Archive:High-tech statistics
- Data from February 2015. Most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database.
This article analyses data on high-technology or 'high-tech' sectors in the European Union (EU) and in some EFTA and candidate countries. In the global race for competitiveness, it is essential to create, exploit and commercialise new technologies. High-tech sectors and enterprises are key drivers of economic growth, productivity, and generally provide high value added and well-paid employment.
High-tech is defined in Eurostat's statistics using three different approaches:
- the sector approach looks at the high-tech manufacturing sector, the medium high-tech manufacturing sector, and the high-tech knowledge-intensive service sector, focusing on employment and economic indicators;
- the product approach considers whether a product is high-tech or not and examines trade in high-tech products;
- the patent approach distinguishes high-tech patents from others and also defines biotechnology patents.
Source: Eurostat (htec_emp_nat2)
Source: Eurostat (htec_trd_group4)
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Source: Eurostat (htec_emp_reg2)
Main statistical findings
Economic statistics on high-tech
In 2012, the European Union had almost 46 000 enterprises in high-tech manufacturing (Table 1). Four countries, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy and the Czech Republic, together account for around 53 % of the high-tech sector in the EU-28. The United Kingdom has the most enterprises in the high-tech knowledge-intensive services sector (156 511), followed by France and Italy.
An interesting picture emerges when we look at turnover and value added in high-tech manufacturing: Germany led in 2012, with totals more than twice as high as in the countries with comparable numbers of high-tech manufacturers. Germany's turnover came to EUR 113 billion in high-tech manufacturing, ahead of France (EUR 70 billion) and Italy (EUR 47 billion). The value added in 2012 was distributed in a similar way, with the highest contribution (Germany) being close to EUR 39 billion, followed by France and the United Kingdom (EUR 20 billion and EUR 18 billion, respectively). Turnover figures were higher for the high-tech KIS sector than for high-tech manufacturing in all the countries for which data are available, except the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary and Slovakia. Knowledge-intensive services generated a production value at least three times higher than high-tech manufacturing in the United Kingdom, Portugal, Lithuania, Croatia, Spain, Romania and the Netherlands.
Employment in high-tech
In 2013, almost 34 million people were employed in the manufacturing sector in the EU-28, representing 15.5 % of total employment. Out of these 34 million workers, 2.4 million were employed in high-tech manufacturing, corresponding to 1.1 % of total employment. There were more than twice as many jobs in the high-tech KIS sector in 2013 than in high-tech manufacturing, and this accounted for 2.8 % of total employment.
The share in total employment of both manufacturing and services in the high-technology sectors varied considerably from one country to another in 2013. High-tech manufacturing ranged from 0.3 % in Turkey and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, to 2.5% in Switzerland and Hungary, 2.6% in Malta and 3.0 % in Ireland. Discrepancies in terms of the proportion of high-tech KIS in total employment were also observed across countries. In 2013, the largest shares, of more than 4 %, were recorded in Sweden, Ireland, Finland and Iceland, and the lowest, of below 2 %, in Turkey, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Romania (see Table 2).
At EU-28 level, over the 2008–13 period, the average annual growth rate (AAGR) for employed persons in high-tech sectors was negative. The number of employed persons in the manufacturing sector decreased by roughly 2.4% a year. During the same period, high-tech manufacturing recorded a slower fall of 1.5 % a year (on average). This decrease in employment can be partially explained by the economic crisis that hit Europe in 2010. The impact of the crisis was also observed in the services sector, which recorded only slight growth of 0.4 % a year from 2008 to 2013. At the same time, high-tech KIS showed some resilience to the crisis and recorded a rise in the number of jobs of 1.1 % on average per year from 2008 to 2013. Some important differences emerge when comparing the employment change among countries, with significant growth on the one hand and equally significant decline on the other. Out of 31 observed countries, 21 registered a fall in employment in high-tech manufacturing in the 2008–13 period, with the biggest fall of 29.3 % recorded in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, followed by falls of 8.8 % in the Netherlands and 8.0 % in Finland. Growth in high-tech manufacturing was observed in Romania (6.8 %), Turkey (6.4 %), Malta (4.6 %), the Czech Republic (3.3 %), and Germany (1.8 %). The loss in high-tech KIS was much more moderate. Only five countries registered a decline, with the biggest job losses reported in the Netherlands (-2.5 %) and Cyprus (-2.3 %). The best performing countries in terms of the growth of employment in high-tech KIS were Turkey (13.4 %), the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (5.4 %), Estonia and Luxembourg (both 5.2 %).
In 2013, in the EU-28, women accounted for 29.6 % of employment in manufacturing, and this share reached 38.0 % in high-tech manufacturing. However, in 2013, even if in general there were more women in high-tech manufacturing than in manufacturing, only five countries reported more than 50% of women among those employed in high-tech manufacturing: Portugal, Estonia, Bulgaria, Poland and the Czech Republic.
