Final data on research and experimental development in Iceland in 2017 have been released. The total expenditures amounted to 55 billion ISK and 2.1% of GDP. Eurostat has released preliminary figures for the 28 countries of the European Union as well as Norway and Iceland. In those figures, Iceland has the seventh highest total expenditures, as percentage of GDP. The EU average is 2.07%. The highest expenditures are in Sweden, 3.4% of GDP. The total expenditures in Norway are similar to Iceland, with 2.09% of GDP, according to Eurostat’s figures. Statistics Iceland’s revision of previously released figures involves a minor adjustment to expenditures and a revision of the GDP for 2017.
| R&D expenditures as percentage of GDP in Europe 2017 | |||||
| Higher | Private | ||||
| All sectors | Enterprises | Goverment | education | nonprofit | |
| Sweden | 3.40 | 2.42 | 0.12 | 0.85 | 0.00 |
| Austria | 3.16 | 2.22 | 0.22 | 0.70 | 0.02 |
| Denmark | 3.05 | 1.97 | 0.09 | 0.98 | 0.01 |
| Germany | 3.02 | 2.09 | 0.41 | 0.52 | … |
| Finland | 2.76 | 1.80 | 0.24 | 0.70 | 0.02 |
| Belgium | 2.58 | 1.76 | 0.29 | 0.54 | … |
| Iceland | 2.10 | 1.35 | 0.09 | 0.66 | … |
| Norway | 2.09 | 1.10 | 0.29 | 0.71 | … |
| European Union | 2.07 | 1.36 | 0.23 | 0.46 | … |
| Netherlands | 1.99 | 1.17 | 0.23 | 0.59 | … |
| Slovenia | 1.86 | 1.39 | 0.26 | 0.21 | 0.01 |
| Czechia | 1.79 | 1.13 | 0.31 | 0.35 | 0.01 |
| United Kingdom | 1.66 | 1.12 | 0.11 | 0.39 | 0.04 |
| Italy | 1.35 | 0.83 | 0.17 | 0.33 | 0.02 |
| Hungary | 1.35 | 0.99 | 0.17 | 0.18 | … |
| Portugal | 1.33 | 0.67 | 0.07 | 0.57 | 0.02 |
| Estonia | 1.29 | 0.61 | 0.15 | 0.51 | 0.02 |
| Luxembourg | 1.26 | 0.68 | 0.33 | 0.25 | … |
| Spain | 1.20 | 0.66 | 0.21 | 0.33 | 0.00 |
| Greece | 1.13 | 0.55 | 0.25 | 0.32 | 0.01 |
| Ireland | 1.05 | 0.74 | 0.05 | 0.26 | … |
| Poland | 1.03 | 0.67 | 0.02 | 0.34 | 0.00 |
| Lithuania | 0.89 | 0.32 | 0.25 | 0.32 | … |
| Slovakia | 0.88 | 0.48 | 0.18 | 0.22 | 0.00 |
| Croatia | 0.86 | 0.42 | 0.19 | 0.25 | … |
| Bulgaria | 0.75 | 0.53 | 0.17 | 0.04 | 0.01 |
| Cyprus | 0.56 | 0.20 | 0.06 | 0.23 | 0.07 |
| Malta | 0.54 | 0.34 | 0.01 | 0.20 | … |
| Latvia | 0.51 | 0.14 | 0.13 | 0.24 | … |
| Romania | 0.50 | 0.29 | 0.16 | 0.05 | 0.00 |
| Preliminary figures as published by Eurostat on 11.03.2019 | |||||