R&D expenditure in Europe - First preliminary data: EU-25 R&D expenditure as a share of GDP stable at 1.9% in 2004 - Issue number 6/2006 - Products Statistics in Focus

In 2004, 1.90 % of the GDP was spent on R&D expenditure in the EU-25. The highest R&D intensities, above the 2010 target of 3 % set at the Lisbon summit, were observed in Sweden (3.74 %), Finland (3.51 %) and Iceland (3.01 %). In 2004, nearly EUR 200 billions were spent on R&D expenditure in the EU-25 compared to EUR 250 billions in the United States, EUR 120 billions in Japan and EUR 16 billion in China The business sector was the major source of financing of R&D with 54 % of funding for R&D ahead of the government sector with 35 %. The definitions of R&D statistics are given in the Frascati Manual, which is the methodological reference for surveys on research and experimental development (R&D). The main aggregate used for the international comparison is Gross domestic expenditure on R&D (GERD). i.e. total intramural expenditure on R&D performed within a country and funded from abroad.