Statistics: Spanish Innovation

Failing grades. Let's look at four interesting indicators from the OECD and EuroStat:

Domestic expenditure on R&D (2006, % of total) financed by industry [pdf]:

• Spain: 46.3%
• EU-27: 54.1%
• OECD average: 64.7% (that's an increase of 40% over Spain's figure).
  

Venture capital investments, early stage (% of GDP, 2006):

• Spain: 0.027%
• EU-15: 0.053% (almost double!)
• UK: 0.224% (more than eightfold!!)

High tech exports (% of all exports, 2006):

• Spain: 4.72%
• EU-27: 16.67% (four times more)
• USA: 26%13% (almost six times more)

Patent applications to the European Patent Office (2004):

• Spain: 28,554
• Denmark: 200,445
• Luxembourg: 235,806
• Netherlands: 243,342
  

The next time you're told about the great situation of R&D&i in Spain, keep these figures in mind.