New R&D Expenditure Data published by Eurostat

On 27 November 2020, Eurostat published the new R&D expenditure data in the EU for the year 2019. Research & Development (R&D) is a major driver of innovation, and R&D expenditure and intensity are two of the key indicators used to monitor resources devoted to science and technology worldwide.

The EU’s R&D intensity - i.e. R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP - stood at 2.20% in 2019. In 2019, the EU Member States spent over €307 billion on R&D. This is an increase of 4.3% compared to 2018. The 2.20% figure compares with a 1.97% ten years earlier (in 2009).

The business enterprise sector continues to be the main sector in which R&D expenditure was spent, accounting for 66% of total R&D disbursed in 2019, followed by the higher education sector (22%), the government sector (11%) and the private non-profit sector (1%).

In 2019, the highest R&D intensity was recorded in Sweden (3.39%), followed by Austria (3.19%) and Germany (3.17%), all with R&D expenditure above 3% of GDP. In 2019, only Germany and Cyprus have reached their own 2020 R&D Intensity target. Denmark, which has performed above the 3% target between 2015 and 2018, in 2019 recorded a value of 2.96%, failing to reach its 2020 target. At the opposite end of the scale,Cyprus (0.63%), Malta (0.61%) and Romania (0.48%)  recorded the lowest R&D intensities.

In comparison with 2018, R&D intensity increased in 17 Member States, with the highest increases in Belgium (+ 0.22 percentage points), Estonia (+ 0.20 pp) and Croatia (+0.14 pp). In contrast, it decreased in 5 Member States and remained stable in 5 Member States.

It is important to note, that 2019 data on R&D expenditure are preliminary and might therefore be revised and these figures do not reflect yet the COVID-19 crisis.

More information.