Research and Development expenditure reached 2.3% of GDP in 2020

According to the European Statistical Office, EU Member States invested €311 billion in research and development last year.

The European Statistical Office Eurostat has published statistics on research and development expenditure in the EU for 2020. In 2020, the Member States of the EU spent around €311 billion on research & development (R&D), which means a decrease of €1 billion compared with 2019.

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 2020, followed by the higher education sector (22%), the government sector (12%) and the private non-profit sector (1%).

In 2020, the highest R&D intensity was recorded in Belgium and Sweden (3.5% of GDP), followed by Austria (3.2%) and Germany (3.1%). At the opposite end of the scale, six Member States recorded a R&D intensity below 1% of GDP: Romania (0.5%), Malta and Latvia (both 0.7%), Cyprus, Bulgaria and Slovakia (all 0.9%).

The Czech Republic belongs among the countries which R&D intensity has been steadily increasing over the last ten years – from 0.7% to 2% GDP in 2020.

More details can be found on the Eurostat website.