Nordic countries spend more resources on R&D than other West European countries, and the majority is spend by businesses; 2006 Nordic Statistical Yearbook.

Nordic countries spend more resources on R&D than other West European countries, 2006 Nordic Statistical Yearbook.While the R&D expenses in the Euro-12 zone have constituted an unchanged proportion of GDP since the mid-1990s, the Nordic countries’ R&D expenses have typically increased, also if calculated as percentage of GDP.

Today, the 12 countries in the Euro-zone (Euro-12) spend 1.9 per cent of their gross domestic product
(GDP) on research and development, while Denmark spend 2.6 per cent, Iceland 3.0 per cent, Finland 3.5 per cent and Sweden 3.7 per cent. Only Norway is below the Euro-12 average with 1.6 per cent of GDP. On the other hand, Norway’s GDP is extraordinarily high due to the country’s oil and gas revenue and, if the Norwegian
R&D expenses are calculated as euro per person, they are higher than the R&D expenses per person in Euro-12.

The major part of R&D expenses is paid by private business, from 55 per cent of all R&D expenses in Norway to 74 per cent in Sweden. The rest of the R&D activities take place at universities and other institutions of higher education as well as in other public institutions.

A look at central government expenses for R&D reveals that most of the research typically takes place at the universities – from 33 per cent of R&D expenses in Iceland to 45 per cent in Denmark. Finland is the exception. Here, the universities account for “only” 26 per cent of R&D expenses, while an equally large proportion of R&D funds are spent on the development of industrial production and techniques. In Sweden, 20 per cent of central government R&D funds are spent in the field of defence. In Norway, the corresponding figure is 6-7 per cent, while the remaining Nordic countries spend a negligible proportion of their R&D funds on the development of systems of defence and weaponry. 20 per cent of Iceland’s central government R&D expenses are allocated to technology connected to agricultural production and fishing

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24 pages of basic data on socio-economic conditions and cultural affairs in the entire Nordic region.