The EU's R&D Gap Is a Private Sector Gap
Silver Data Lab Research Desk · Statistical analysis · Published on 21 March 2026
- Data source
- Eurostat
- Reference period
- 2024
- Last updated
- 21 March 2026
Key estimates
- The EU spent 2.2% of GDP on research and development in 2024, against the 3% target it has set itself.
- Six Member States reach 3% or more: Sweden at 3.6%, Belgium 3.4%, Austria 3.3%, Finland 3.2%, Germany 3.1% and Denmark 3.0%.
- Romania and Malta spend 0.5% — a seventh of Sweden's share.
- Business enterprise research accounts for 1.5 points of the EU's 2.2%, and for 2.3 of the 3.1 point gap between Sweden and Romania.
- Three quarters of the distance between the Union's research leaders and its laggards is therefore private, not public.
A target set in 2002 and still not met
The European Union has committed to spending 3% of GDP on research and development for more than two decades. In 2024 it spent 2.2%.
The shortfall is a familiar headline. What the same dataset shows, and what the headline omits, is where the shortfall comes from — because research spending is not one thing, and the Member States that reach the target do not reach it the same way as those that miss it fall short.
Who reaches 3%
Six Member States are at or above the target. Sweden leads at 3.6%, followed by Belgium at 3.4%, Austria at 3.3%, Finland at 3.2%, Germany at 3.1% and Denmark at 3.0%.
Below them the drop is steady rather than sharp: the Netherlands at 2.3%, France and Slovenia at 2.2%, Estonia at 2.0%, Czechia at 1.8%.
At the bottom, Romania and Malta spend 0.5% of GDP on research, Cyprus 0.7% and Bulgaria 0.8%. Sweden spends seven times the share Romania does.
Where the gap actually sits
Research is performed by four sectors: business, government, higher education and private non-profit. Separating business research from the total changes what the ranking is about.
Business enterprise research accounts for 1.5 percentage points of the EU's 2.2%, or roughly two thirds of the total.
Between Sweden at the top and Romania at the bottom, the total gap is 3.1 percentage points. The business research gap between the same two countries is 2.3 points — Sweden 2.6%, Romania 0.3%. Three quarters of the distance between the Union's strongest and weakest research economies is private sector research.
The same pattern holds across the leading group. Every Member State above the 3% target has business research of 1.9% of GDP or more. No Member State reaches 3% on public and academic research alone, and none comes close to trying.
What that implies about the target
The 3% target is usually discussed as a public spending commitment, and public budgets are the instrument governments control directly. The composition of the gap suggests the target is not principally a public spending question.
A Member State could double its government research budget and, in most cases, still miss the target. Reaching it requires firms that do research, which is a matter of industrial structure — what a country's companies make, and whether the sectors they operate in are research-intensive — rather than of appropriations.
This study establishes the composition. It does not establish how a country acquires research-intensive firms, which is a question the data cannot answer.
Research and development spending, all sectors, 2024
| Country | % of GDP | Gap to EU averagepercentage points, derived |
|---|---|---|
| Sweden | 3.6 | +1.4 |
| Belgium | 3.4 | +1.2 |
| Austria | 3.3 | +1.1 |
| European Unionaggregate | 2.2 | — |
| Cyprus | 0.7 | −1.5 |
| Malta | 0.5 | −1.7 |
| Romania | 0.5 | −1.7 |
Research performed by business, 2024
| Country | % of GDP | Gap to EU averagepercentage points, derived |
|---|---|---|
| Sweden | 2.6 | +1.1 |
| Belgium | 2.4 | +0.9 |
| Austria | 2.2 | +0.7 |
| European Unionaggregate | 1.5 | — |
| Cyprus | 0.3 | −1.2 |
| Latvia | 0.3 | −1.2 |
| Romania | 0.3 | −1.2 |
What these figures cannot tell you
- R&D intensity is a ratio, and GDP is the denominator
- A country's research intensity can rise because research spending grew or because GDP fell. Comparisons between Member States are also comparisons of economic size and structure, not only of research effort.
- Where research is performed, not who funds it
- The sector breakdown used here is by sector of performance: it records where the research is carried out. Government funding of research performed by universities or firms appears in the performing sector, so the business figure is not the same as privately funded research.
- Multinational research can be attributed unevenly
- Research performed by multinational firms is recorded where the activity takes place, which may differ from where the resulting intellectual property is held or the value is booked. In small economies with large foreign-owned research operations, the ratio can be sensitive to a handful of firms.
- The 3% target is a Union-level commitment
- The target applies to the EU as a whole, and Member States have their own national targets which differ from it. Treating 3% as a per-country benchmark, as this study does for comparison, is a simplification of the policy framework.
Frequently asked questions
- How much does the EU spend on research and development?
- 2.2% of GDP in 2024, against a target of 3% that the Union has held for more than two decades. Business enterprises performed 1.5 points of that 2.2%.
- Which EU country spends the most on research?
- Sweden, at 3.6% of GDP in 2024, ahead of Belgium at 3.4% and Austria at 3.3%. Six Member States are at or above the 3% target: those three plus Finland, Germany and Denmark.
- Which EU country spends the least on research?
- Romania and Malta, both at 0.5% of GDP in 2024, followed by Cyprus at 0.7% and Bulgaria at 0.8%. Sweden spends seven times the share Romania does.
- Is the EU research gap a public spending problem?
- Mostly not. Business research accounts for about three quarters of the distance between the Union's strongest and weakest research economies, and every Member State above the 3% target has business research of at least 1.9% of GDP. No country reaches the target on public and academic research alone.
Methodological note
Gross domestic expenditure on research and development is published by Eurostat as a percentage of GDP, broken down by sector of performance. This study uses the total across all sectors and, separately, the business enterprise sector.
Values are for 2024, the most recent year with complete coverage of the 27 Member States at the extraction date.
The share of the Sweden-Romania gap attributable to business research, the count of Member States at or above 3%, and the observation that every Member State above the target has business research of at least 1.9% of GDP are derived by Silver Data Lab from the two published series.
Source data
The underlying series can be inspected and re-downloaded from the Eurostat data browser. The filters below are the ones applied.
GERD by sector of performance
rd_e_gerdtot
- Filters applied:
- freq=A · sectperf=TOTAL, BES · unit=PC_GDP · time=2024
- Extracted:
- 2026-08-11
- Source last updated:
- 2026-03-18
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