R&D Statistics

Internal Research and Development (R&D) expenditure amounted to 23,931 millions of euros in 2024, representing an increase of 6.9% over the previous year. This expense accounted for 1.50% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The Business sector had the highest percentage of internal R&D expenditure, with 55.8% (0.84% of GDP). It was followed by the Higher Education sector, with 24.9% (0.37% of GDP).

In turn, internal R&D expenditure in the General Government sector accounted for 19.1% of domestic expenditure (0.29% of GDP). The remaining 0.3% was from the Non-Profit Private Institutions (NPI) sector.

R&D expenditure increased by 5.8% compared to the previous year in the Companies sector, 4.4% in Higher Education and 14.3% in General Government.

Internal R&D activities were mainly financed in 2024 by the Business sector (47.7% of the total) and the General Government (38.6%).

By implementing sectors, internal R&D expenditure in the General Government and Higher Education was mainly financed by the General Government. On the other hand, 80.0% of the funding of internal R&D expenditure in the Business sector came from the sector itself.

A total of 295,290 full-time equivalent (FTE) persons were engaged in internal R&D activities in 2024, representing 13.6 per thousand of the total employed population and an increase of 4.6% over the previous year.

Research staff totalled 184,382 full-time equivalent persons, which accounted for 8.5 per thousand of the total employed population, up 5.3% with respect to 2023.

41.4% of full-time equivalent in-house R&D personnel were women. The highest percentages of female participation were in General Government (54.9% of total employment) and in the SSPI (52.3%).

The autonomous communities with the highest growth rates in internal R&D spending in 2024 were Comunidad Foral de Navarra (39.5%) and the autonomous cities of Melilla (36.6%) and Ceuta (27.6%).

In contrast, internal R&D expenditure fell by 12.3% in Illes Balears, 6.6% in Castilla-La Mancha and 1.1% in Canarias.

The Autonomous Communities with the highest percentage of internal R&D expenditure over GDP in 2024 were Comunidad Foral de Navarra (2.34% of GDP), País Vasco (2.30%) and Comunidad de Madrid (2.18%).

On the other hand, the autonomous city of Ceuta (0.28% of GDP), Illes Balears (0.40%), and the autonomous city of Melilla (0.47%) recorded the lowest percentages.

Companies in the Services sector accounted for 54.4% of expenditure on business internal R&D in the year 2024, while those in Industry sector accounted for 44.0%.

The highlights by activity branch were R&D Services (with 19.1% of total spending), Programming, consulting and other IT activities (13.1%) and Motor vehicles (10.4%).

The main objective of the Statistics on scientific research and technological development (R&D) activities is to measure the economic and human resources devoted to research by all sectors of the economy (companies, general governments, higher education and non-profit private institutions) in order to:

• Provide a tool for the management, planning, decision-making and control of national science policy.
• Provide statistical authorities with the information they request, obtained according to international standards that allow comparability across countries.

Type of survey:

annual continuous survey.

Population scope:

companies, general government, universities and higher education centres and non-profit private institutions engaged in R&D activities.

Geographical scope:

the whole national territory.

Results reference period:

year preceding the year of data collection.

Information reference period:

for expenditure: calendar year; for personnel: annual average and full-time equivalent (people/year).

Sample size:

45,000 companies, 513 public administration centres (including public hospitals), 92 universities, 129 higher education centres and 167 private non-profit institutions.

Sample type:

exhaustive for directory units and random for companies that are not included.

Collection method:

mixed system with mailshots and interviewer participation.

More information on the methodology and the standardised methodological report.

INE statistics are produced in accordance with the Code of Good Practice for European Statistics. More information on Quality at INE and Code of Best Practices.