The country invested €689 per capita in R&D in 2021. This is almost three times as much as the EU average and almost double the amount of The Netherlands.
Luxembourg was the runaway leader in research and development spending per capita, with €689 per inhabitant in 2021, a recent Eurostat report highlights. Denmark (€530) and Germany (€471) were second and third highest spenders.
The EU average stood at €244 per capita, a 33% increase over the decade, compared with €184 per capita in 2011. Last year, the total government budget allocations for R&D (GBARD) across the EU stood at €109,250 million, the equivalent to 0.8% of GDP.
“A 6% increase compared with 2020 (€102,791 million) and a 35% increase compared with 2011 (€81,139 million), the EU statistical body explains.
GBARD includes all spending allocations met from sources of government revenue foreseen within the budget, such as taxation. In 2021, Romania invested €19 euros per person, preceded by Bulgaria (€24.1), Latvia (€44.6) and Hungary (€59.8).Over the last decade, Luxembourg increased its R&D budget allocations from €208.8 million to €437.4 million, while the GDP percentage decreased from 1.42% to 1.13%.
From 2011 to 2021, Latvia almost tripled its total budget for R&D (from €29.6 million to €84.3 million). Greece more than doubled it (from €648.5 million to €1,623.4 million), followed by Malta (from €14.4 million to €35.3 million).
According to Eurostat, the government budget allocations for R&D go mainly to the general advancement of knowledge from university funds (35.9%) and from other sources (17,0%), followed by areas such as industrial production and technology (10.1%), health (7.8%) and exploration and exploitation of space (5.6%).
