The annual report by the UN World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) shows that fast-growing economies have made progress on the list still dominated by wealthy Western countries led by Switzerland.
Compared with its neighbours, Croatia is outperformed by Slovenia (32nd) and Hungary (39th), but ahead of Romania (42nd), Montenegro (48th), Macedonia (61st) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (86th).
The world's five most innovative countries are Switzerland, which has topped the ranking since 2011, Sweden, the Netherlands, the United States and the United Kingdom. The United Arab Emirates, Vietnam and Kuwait are among the countries that have made the greatest progress since 2016.
"Switzerland is the gold medallist once again, and that's seven years running, so that's quite an outstanding performance," said Francis Gurry, head of the WIPO.
China moved up three spots and India climbed six places in the index covering the political environment, education, infrastructure and business climate. This year's survey also assessed innovation in agriculture and food production.