In contrast, the high-tech KIS sector, compared with the total services sector, showed lower numbers of women in all countries, with an EU-28 average of 30.7 % in high-tech KIS and 54.3 % in services in 2013. Moreover, no country reported a gender balance in high-tech KIS in 2013: the lowest shares were recorded in the Netherlands (21.6 %), the Czech Republic (22.6 %) and Slovakia (24.1 %), and the highest in Romania (39.3 %), Lithuania (40.0 %) and Bulgaria (41.3 %). As regards the specific economic activities included in the aggregate: computer programming, scientific research and development, telecommunication, and corresponding occupations seem still to be more alluring to males than females.
Trade in high-tech products
Trade in high-tech products refers to the import and export of products identified as being of high-technology. These high-tech products are divided into nine groups: ‘Aerospace’, ‘Armament’, ‘Chemistry’, ‘Computers - office machines’, ‘Electrical machinery’, ‘Electronics - telecommunications’, ‘Non-electrical machinery’, ‘Pharmacy’, ‘Scientific instruments’. At EU-28 level, high-tech products represented 15.3 % of the value of all exports in 2013. Two groups of products, ‘Electronics – telecommunications’ and ‘Aerospace’, accounted together for 46.6 % of high-tech exports worldwide (Figure 1). ‘Scientific instruments’, ‘Computers – office machines’ and ‘Pharmacy’ jointly represented two fifths of global high-tech exports. In contrast, ‘Chemistry, ‘Non-electrical machinery’, ‘Electrical machinery’ and ‘Armament’ totalled a mere 12.3 % of high-tech exports.
In terms of the total value of exports within the EU-28, Germany was the leading exporter of high-tech products in 2013, followed by the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom and Belgium. All these countries, except the United Kingdom, recorded a surplus in high-tech trade.
In 2013, half of the observed countries recorded an increase in high-tech exports compared with 2012.
High-tech employment at regional level
At EU-28 level, in 2013, high-tech sectors (high-tech manufacturing and high-tech KIS) represented 3.9 % of total employment, with two thirds of persons occupied in high-tech KIS and one third in high-tech manufacturing. Figure 2 shows the regional discrepancies in high-tech sectors (by NACE Rev. 2) as a share of total employment. This figure combines the national average for each country as well as the regions with the lowest and highest shares of employment in high-tech sectors.
The national averages and regional highest and lowest shares vary significantly from country to country.
With regard to national averages, 15 out of 33 observed countries registered values higher than the EU-28 average (3.9 %), with rates of more than 5.0 % in Ireland, Malta, Finland, Switzerland, Denmark and Hungary. On the other hand, the lowest national shares of high-tech sectors in total employment (below 2.5 %) were registered in Greece, Portugal, Romania, Lithuania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey. It must be noted that six EU-28 countries (Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Malta) plus Iceland are classified only at country level, taking into account the regional data presented in Figure 2.
At regional level, high shares of employment in high-tech sectors are often observed in capital regions or regions situated close to capitals. The region of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire (United Kingdom), situated in close proximity to London, stands out with 10.9 % of its labour force in high-tech sectors, followed by Comunidad de Madrid (ES) with 9.6 %, Hovedstaden (DK) with 9.4 % and Praha (CZ) with 9.1 %. In contrast, the lowest shares of less than 1 % were registered in Aydin, Denizli, Mugla (TR), Sud-Vest Oltenia (RO) and Thessalia (EL). Turkey, Romania, Spain, Greece, Italy and the United Kingdom show the biggest regional discrepancies when assessed by the ratio of the highest share to the lowest share. The smallest discrepancies in employment between regions are observed in Ireland, Slovenia, Croatia and Switzerland.
Data sources and availability
High-tech statistics are derived from various other domains and sources of Eurostat's official statistics (CIS, COMEXT, HRST, LFS, SBS, PATSTAT and R&D). Coverage and availability are therefore dependent on these primary sources.
The sectoral approach is an aggregation of manufacturing industries according to technological intensity (R&D expenditure/value added) and it is based on the Statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community (NACE) at 2-digit level for compiling aggregates related to high-technology, medium high-technology, medium low-technology and low-technology. Services are mainly aggregated into knowledge-intensive services (KIS) and less knowledge-intensive services (LKIS) based on the share of tertiary educated persons at NACE 2-digit level.
Note that, due to the revision of the NACE from NACE Rev. 1.1 to NACE Rev. 2, the definition of high-technology industries and knowledge-intensive services changed in 2008. For high-tech statistics, it means that two different definitions (one according to NACE Rev. 1.1 and one according to NACE Rev. 2) are used in parallel and the data according to both NACE versions are presented in separate tables depending on data availability.
