6 February 2002
Inquiries: Mr Tero Luhtala+358 9 1734 3327, Mr Vesa
Hämäläinen +358 9 1734 2594, tiede.teknologia@stat.fi
Director in charge: Ms Kaija Hovi
Research and development expenditure 3.4 per cent of GDP in 2000
In 2000, EUR 4.4 billion (FIM 26.3 billion) was spent on research and development in Finland. The expenditure rose in real terms by over 10 per cent from the year before. The growth of R&D expenditure continued through 2001, when it is estimated to be EUR 5.0 billion. The data derive from Statistics Finland's publication Tutkimus- ja kehittämistoiminta 2000 (Research and Development in Finland in 2000, published in Finnish only).
The GDP share of R&D expenditure rose to 3.4 per cent in 2000. This share has been growing steadily, and went up particularly rapidly in the latter part of the 1990s. In 2001, the GDP share is estimated to reach 3.6 per cent.
The volume of Finland's R&D expenditure is fairly small when compared to those of larger OECD countries. Finland accounts for about 0.7 per cent of the total R&D expenditure of the OECD countries. However, the GDP share of R&D expenditure is the second highest in Finland among all OECD countries. Since the early 1990s, Sweden has had the highest GDP share, which was 3.8 per cent in 1999. The shares have also been large in Japan, the United States, South Korea and Germany.
Growth in R&D spending by business enterprises boosted by electronics industry
R&D spending by business enterprises amounted to EUR 3.1 billion in 2000. In real terms, business enterprises' R&D expenditure went up by 15 per cent from 1999. Business enterprises' proportion of all R&D expenditure has been rising clearly over the past decade: in 1991 it was 57 per cent and in 2000 as high as 71 per cent. The brisk growth seems set to continue, for business enterprises estimate that their R&D expenditure will reach EUR 3.6 billion in 2001.
In the electronics industry, R&D spending in 2000 amounted to good EUR 1.7 billion, which is clearly more than one half of all the R&D expenditure of business enterprises. R&D expenditure in the electronics sector rose in real terms by 18 per cent from 1999. The growth recorded in the chemical industry was 12 per cent, while in the metal and mechanical industry R&D expenditure remained unchanged.
Since the early 1990s, the growth of R&D expenditure in the business enterprise sector has occurred almost exclusively in business enterprises in the electronics industry. In real terms, R&D spending in the electronics industry was almost six-fold in 2000 compared to 1991, whereas in other manufacturing the increase was 1.3-fold and in industries other than manufacturing three-fold.
R&D expenditure in the university sector, i.e. universities, university central hospitals and polytechnics, totalled EUR 800 million in 2000 and that of the rest of the public sector EUR 500 million. In real terms, the university sector's R&D spending remained unchanged from 1999. However, the R&D expenditure of polytechnics alone grew by close on 12 per cent over the year. The growth in the rest of the public sector amounted to less than 3 per cent.
Today, close on 70 per cent of Finland's R&D expenditure is produced in the sub-regional units of Helsinki, Tampere and Oulu. The sub-regional unit of Helsinki alone accounted for 44 per cent of the whole country's R&D expenditure in 2000. The share of the sub-regional unit of Tampere went up to 14 per cent. Research and development is also strongly concentrated in the sub-regional units of Oulu (11%), Turku (6%), Salo (4%) and Jyväskylä (4%).
Only minor increase in the number of R&D personnel
A total of 68,800 employees were working in research and development in Finland in 2000. The number of R&D personnel increased by less than 3 per cent from the year before. Women accounted for one third of all R&D personnel. The proportion of women was clearly larger in the public sector (47%) and in the university sector (43%) than in the business enterprises (21%).
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R&D expenditure (at current prices) in 1991 - 2000 and GDP share of R&D expenditure and estimate for 2001 |
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|
Business enterprises |
Public sector* |
University sector** |
Total |
GDP share of R&D expenditure*** |
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|
Year |
€ million |
% |
€ million |
% |
€ million |
% |
€ million |
% |
|
1991 |
975.1 |
57.0 |
357.5 |
20.9 |
378.0 |
22.1 |
1,710.6 |
2.04 |
|
1993 |
1,048.5 |
58.4 |
379.7 |
21.1 |
367.5 |
20.5 |
1,795.8 |
2.17 |
|
1995 |
1,373.4 |
63.2 |
374.4 |
17.2 |
424.6 |
19.6 |
2,172.4 |
2.30 |
|
1997 |
1,916.7 |
66.0 |
408.6 |
14.1 |
579.5 |
20.0 |
2,904.9 |
2.72 |
|
1998 |
2,252.8 |
67.2 |
443.8 |
13.2 |
657.9 |
19.6 |
3,354.5 |
2.89 |
|
1999 |
2,643.9 |
68.2 |
470.1 |
12.1 |
764.8 |
19.7 |
3,878.8 |
3.19 |
|
2000 |
3,135.9 |
70.9 |
497.4 |
11.2 |
789.3 |
17.8 |
4,422.6 |
3.37 |
|
2001 |
3,615.6 |
72.9 |
515.3 |
10.4 |
829.0 |
16.7 |
4,960.0 |
3.59 |
|
* Incl. private non-profit sector. ** Incl. university hospitals since 1997 and polytechnics since 1999. *** Preliminary data in 1999 and 2000, the GDP data for 2001 are based on the Ministry of Finance's forecast. |
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Sources: Tutkimus- ja kehittämistoiminta 2000
(Research and Development in Finland 2000). Statistics
Finland.
More information available on the Internet at:
http://www.stat.fi/tk/yr/tttiede_en.html