According to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics office, the EU spent €381.4 billion on research & development (R&D) in 2023, which is 6.7% more than in the previous year (€357.4 billion), and 57.9% more than in 2013 (€241.5 billion).
R&D intensity, defined as R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP, remained stable compared with 2022 (2.2%). Between 2013 and 2023, R&D intensity in the EU increased by 0.1 percentage points (pp). Between 2013 and 2023, R&D intensity increased in 19 EU countries, with the largest increases recorded in Belgium (1.0 pp), Poland (0.7 pp) and Greece (0.7 pp). In 2023, 5 EU countries registered an R&D intensity above 3%. The highest R&D intensity was recorded in Sweden (3.6%), Belgium and Austria (3.3% each). Germany and Finland followed with 3.1% each.
By contrast, 5 EU countries reported R&D intensity below 1%: Romania (0.5%), Malta (0.6%), Cyprus (0.7%), Bulgaria and Latvia (both 0.8%).
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20241211-2