The product approach was created to complement the sectoral approach. The product list is based on the calculations of R&D intensity by groups of products (R&D expenditure/total sales). The groups classified as high-technology products are aggregated on the basis of the Standard international trade classification (SITC). The product approach is used for data on high-tech trade.
Due to the revision of SITC from SITC Rev. 3 to SITC Rev. 4, the definition of high-tech products also changed in 2011. The data in this article conform to SITC Rev. 4.
Context
In the context of economic globalisation, technology is a key factor in enhancing growth and competitiveness in business. High-tech industries are expanding most strongly in international trade and their dynamism helps to improve performance in other sectors. Investment in research, development, innovation and skills constitutes a key policy area for the EU as it is essential to economic growth and to the development of a knowledge-based economy.
Research, development, science and technology have been acknowledged throughout the years since 2000 as factors of growing competitiveness, better and well-paid jobs, greater social cohesion and a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy. There is a need to measure progress and achievements in relation to the goals identified for the first time in the Lisbon strategy and re-defined in the Europe 2020 strategy.
The production and development of statistics on science and technology are governed by Decision 1608/2003/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 July 2003. This document highlights the need for comparable data on research and development, technological innovation, and science and technology. The aim is to create an information system on science, technology and innovation that can support and monitor the various EU policies implemented in this respect.
In 2004, the Commission adopted Regulation (EC) No 753/2004 related to the above Decision, setting out a framework for the standards, definitions and classifications used in the production of statistics on science and technology.
In the lights of developments in the area of statistics on science and technology, as well as requests for new and more detailed and frequent statistics, new implementing measures were laid down in 2012, through Regulation (EU) No 995/2012.
The framework related to statistics on high-technology industries and knowledge-based services consists principally in exploiting existing national and international data sources more effectively (also within the European statistical system). This work also comprises the identification and classification of activities and products, the measurement of economic performance of these activities and their contribution to performance of the economy as a whole.
Launched in 2010, the Europe 2020 strategy sets out a vision of Europe's social market economy for the 21st century underpinned by three mutually reinforcing priorities:
- Smart growth: developing an economy based on knowledge and innovation;
- Sustainable growth: promoting a more resource-efficient, greener and more competitive economy;
- Inclusive growth: fostering a high-employment economy, delivering social and geographical cohesion.
The European Commission is further boosting the Europe 2020 strategy with seven flagship initiatives. One of these is the ‘Innovation Union’, supporting ‘smart growth’. The Innovation Union initiative aims to improve the framework for research and innovation in the EU. Over 30 actions points were published on 6 October 2010. For example, the Innovation Union prioritises a gender balance in research careers in the European Research Area. It recommends that Member States take gender and dual career considerations fully into account in their national R&D strategies.
Moreover, a Commission Communication published in October 2010 - 'Regional Policy contributing to smart growth in Europe 2020' - shows how EU regional funding is crucial to achieving growth, by targeting investment in innovation in all regions. A key element of this is to encourage national and regional governments to design 'smart specialisation strategies' to help regions identify their best assets. Concentrating resources on a limited number of priorities will ensure more effective use of public funds and help to raise levels of private investment.
Following a request from the European Council, the Commission furthermore adopted on 13 September 2013 its Communication on ̒'Measuring innovation output: towards a new indicator̕ . This indicator measures the extent to which ideas from innovative sectors are able to reach the market, providing better jobs and making Europe more competitive. It supports the benchmarking of national innovation policies and shows significant differences between EU countries. This indicator makes use of several of Eurostat’s STI statistics and concepts.
The strategy for Europe 2020 includes trade opening initiatives for ̒sectors of the future̕ and high-tech products and services are considered as such.
See also
- High-technology versus low-technology manufacturing
- Innovation statistics
- Patent statistics
- R & D expenditure
- R & D personnel
- Innovation and information society statistics introduced
Further Eurostat information
Publications
- Science, technology and innovation in Europe - Pocketbook, 2013 edition
Main tables
- Science and technology, see:
- High-tech industry and knowledge-intensive services (t_htec)
Database
- Science and technology, see:
- High-tech industry and knowledge-intensive services (htec)
- High-tech industries and knowledge-intensive services: economic statistics at national level (htec_eco)
- High-tech industries and knowledge-intensive services: employment statistics at national and regional level (htec_emp)
- Knowledge Intensive Activities (htec_kia)
- High-tech industries and knowledge-intensive services: science and technology statistics at national and regional level (htec_sti)
Dedicated section
Methodology / Metadata
- High-tech industry and knowledge-intensive services (ESMS metadata file — htec_esms)
Other information
- Decision 1608/2003 of 22 July 2003 concerning the production and development of Community statistics on science and technology (Legal text)
- Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 995/2012 of 26 October 2012 laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Decision No 1608/2003/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the production and development of Community statistics on science and technology (Legal text)