Spain has become the third country in the EU with the largest drop in public budget in R&D (research and development) during the last decade, only behind Romania and France, while those that have increased these government investments the most are Latvia, Greece and Poland.
This is clear from Eurostat data released this week. The Community Statistical Office considers government R&D budget allocations those of central, regional and local governments, and refers to budgetary provisions, not actual expenditures.
In 2020, total public budgets for R&D in the EU stood at around € 100,786 million , which is equivalent to 0.8% of GDP. This represents an average of 225.3 euros per person and 22% more compared to 2011 (184.6 euros per person).
If the evolution of the decade between 2011 and 2020 is taken into account, Spain ranks third from the bottom, with a decrease of 7.2%, from 155.4 euros per person at the beginning of the decade to 144.2 euros at the beginning of the decade. end of that period. There were only higher falls in Romania (-15.4%) and France (-9.0%). In contrast, the largest increases occurred in Latvia (190.2%), Greece (153.9%) and Poland (85.4%).
Spain started that decade in eleventh place in total terms, with 155.4 euros per person in the public budget for R&D, and ended it in thirteenth position (144.2 euros per capita).
On the contrary, Luxembourg has always led the ranking, reaching 648.1 euros per person in 2020, while Denmark has consolidated itself in second place all those years (519.2 euros per person in 2020).
Bulgaria was the EU country with the least government R&D budget per capita from 2011 (17.5 euros per person) to 2019 (22.1) and Romania closed the ranking in 2020, with 14.8 euros per person.
