Business spending on research and development
Published:
11 September 2024
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Data on how much UK businesses spent on research and development between 2007 and 2018.
Summary main findings
From 2015 to 2018, spending on research and development by UK businesses went down from £31.7 billion to £28.5 billion.
Before that, spending had increased between 2009 and 2015, from £20.8 billion to £31.7 billion.
By year
Visualisation
Total business spending on research and development in billions of pounds (UK, 2007 to 2018)
Data
| Year | Business expenditure on R&D (£billions) |
|---|---|
| 2018 | 28.5 |
| 2017 | 29.0 |
| 2016 | 29.7 |
| 2015 | 31.7 |
| 2014 | 27.4 |
| 2013 | 23.6 |
| 2012 | 23.4 |
| 2011 | 22.8 |
| 2010 | 20.9 |
| 2009 | 20.8 |
| 2008 | 21.4 |
| 2007 | 26.7 |
Download
For the full download file, see Download the data.
By area
Visualisation
Business spending on research and development in millions of pounds per 100,000 people, by region (UK, 2018)
41 regions in the UK are ranked from the lowest to highest values. They are then divided into 5 equally-sized groups (‘quintiles’), from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest).
The regional estimates have a large margin of error – do not rank or compare specific regions. See the composite indices for more precise estimates and to understand overall regional patterns.
Data
| Region | Expenditure in millions of pounds per 100,000 people (£m) |
|---|---|
| Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire | 103.2 |
| Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire | 112.3 |
| Cheshire | 90.9 |
| Cornwall and Isles of Scilly | 5.4 |
| Cumbria | 36.5 |
| Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire | 66.8 |
| Devon | 14.7 |
| Dorset and Somerset | 20.9 |
| East Anglia | 120.3 |
| East Wales | 20.7 |
| East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire | 22.3 |
| Eastern Scotland | 44.5 |
| Essex | 42.3 |
| Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Bath/Bristol area | 58.5 |
| Greater Manchester | 15.0 |
| Hampshire and Isle of Wight | 45.6 |
| Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire | 135.3 |
| Highlands and Islands | 4.5 |
| Inner London - East | 24.3 |
| Inner London - West | 148.7 |
| Kent | 33.9 |
| Lancashire | 19.8 |
| Leicestershire, Rutland and Northamptonshire | 24.7 |
| Lincolnshire | 8.6 |
| Merseyside | 33.1 |
| North Eastern Scotland | 39.7 |
| North Yorkshire | 32.2 |
| Northern Ireland | 31.3 |
| Northumberland, and Tyne and Wear | 20.2 |
| Outer London - East and North East | 3.0 |
| Outer London - South | 4.5 |
| Outer London - West and North West | 47.4 |
| Shropshire and Staffordshire | 19.8 |
| South Yorkshire | 10.5 |
| Southern Scotland | 6.7 |
| Surrey, East and West Sussex | 46.4 |
| Tees Valley and Durham | 17.6 |
| West Central Scotland | 22.1 |
| West Midlands | 31.4 |
| West Wales and The Valleys | 12.8 |
| West Yorkshire | 18.3 |
Download
For the full download file, see Download the data.
About the data
Data source
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and Nesta (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) Research and Development spatial data tool, 2021
Time period
- 2007 to 2018 (By year)
- 2018 (By area)
Geographic area
UK
What the data measures
The data shows how much UK businesses spent on research and development between 2007 and 2018. It also shows spending for every 100,000 people in 41 regions of the UK.
Things you need to know
Nesta data includes regional scores but not a national average figure. To track changes over time, we add the figures for all UK areas.
Type of data
Administrative data
Full report
Read more in State of the Nation 2024 on GOV.UK.
Download the data
Download full dataset (CSV, 9KB)
This file contains the following variables:
- Indicator code
- Indicator name
- Area type
- Area name
- Time period
- Socio-economic background
- Sex
- Category type
- Category
- Value
- Unit
Page history
Publication release date:
11 September 2024