Eurostat News Release: First estimates of Research & Development in 2013 – R&D expenditure just over 2% of GDP in the EU28 in 2013 – Almost two thirds performed in the business sector, 18 Νοεμβρίου.
In 2013, the EU28 Member States spent almost €275 billion on Research & Development (R&D). The R&D intensity, i.e. R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP, stood at 2.02% in the EU28 in 2013, compared with 1.76% in 2004. This level remained however lower in the EU28 than in other major economies. R&D intensity was much higher in South Korea (4.04% in 2011) and Japan(3.38% in 2011) as well as, to a lesser extent, in the United States (2.81% in 2012), while in both China (1.98% in 2012) and Russia (1.11%) the R&D intensity was below that of the EU28. In order to provide a stimulus to the EU’s competitiveness, an increase of the R&D intensity in the EU28 is one of the five headline targets of the Europe 2020 strategy.
The business enterprise sector continued to be the main sector in which R&D expenditure was performed accounting for 64% of total R&D conducted in 2013, followed by the higher education sector (23%), the government sector (12%) and the private non-profit sector (1%).
This information is published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.