Company lists · Data refreshed September 2026
Top 25 Think tanks worldwide
RevenueBase identified 1,846 think tanks worldwide as of September 2026 and tracks 35,763 professional contacts across them, including 8,443 with verified work emails. The United States is the largest market and Washington the largest hub.
This list covers think tanks worldwide, matched on what each company actually does as described in its own words. Ranked by team size, largest first. Every row shows the company's own description, its RevenueBase Smart Search rating, and when it was last checked. Data refreshed September 22, 2026. Country and city lists for think tanks follow the table.
Published by RevenueBase, a B2B data infrastructure company. This list was built with RevenueBase Smart Search, the natural-language company search RevenueBase customers use to build their own targeted lists and unlock verified emails and direct dials at the companies on them. How these lists are built and judged.
The 25 largest think tanks worldwide
Ranked by team size| # | Company | Contacts | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2,660 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “RAND is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization that provides leaders with the information they need to make evidence-based decisions.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 2 | 937 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is a bipartisan, nonprofit policy research organization dedicated to advancing practical ideas to address the world’s…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 3 | 888 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “The Atlantic Council promotes constructive leadership and engagement in international affairs based on the central role of the Atlantic Community in meeting global challenges.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 4 | 867 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “The mission of Chatham House is to be a world-leading source of independent analysis, informed debate and influential ideas on how to build a prosperous and secure world for all.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 5 | 695 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “Founded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is a research and educational institution-a think tank-whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 6 | 313 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) is a unique institution, founded in 1831 by the Duke of Wellington, RUSI embodies nearly two centuries of forward thinking, free…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 7 | 311 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace generates strategic ideas and independent analysis, supports diplomacy, and trains the next generation of scholar-practitioners to…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 8 | 285 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “Set up in 1990, ORF seeks to lead and aid policy thinking towards building a strong and prosperous India in a fair and equitable world.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 9 | 243 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “The Stimson Center promotes international security and shared prosperity through applied research and independent analysis, global engagement, and policy innovation.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 10 | 237 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 11 | 227 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “Thailand’s most respected economic think-tank with 30 years of policy research experiences.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 12 | 222 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “Hudson Institute is a research-focused public policy think tank headquartered in Washington, DC, dedicated to promoting American leadership for a secure, free, and prosperous…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 13 | 222 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “RAND Europe is a not-for-profit research institute whose mission is to help improve policy and decision making through research and analysis.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 14 | 221 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “Founded in Brussels in 1983, the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) is among the most experienced and authoritative think tanks operating in the European Union today.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 15 | 215 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “The Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy is an independent think-tank doing legal research to make better laws and improve governance for the public good.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 16 | 207 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “CSTEP is one of India’s leading think tanks, with a mission to enrich policymaking with innovative approaches using science and technology for a sustainable, secure and inclusive…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 17 | 204 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “INSS (The Institute for National Security Studies) is an independent academic institute that studies key issues relating to Israel's national security and Middle East affairs.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 18 | 191 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) is an award-winning international think-tank that aims to conduct cutting-edge independent research on European foreign and…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 19 | 178 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “Ideas.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 20 | 174 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) is an independent, bipartisan, nonprofit organization that develops strong, pragmatic, and principled national security and defense…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 21 | 170 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “Capita is an independent think tank and community.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 22 | 165 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “CEPR is an independent, non‐partisan, pan‐European non‐profit organization.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 23 | 163 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “The Committee for Economic Development of Australia is an independent, membership-based think tank investigating the key economic and social issues shaping public policy.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 24 | 155 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “The Geostrata is an independent Indian think tank standing for a distinctly Indian take on world affairs.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 25 | 150 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “The Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, public policy institution headquartered in Washington, DC with hubs in London and Brussels, focused on…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
RevenueBase Smart Search
RevenueBase Smart Search assesses information from a company’s LinkedIn profile, information supplied directly by the company, its website, and other publicly available sources. It uses that information to rate how closely the company relates to this list’s category: think tanks. Every row carries its rating and the description the rating was read from, so each one can be checked rather than taken on trust.
- Strong evidence
- The company's own public description of its business names think tanks.
- Partial evidence
- Its own public description names part of think tanks, so it works in or next to the category without describing itself that way.
- Indirect evidence
- The description shown does not name think tanks. The match rests on the rest of the company's public profile rather than the one sentence quoted here, so this is the rating to check first.
RevenueBase Smart Search is how these lists are built: RevenueBase's data engine and AI assemble the companies that match a category defined in a user's own words, so a list can be about what companies actually do rather than about whichever industry code they were filed under.
