The innovative capacity of companies is an important factor when it comes to improving competitiveness and strengthening the growth of the economy as a whole. According to data just published by Eurostat for 2016, 50.6% of all companies with more than 10 employees have, on average, introduced some type of innovation or carried out an innovative activity. The percentage of innovative companies is much higher among large companies with more than 250 employees. 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 occupy the fourth and fifth positions, with figures above 63%. Austria is at 62%, while the Netherlands and the United Kingdom are slightly below 60%. Greece, France and Ireland exceed 57%, while Sweden, Italy and Denmark also manage to be above the EU-28 average.
Below the European average are all the recently acceded EU countries, along with Spain. In our country, only 36.9% of all companies with more than 10 employees are innovative, but the figure increases to 74.9% among large companies. The last countries in the ranking are Poland with 22.0% and Romania with 10.2%.
The following graph shows the ranking by country according to the percentage of innovative companies throughout 2016.