An improving R&D environment and also human capital helped lift China's ranking to 39th and Russia's to 38th.
The IT Industry Competitiveness Index of 66 countries assesses and compares the quality of the local technology infrastructure, the availability and quality of IT talent, the innovation environment, the legal regime, the business environment, and government technology policies, the EIU said.
Following are the rankings of the top 16 countries and some selected IT industry hubs. Last year's ranking in brackets:
1 UNITED STATES (1)
2 FINLAND (13)
3 SWEDEN (4)
4 CANADA (6)
5 NETHERLANDS (10)
6 BRITAIN (3)
7 AUSTRALIA (7)
8 DENMARK (5)
9 SINGAPORE (9)
10 NORWAY (14)
11 IRELAND (15)
12 JAPAN (12)
13 ISRAEL (16)
14 SWITZERLAND (11)
15 TAIWAN (2)
16 SOUTH KOREA (8)
38 RUSSIA (49)
39 CHINA (50)
44 INDIA (48)