Archive:SDG 9 - Industry, innovation and infrastructure (statistical annex)
Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation (statistical annex)
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This article provides an overview of statistical data on SDG 8 ‘decent work and economic growth’ in the European Union (EU). It is based on the set of EU SDG indicators for monitoring of progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in an EU context.
This article is part of a set of statistical articles, which are based on the Eurostat publication ’ Sustainable development in the European Union — Monitoring report on progress towards the SDGs in an EU context (2017 edition)’. This report is the first edition of Eurostat’s future series of monitoring reports on sustainable development, which provide a quantitative assessment of progress of the EU towards the SDGs in an EU context.
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Gross domestic expenditure on R&D
Expenditure on R&D as a share of GDP has increased only slightly since 2000, with the most growth occurring between 2007 and 2009. At the current pace of progress, the 3 % R&D intensity target is unlikely to be met.
Gross domestic expenditure on research and development (R&D) reflects the extent of R&D undertaken in a country in terms of the resources used. Data on R&D intensity are expressed as a percentage of GDP. Expenditure on R&D is important for maintaining a competitive advantage over other world leaders concerning high-quality science and innovative products.
Figure 1 shows a prolonged stagnation of R&D intensity between 2000 and 2007. By 2009, at the onset of the economic crisis, R&D intensity had increased to 1.93%. One of the reasons for the increase between 2007 and 2009 was that GDP was falling more rapidly than overall R&D expenditure. Since 2011, R&D expenditures have continued to grow slowly, stabilising at around 2.03% for the years 2013 to 2015.
At the global level, the EU significantly lags behind other leading players such as the United States (2.73% in 2013), Japan (3.59% in 2014) and South Korea (4.29% in 2014) in terms of R&D intensity, with only the best Member States surpassing the United States (1).
R&D activities in the EU are carried out by four main institutional sectors: business enterprise, government, higher education and private nonprofit. The business sector is the largest source of R&D investment, accounting for almost two-thirds of total R&D expenditure since 2000. The slight increase in R&D intensity since 2010 has been mainly driven by growing business R&D expenditures, while R&D intensity in the other sectors has stagnated.
R&D intensity shows a rather mixed picture across Member States, ranging from 0.46 % to 3.26 % in 2015. The large range in R&D investment can be explained to a large extent by structural factors such as the varying shares of R&D-intensive sectors in the Member States. Moreover, countries whose R&D efforts rely predominantly on the public sector tend to have low R&D to GDP ratios. The strongest growth rates of R&D intensities between 2000 and 2015 were reported from economies in central and eastern Europe with generally low R&D spending, such as Estonia, Bulgaria or Malta.
Employment in high- and medium-high technology manufacturing sectors and knowledge-intensive service sectors
The EU has experienced a slight but continuous increase in employment levels in high- and medium-high technology manufacturing and in knowledge-intensive sectors since 2011.
Manufacturing industries are grouped into hightechnology and medium-high technology sectors based on their R&D intensity levels. An activity is classified as knowledge intensive if more than 33 % of the employees working in it are tertiary educated (5). Climate change mitigation and the transition to a green and low-carbon economy requires significant innovation and creates new scientific and technical occupations in key manufacturing and energy sectors.
The share of employed people working either in high- and medium-high technology manufacturing or in knowledge-intensive service sectors increased slightly from 42.9 % in 2008 to 45.8% in 2016. However, this aggregated figure masks different trends in the respective manufacturing and service sectors. Employment in high- and medium-high technology manufacturing sectors has stagnated at below 6 % of total employment since 2008. One reason for this includes the share of the EU workforce working in technology-intense industries such as pharmaceuticals, electronic and optical products or machinery stagnating at a low level since 2008. This is due to an increasing demand for manufactured goods in OECD countries that is being met by workers in emerging countries. Since the onset of the economic crisis, both large and small firms have shed jobs, particularly in manufacturing. Broad deindustrialisation across OECD countries has been accompanied by waves of industrialisation in non-OECD countries (6). The EU tends to specialise in medium-high technology manufacturing sectors (for example, automobiles and parts), while its share of high-tech manufacturing (for example, ICT, pharmaceuticals, and biotech) is lower than that of the US and much lower than South Korea (7).
In contrast, the share of employment in knowledge-intensive services has increased slightly since 2008, reaching 40 % of total employment in 2016. However, a growing share of employment in knowledge-intensive sectors does not necessarily indicate a shift towards a more knowledge-based economy. It could also be a result of total employment decreasing faster than employment in knowledge-intensive sectors (8).
In 2016, women made up 54.5 % of total employment in technology and knowledge-intensive sectors in the EU. In all countries, more women were employed in technology and knowledge-intensive sectors than men.
Industrial activities continue to account for the largest share (68 %) of EU exports as well as research and innovation. They also provide a range of high-skilled jobs. In 2016, the manufacturing sector’s gross value added accounted for 14.4 % of the EU’s GDP.
Across the EU, employment shares in high- and medium-high technology manufacturing and knowledge-intensive service sectors in 2016 ranged from 27.8 % to 57.6 %. The employment shares also varied considerably when considering just the high- and medium-high technology manufacturing sectors. The highest shares were observed in the Czech Republic (11.5 %), Slovakia (10.8 %) and Germany (9.8 %). In terms of people employed in knowledge-intensive service sectors, Sweden and Luxembourg recorded the highest shares, accounting for 53.2 % and 51.5 % of total employment, respectively.
R&D personnel
The share of R&D personnel in the EU labour force has increased steadily since 2002.
R&D personnel include employees in the four institutional sectors: business enterprise, government, higher education and private nonprofit. Data are presented in full-time equivalents as a share of the economically active population (the ‘labour force’).
