Jobs, value added and patents related to circular economy sectors(% of total employment and % of GDP, 2017; patents per million inhabitants, 2016)

The scatter-plot below presents three indicators used to monitor progress towards a circular economy on the ‘competitiveness and innovation’ dimension. The x axis represents the value added as % of GDP, while the y axis shows the employment as % of total employment. The size of the bubbles represents the number of technology patents related to recycling and secondary raw materials (per million inhabitants). The added value of circular economy accounts for 0.96 % of GDP (€126 billion); it employs almost 4 million people representing 1.72 % of the total employment. There are 270 patents in the EU, three quarters of which are distributed between five Member States (DE, ES, FR, NL and PL). Five countries report no patents (BG, CY, LT, PT and SI). No data are available for CZ, DK, EE, IE, LU and MT. The chart below shows the number of patents for selected economies worldwide.