Top 2% Scientists edition timeline 2020–2026: country insights from ABS Nexora
Seven edition years on ABS Nexora show the United States rising from 59,725 to 73,459 listed scholars while China climbed from 12,757 to 35,681 — with charts for USA, China, UK, and Germany.
What does the 2020–2026 Top 2% edition timeline show by country?
Direct answer: ABS Nexora’s single-year countries_by_year series covers edition years 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026. Over that span the United States moved from 59,725 to 73,459 listed scholars, China from 12,757 to 35,681, the United Kingdom from 13,795 to 18,269, and Germany from 8,174 to 10,933.
The Directory’s public meta currently lists years 2020–2026, about 500,279 listed scholars, and a researcher universe near 636,000 profiles.
Year-by-year counts for four major systems
| Year | United States | China | United Kingdom | Germany |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 59,725 | 12,757 | 13,795 | 8,174 |
| 2021 | 66,137 | 16,236 | 15,823 | 9,428 |
| 2022 | 68,351 | 18,799 | 16,421 | 9,951 |
| 2023 | 69,137 | 22,786 | 16,770 | 10,083 |
| 2024 | 71,238 | 26,269 | 17,526 | 10,412 |
| 2025 | 72,868 | 30,564 | 18,102 | 10,659 |
| 2026 | 73,459 | 35,681 | 18,269 | 10,933 |
Career vs single-year at the end of the timeline
Country leadership also depends on listing mode at the current edge of the data:
- Single-year leaders: USA 73,459, China 35,681, UK 18,269
- Career leaders: USA 90,855, UK 21,340, China 14,382, Germany 12,806
Read more: How to read country counts.
What else sits beside the timeline?
- 170 countries and 28,510 institutions in the latest single-year dashboard totals
- 20 main fields / 174 subfields
- Largest field: Clinical Medicine 75,951 (see field strengths)
- Fast growers: Rising countries 2020–2026
How to explore editions on ABS Nexora
- Open the Directory homepage and pick an edition year.
- Toggle Single year / Career.
- Use Analytics for countries, institutions, and fields.
- Verify individuals via search and profile certificates when available.
FAQ
Which edition years does ABS Nexora cover? 2020 through 2026 (seven display years in the current Directory meta and analytics caches).
How many Top 2% scientists are listed overall? About 500,279 listed scholars in Directory meta; the 2026 single-year analytics payload totals about 247,376 researchers for that selected year.
Who led every year from 2020 to 2026? The United States remained the largest national cohort in the tracked countries_by_year series each year.
When did China pass the UK? In this timeline, China (16,236) moved ahead of the UK (15,823) by 2021 and widened the gap through 2026 (35,681 vs 18,269).
Where is the live chart data? ABS Nexora Analytics dashboard → country trends / countries_by_year for listing single_year.