How many SMEs, startups and mid-caps do we have in Europe?

How many of them can be considered innovative?

These questions do not have a shared, clear answer. This is surprising as innovative firms are key drivers of economic growth, job creation and technological progress. Knowing their number is crucial to inform policies aiming at supporting their emergence and growth to contribute to the prosperity and wellbeing of our economy and society. Building on its experience collecting, monitoring, analysing and reporting on research and innovation activities in the EU, the JRC has produced an estimation of innovative firms in Europe: those that dedicate to R&D more than 10% of their total operating costs.

A comprehensive interactive dashboard is available here. Explore the detailed data for 2021 with sector and EU Member States disaggregation to find out about innovative firms in Europe: R&D expenditure, density and number of firms, incidence of R&D intensive firms, and more.

These figures informed Professor Mario Draghi’s report on the future of European competitiveness.

Access the EU Innovative Firms dashboard

Innovative SMEs and mid-caps employ 5.8 million workers and 1.5 million workers, respectively

EU’s 362,000 innovative SMEs employ almost 4 times more workers (5.8 million) than the EU’s 4,500 innovative mid-caps (1.5 million). 214,000 startups employ 1.2 million workers, while 3,500 innovative small mid-caps employ 900,000 workers.

Innovative companies are key actors for knowledge creation and diffusion across the EU

Innovative SMEs and mid-caps employ 3,7% of the EU’s workforce. The ecosystems they create, coupled with labour mobility across firms, are essential for knowledge creation and diffusion in the EU, enabling the EU’s competitive advantage.