The innovative capacity of companies is an important factor when improving competitiveness and strengthening the growth of the economy as a whole. According to the data that Eurostat has just published for 2016, 50.6% of the total number of companies with more than 10 workers have introduced, on average, some type of innovation or made an innovative activity. The percentage of innovative companies is much higher among large companies with more than 250 workers. There the figure reaches an average of 83% and there are countries like Germany and Lithuania that even exceed 90%.
Belgium, Portugal and Finland are the three countries with the most innovative companies in their business fabric. Belgium is above 68%, while Portugal reaches 67% and Finland reaches 64.8%. Luxembourg and Germany ranked fourth and fifth position, with more than 63%. Austria stands at 62%, while the Netherlands and the United Kingdom remain below 60%. Greece, France and Ireland exceed 57%, while Sweden, Italy and Denmark also are above the EU-28 average.
All the countries with recent accession to the EU, together with Spain, are below the European average. In our country only 36.9% of all companies with more than 10 workers are innovative, but the figure increases to 74.9% among large companies. The last countries in the classification are Poland with 22.0% and Romania with 10.2%.
The following graph shows the classification by countries according to the percentage of innovative companies during 2016.
