20 December 2002
Inquiries: Mr Tero Luhtala+358 9 1734 3327, Mr Vesa
Hämäläinen +358 9 1734 2594, tiede.eknologia@stat.fi
Director in charge: Ms Kaija Hovi
Growth in research and development expenditure levelled off last year
In 2001, EUR 4.6 billion in all was spent on research and development in Finland. The expenditure grew in real terms by approximately 1.5 per cent from the year before. Twelve months earlier the rate of growth exceeded 10 per cent. The GDP share of R&D expenditure stayed at 3.4 per cent in 2001, like in the previous year. This means that the period of rapid growth that had prevailed since the early 1990s has now ended. The data derive from Statistics Finland's statistics on research and development activity in Finland in 2001.
Finland accounts for only 0.7 per cent of the total R&D expenditure of the OECD countries. Although the volume of Finland's R&D expenditure is fairly small when compared to larger countries, her GDP share of R&D expenditure is, nevertheless, the second highest among the OECD countries. Since the early 1990s, Sweden has had the highest GDP share, 3.8 per cent in 1999. The shares have also been large in Japan, the United States and South Korea.
Electronics industry reduced its investments in R&D
R&D spending by business enterprises amounted to close on EUR 3.3 billion in 2001. In real terms, the growth in business enterprises' R&D expenditure amounted to 1.7 per cent, having still been 15 per cent in the year before. Business enterprises' proportion of all R&D expenditure was of the same magnitude as in the previous year, i.e. 71 per cent. As late as in 1993, their proportion was under 60 per cent. Slight growth in the expenditure seems set to continue in 2002, when business enterprises estimate that their R&D expenditure will reach EUR 3.4 billion.
In the electronics industry, R&D spending contracted by EUR 24 million during 2001 and amounted to EUR 1.7 billion. In real terms, the reduction was 4 per cent and the industry's share of all R&D expenditure of business enterprises fell from 55 per cent to barely 52 per cent. At the same time, the share of all manufacturing industries of the enterprise sector's R&D expenditure fell by 2 percentage points to 79 per cent. The negative development in the total R&D spending of all manufacturing industries was mainly held back by increased investments by the metal and mechanical industry and chemical industry.
Very rapid growth of R&D was recorded in the computer and related activities industry in 2001. Its R&D expenditure went up by 49 per cent and at the same time its share of the total R&D spending of business enterprises rose from 4 per cent to 6 per cent. The industry of transport, storage and communication also reached a growth rate of 20 per cent in real terms.
Despite the downturn in its R&D activities, in real terms the electronics industry's R&D spending was still four-fold in 2001 when compared to 1993, thanks to the rapid growth that continued throughout the 1990s. In other manufacturing the increase was 1.5-fold at the most. In industries other than manufacturing the growth was 3.5-fold.
Largest relative change in the university sector's R&D expenditure
R&D expenditure in the university sector totalled EUR 830 million in 2001 and in real terms the growth over the year was 2.6 per cent. Within the sector, the R&D spending of polytechnics continued to grow rapidly, and the increase from 2000 amounted to 34 per cent, whereas the development in respect of universities and central university hospitals was more moderate. The total R&D expenditure of the public sector exceeded EUR 500 million, but fell by good 2 per cent from the year 2000.
Minor increase in the number of person-years spent on research
The number of person-years (FTE) spent on research rose by 800 from the previous year and totalled 53,400. The growth from 2000 amounted to 1.6 per cent. The number went up in both the business enterprise and the university sectors, but remained almost unchanged in the public sector. Enterprises accounted for 56 per cent and universities for 29 per cent of the person-years. The proportions remained practically unchanged from 2000.
R&D expenditure (at current prices) in 1993 - 2001 and GDP share of R&D expenditure
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| Business enterprises | Public sector* | University sector** | Total | GDP share of R&D expenditure*** | ||||
| Year | € million | % | € million | % | € million | % | € million | % |
| 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 | 3,284.0 | 71.1 | 500.9 | 10.8 | 834.1 | 18.1 | 4,619.0 | 3.40 |
| * Incl. private
non-profit sector. ** Incl. university hospitals since 1997 and polytechnics since 1999. *** Preliminary data for 2000 and 2001. |
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Sources: Tutkimus- ja kehittämistoiminta 2001
(Research and Development in Finland 2001). Statistics
Finland.
Further information available on the Internet at: http://www.stat.fi/tk/yr/tttiede_en.html