitzerland with United States66
  5. CNUSChina with United States53

Most frequent pairings, by number of shared papers.

The papers behind the numbers

The five most cited papers this definition catches. If one looks out of place, the definition needs work.

  1. Circuit quantum electrodynamics
    Reviews of Modern Physics, 2021AUCACHUS
    1,929citations
  2. Noisy intermediate-scale quantum algorithms
    Reviews of Modern Physics, 2022CAFRGBSGUS
    1,717citations
  3. 1,097citations
  4. 1,083citations
  5. 1,063citations

More in quantum

The most technologically advanced countries, and is China ahead of the US?

How this technology is defined

A paper counts if its title or abstract matches the search below. Articles in core journals and proceedings only; retracted papers are excluded.

"quantum computing" OR "quantum computer" OR "quantum computation" OR qubit OR "quantum algorithm" OR "quantum error correction" OR "quantum processor" OR "quantum annealing" OR "quantum circuit" OR "quantum simulator"

and its main topic in OpenAlex is one of: Quantum Computing Algorithms and Architecture; Quantum Information and Cryptography; Quantum and electron transport phenomena; Quantum many-body systems; Quantum Mechanics and Applications. The topic check removes papers that only mention the technology.

Papers matched, 2021–2025
20,129
In the top 10%
2,014
In the top 1%
204
Countries with credit
71
Credit with no known country
3.9%
Every one of the 2,614 most cited papers was checked for relevance; 233 were left out as not about quantum computing

The most cited of those left out:

  • Quantum repeaters: From quantum networks to the quantum internet557 citations
  • Quantum many-body scars and weak breaking of ergodicity530 citations
  • Transitioning organizations to post-quantum cryptography279 citations
  • Experimental quantum key distribution certified by Bell's theorem270 citations
  • Measurement-induced topological entanglement transitions in symmetric random quantum circuits236 citations
  • Entangling single atoms over 33 km telecom fibre234 citations
  • High-performance combinatorial optimization based on classical mechanics230 citations
  • Towards Real‐World Quantum Networks: A Review214 citations
  • Measurement and Entanglement Phase Transitions in All-To-All Quantum Circuits, on Quantum Trees, and in Landau-Ginsburg Theory213 citations
  • Measurement-protected quantum phases211 citations
  • A photonic integrated quantum secure communication system208 citations
  • Quantum Communication Using Semiconductor Quantum Dots208 citations

Definition version 0.5, pilot. It is a plain text file: copy it, change it, rerun it.

Read the method