Showing 25 of 1,846 think tanks worldwide
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Think tanks worldwide at a glance
As of Sep 22, 2026Companies by employee count
Email recency is reported on each country list linked below.
How this list was built
Company categories are rarely black and white. RevenueBase reads each company's own description of its business to decide whether it belongs among think tanks, so some rows will be adjacent to the category rather than pure plays. The description and RevenueBase Smart Search rating on every row are there so you can check each match yourself.
- Source
- The RevenueBase company graph: 60 million companies and 398.9 million professional contacts resolved from primary sources, queried with RevenueBase Smart Search, the natural-language company search available to every RevenueBase user.
- Coverage
- Every country. Country and city lists for think tanks are linked below.
- What qualifies
- Companies worldwide whose own description of what they do matches “think tanks”. Matching reads each company's description, not its industry code or its name.
- RevenueBase Smart Search
- RevenueBase Smart Search is how this list is assembled and how each row is rated. RevenueBase's data engine and AI assess a company's LinkedIn profile, information supplied directly by the company, its website and other publicly available information, then relate it to a category defined in a user's own words. Each row is rated strong evidence (its own description names think tanks), partial evidence (it names part of the category) or indirect evidence (the description shown names none of it and the match rests on the rest of the company's profile). The description supporting each rating is quoted on the row.
- What we exclude
- Companies whose own description does not clearly place them among think tanks, and records with no verified work email.
- Match quality
- In blind human judging of this matching method, 86% of matched companies were on target. Expect roughly 1 in 7 rows to be adjacent to the category rather than a pure play. Every row shows the company's own description and its RevenueBase Smart Search rating so you can judge each match yourself. Read the full methodology: how the lists are built, how the judging worked, and what the figure means.
- Ranking
- Team size, largest first: companies are ordered by the number of professionals RevenueBase tracks at each one. Employee ranges shown are reported bands, for context.
- Verification
- Every listed company carries at least one verified work email, 8,443 across the full list. Contacts re-verify on a rolling cadence, and each contact's own verification date is shown inside RevenueBase.
- Refresh
- This page's figures were pulled from the company graph on September 22, 2026. Lists refresh periodically as the graph is re-checked.
- Corrections
- Wrong category, wrong headquarters, or a company that has closed? Use “Report an issue” on any row. Reports go to the RevenueBase Data Team and feed back into the company graph.
Think tanks by location
11 lists · largest firstEvery Think tanks list RevenueBase publishes, by country and city. Counts are matching companies in each list as of its own refresh date.
Countries
- Think tanks based in the United States271
- Think tanks based in India145
- Think tanks based in the United Kingdom102
- Think tanks based in France88
- Think tanks based in Germany56
- Think tanks based in Italy47
- Think tanks based in the Netherlands37
- Think tanks based in Australia34
- Think tanks based in Belgium32
- Think tanks based in Brazil29
- Think tanks based in Canada28
Frequently asked
What is RevenueBase Smart Search?
RevenueBase Smart Search is how RevenueBase decides which companies belong on this list and how strongly each one fits. Its data engine and AI assess a company's LinkedIn profile, information supplied directly by the company, its website and other publicly available information, then relate it to the category the list is about. Each row is rated strong evidence when the company's own description names think tanks, partial evidence when it names part of the category, and indirect evidence when the description shown names none of it and the match rests on the rest of the company's profile.
How many think tanks are there worldwide?
RevenueBase identified 1,846 think tanks worldwide as of September 2026, matched on each company's own description of what it does rather than its industry code.
What is the largest company on this list?
RAND, headquartered in Santa Monica, tops this list with the largest team on record.
Which country has the most think tanks?
The United States leads with 271 companies, followed by India (145) and the United Kingdom (102). Every think tanks list by country and city is linked on this page.
Which city has the most think tanks?
Washington leads with 77 headquartered companies, followed by London (63) and New Delhi (60).
How do I get contact information for these companies?
A free RevenueBase account lets you run this exact search and work the top results, verified emails and direct dials included. Upgrading unlocks all 8,443 verified decision-maker contacts tracked across these 1,846 companies.
How current is this list?
The list refreshes periodically as the company graph is re-checked. This page's figures were pulled on September 22, 2026.
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About this data
RevenueBase is a B2B data infrastructure company. Its company graph covers 60 million companies and 398.9 million professional contacts, with emails verified on a rolling cadence rather than scraped once and left to decay. These company lists are generated directly from that graph with RevenueBase Smart Search, the same natural-language company search every RevenueBase user has: describe a market in plain words, get the companies that match, and add verified emails and direct dials for the people at them. It is the same data that powers RevenueBase's B2B data products, and a free account includes 500 credits to start. How these lists are built and judged.