Gross domestic expenditure on R&D by sector 2016

Eurostat’s analysis of R&D expenditure by source of funds shows that more than half (55.3 %) of total expenditure within the EU-28 in 2015 was provided by business, while almost one third (31.3 %) was funded by governments, and a further 10.8 % stemmed from foreign funds. Throughout this period, the bulk of R&D expenditure was in the business enterprise sector, with the sector’s R&D spending rising from 1.12 % of GDP in 2006 to 1.32 % by 2016. The second largest sector was higher education. Member States with relatively high ratios of business enterprise expenditure were Sweden (2.26 %), Austria (2.20 %) and Germany (2.00 %). In South Korea, R&D business enterprise expenditure reached 3.28 %, in Japan it was 2.58 %, in Switzerland 2.40 % and in the United States 1.99 % (see Graph 2).