In 2024, the total government budget allocations for R&D (GBARD) across the EU stood at an estimated €127 916 million, equivalent to 0.71% of GDP. This indicates a 3.4% increase compared with 2023 (€123 675 million) and a 59.5% increase compared with 2014 (€80 175 million).
This information comes from data on government budget allocations for R&D (GBARD) published by Eurostat today. The article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article.
In 2024, government budget allocations for R&D at the EU level stood at €284.7 per person, a 57.0% increase compared with 2014 (€181.3 per person).
The highest allocations among EU countries were recorded in Luxembourg (€759.2 per person), followed at some distance by Denmark (€586.8) and the Netherlands (€542.7). On the other hand, the lowest R&D budget allocations per person were in Romania (€19.1 per person), Bulgaria (€38.3) and Hungary (€58.7). It should be noted as well that changes in GBARD per capita may reflect population changes of the countries.
Source dataset: gba_nabsfin07
Between 2014 and 2024, all EU governments increased their budget allocations for R&D in terms of € per person. The largest percentage increases were recorded in Latvia (+313%, from €19.1 per person in 2014 to €78.9 in 2024), Slovenia (+252%, from €78.3 to €275) and Lithuania (+197% from €42.7 to €123).
More than a third of R&D budget goes to general university funds
In terms of distribution by socioeconomic objectives, 35.7% of the GBARD was directed to the general advancement of knowledge, primarily financed by a public block grant known as public general university funds (GUF), used by public higher education institutions to support their activities. Additionally, 16.6% of the GBARD was dedicated to the general advancement of knowledge from sources other than GUF, 9.4% to industrial production and technology, 7.0% to health, and 6.1% to exploration and exploitation of space.
Source dataset: gba_nabsfin07