The UK has been named the most entrepreneurial country in Europe and comes fourth overall in the 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Index. Here are some of the best innovations invented in Britain

It’s official – the UK is the most entrepreneurial country in Europe, according to a new report that measures startup progress in the world.

Britain ranks above Germany and France, and comes fourth globally in the 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEI), which profiles entrepreneurial ecosystems.

This year’s ranking is the UK’s highest position in the history of the index – now in its fifth edition – and has been improving steadily over the past three years. In 2012 the UK ranked 14th and in 2013 it ranked ninth.



The index measures the entrepreneurial ecosystems of 130 countries, from Albania to Zambia, looking at entrepreneurial attitudes, aspirations and activity.

The four top-performing entrepreneurial countries are English-speaking, and are followed by Scandinavian countries. Taiwan is in eighth place and Singapore makes it into the top 10 for the first time.



Global entrepreneurship index 2015 Photograph: Global entrepreneurship index 2015

The world is at 52% of its entrepreneurial capacity, according to the report, compiled by researchers from the London School of Economics, George Mason University, University of Pécs and Imperial College London Business School.



Competition, the opportunity to start a business, and human capital are the key areas of entrepreneurial strength in the UK. Nearly 500,000 new businesses have been created in 2014 according to StartUp Britain, the online company tracker site. Yet, the nation’s innovators still have some catching up to do in terms of their ambition and aspiration for startups, according to the GEI.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Global entrepreneurship index 2015 Photograph: Global entrepreneurship index 2015

Here are some of the top innovations that Britain has given the world through the ages.

Dyson vacuum cleaner

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Inventor James Dyson with one of his vacuum cleaners. Photograph: Linda Nylind/Guardian

James Dyson, the inventor of the bagless cyclone vacuum cleaner, developed 5,127 prototype designs between 1979 and 1984. He opened his research centre and factory in Wiltshire in 1993, and his DC01 model became the biggest selling vacuum cleaner in the UK within 18 months.

Walkers crisps



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Walkers crisps. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

After the second world war, Harry Walker began hand-slicing and frying potatoes and founded his snack company in 1948 in Leicester, England. Now, squeaky-clean Leicester-born former footballer Gary Lineker is the face of the company.

Wedgwood pottery

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A woman holds a Wedgwood teacup featuring the white and blue ceramic synonymous with the brand. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

Josiah Wedgwood’s factory of highly durable pottery was set up in 1759. Wedgwood’s cream-coloured earthenware was fit for Georgian royalty and was christened “Queen’s ware” after Queen Charlotte appointed him as her potter in 1762, and the distinctive white and blue ceramic jasperware has become synomymous with the brand. It has continued as a luxury brand and employs 3,800 people around the world.

Cat’s eyes

Halifax-born Percy Shaw patented in 1934 the light-reflecting road markers which look like cat’s eyes in the dark, helping drivers all over the world ever since.

ATM

Scottish inventor John Adrian Shepherd-Barron, who was born in British India, came up with the genius concept of a self-service machine that would dispense money with 24/7 availability. The first machine was established in June 1967 outside an Enfield, north London, branch of Barclays bank. Plastic cards had not been invented so the cash machine was fed with cheques and paid out one £10 note at a time. And we’ve never looked back since.

The Cambridge Satchel Company

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A Cambridge satchel. Photograph: The Guardian

In 2008 Julie Dean was looking for a timeless schoolbag for her children and so hand-made a leather satchel. Dean started the company with her mum at her side at the kitchen table with a £600 budget, sold the satchels online on eBay, won multiple awards, and has now opened a store in Covent Garden in London.

Television



Scottish innovator John Logie Baird invented the world’s first mechanical television. The heart of the system ran on a large spinning disk and in 1925, the public in Selfridges department store in Oxford Street, London, was treated to the sight of ‘shadowgraphs’ – silhouette outline images. By October he was able to produce recognisable images with shades of grey. Later, he developed a system of colour television and this formed the basis of the technique used by Nasa to bring live colour TV pictures from the moon.



Thermos flask

The thermos flask, one of the most quintessentially British items embraced by commuters and picnickers across the nation, was first invented by Scottish scientist James Dewar. He invented the vacuum flask in 1892, which acted as a storage vessel insulating content – either keeping it hot or cold – and actually consists of two flasks.



The chocolate bar



In 1756 Joseph Fry began to sell chocolate and in 1847 Fry’s company mixed together cocoa powder, extracted cocoa butter and sugar, put it into a mould and is credited with making the first solid chocolate, suitable for widespread consumption. JS Fry & Sons began producing the Fry’s Chocolate Cream bar in 1866 and over 220 products were introduced in the following decades, including production of its first chocolate Easter egg in UK in 1873.

The world wide web

The father of the internet, Tim Berners-Lee, did not patent his idea and made it freely available without royalties. So although he hasn’t made billions from his idea, his invention changed the world and his altruism allowed many other online startups to prosper.