From an innovation perspective, collaboration between the different actors in a national innovation system (NIS) is imperative. Our concern is whether the Triple Helix idea of collaboration between universities, industry and government as conditional for innovation capacities is possible to estimate on the basis of data. The present paper therefore uses the Global Innovation Index 2013 and the Global Competitiveness Index 2013 for that purpose. The included variables relate to the characteristics of universities, industries, government and innovation. Using these data for 128 countries, this paper suggests a model that demonstrates, by the use of linear regressions, that there are significant statistical effects of university, industry and governmental variables on University-Industry-Government collaboration (UIG). Likewise, results indicate effects of the UIG collaboration on the capacity of innovation. Our results thus confirm most, but no all, implications of the Triple Helix hypothesis in national innovation systems. Copyright: The Authors, 2015. All Rights Reserved.