At the EU level, R&D personnel accounted for 1.2 % of the active population in 2015, translating into more than 2.8 million full-time equivalent positions. The business sector employed more than a half of all R&D personnel (54.4 %). The increase in the share of R&D personnel among the labour force between 2002 and 2015 was supported by growth in three of the four institutional sectors. However, growth rates varied between the sectors. It was strongest for the business enterprise sector, growing by 0.17 percentage points from 2002 to 2015, followed by the higher education sector, which grew by 0.08 percentage points.
Variation in the share of R&D personnel in labour forces across Member States largely follow the patterns observed for R&D intensity (see Figure 9.2). Luxembourg is an exception, with a below-average R&D intensity of only 1.3 % of GDP but with the second highest share of R&D personnel (2.0 %) in 2015.
Patent applications to the European Patent Office (EPO)
EU patent applications have increased considerably since 1999, reaching a peak in 2007. Since then, however, patent applications have fallen by 3 %.
Patents are legal instruments that encourage companies to foster innovations by conferring some exclusive rights to inventors or assigners in return for the disclosure of an innovation. Thus, patents provide a valuable measure of the exploitation of research results and of inventiveness of countries, regions and companies.
Between 1999 and 2007, total patent applications in the EU increased almost continuously until the global economic and financial crisis started to emerge in 2008. This was the first reduction in patent applications in over a decade. According to literature, a company’s propensity to file patents is influenced by three factors, namely R&D efforts, strategic considerations and the competitive environment (9).
One fifth of patent applications in 2012 were from the performing operations and transporting sector (20.4 %), followed by electricity (17.6 %) and human necessities (16.0 %).
Patent applications to the EPO varied considerably across the EU, ranging from 3.4 to 350.4 patents per million inhabitants in 2014. It is interesting to note that the countries with the highest R&D to GDP ratios (see Figure 9.2) also had the highest numbers of per capita patent applications.
The share of collective transport modes in total passenger land transport has moderately fallen since 2000. However, a slight increase is visible since 2009.
In this online publication, collective transport modes refer to buses, including coaches and trolley-buses, and trains. Data are shown as a share in total inland passenger transport performance, expressed in passenger-kilometres (pkm). All data should be based on movements within national territories, regardless of a vehicle’s nationality. However, the data collection methodology is voluntary and not fully harmonised at the EU level. Other collective transport modes, such as tram and metro systems, are also not included due to the lack of harmonised data.
The shares of different transport modes in total passenger land transport have not changed substantially since 2000, with passenger cars still accounting for more than 80 % of the EU’s modal split in land passenger transport.
Passenger transport by train has grown slightly but steadily, increasing from 7.2 % of total transport in 2000 to 7.7 % in 2015. In contrast, the share of passenger transport by buses and coaches has shown a heavy fall, from 10.4 % to 9.2 %, contributing to the reduction in the modal split of collective transport modes from 17.6 % in 2000 to 16.9 % in 2015.
The modal split of passenger transport shows little variation across Member States. In 2015, road transport shares ranged between 68 % and 90 % of total inland passenger-kilometres across EU countries. Major shifts in the modal split can only be observed in the long run since 2000. The largest increases in road transport shares were recorded in the youngest Member States, partly reflecting their economic growth and the increase in personal income.
The modal split of rail and inland waterways activities in total inland freight transport has slightly fallen since 2000. However, they have regained shares since 2009.
This indicator shows the share of rail and inland waterways in total inland freight transport, expressed in tonne-kilometres (tkm). Road transport is based on all movements of vehicles registered in the reporting country. Rail and inland waterways transport is generally based on movements on national territory, regardless of the nationality of the vehicle or vessel, but there are some variations in definitions from country to country.
Similar to the modal split of passenger transport, the choice of transport mode for inland freight transport has not changed substantially since 2001. Road transport continues to have by far the largest share of EU freight transport performance among the three inland transport modes (75.8 % in 2015). Despite the EU policy objectives of shifting freight from road to rail, the share of road transport has grown since 2001. Over the period from 2001 to 2015, the share of inland waterways fluctuated between 5.7 % and 6.7 %, reaching 6.3 % in 2015. At the same time, rail activity fell from 18.8 % in 2001 to 17.9 % in 2015. After dropping to 16.6 % in 2009, it recovered and has remained stable at around 18.0 % since 2011.
Compared with passenger transport, the modal split of freight transport shows more variation across Member States. In three countries (Latvia, Austria and Switzerland) freight transport by rail and inland waterways had an almost equal or even larger modal split than road. Since the early 1990s Switzerland has pursued a consistent, long-term transport policy which has enabled the expansion and modernisation of the railway infrastructure. No other European country has more railway tracks per square kilometre (11).
Both Austria and Switzerland have imposed strict road transport policies, including higher taxes and charges schemes, together with the implementation of incentives for rail transport, with the intention to increase rail traffic share (12). Statistics for rail transport are not available for Malta and Cyprus because they do not have railways.
Countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 2007 have recorded the largest increases in the share of road transport in total inland freight tonnekilometre. One reason for this is that the extension and integration of the common market is interlinked with transport demand. Road transport is the easiest to interconnect and cheaper than other modes (13).
See also
Further Eurostat information
Database
- Socioeconomic Development
Dedicated section
Methodology
More detailed information on EU SDG indicators for monitoring of progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as indicator relevance, definitions, methodological notes, background and potential linkages, can be found on page xx-xx of the publication ’ Sustainable development in the European Union — Monitoring report on progress towards the SDGs in an EU context (2017 edition)’.
Notes
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