EU governments allocated about €130.2bn to research and development in 2025, up 2.4% on 2024 and 60.5% higher than a decade earlier.
The total — known as government budget allocations for R&D (GBARD) — equals 0.69% of EU gross domestic product, Eurostat reported on Friday.
Spending works out at €288.9 per person across the EU in 2025, up from €183.2 per person in 2015.
Luxembourg recorded the highest allocation per inhabitant at €917.2, followed by Denmark (€627.1) and Germany (€553.5).
Romania (€18.8), Hungary (€57.4) and Malta (€73.7) recorded the lowest levels.
Romania was the only EU country to register a fall in R&D budget allocations per person over the decade, down 9.6% from €20.8 in 2015 to €18.8 in 2025.
Sweden recorded the smallest rise among the remaining countries at 14.7%, from €363.4 to €416.7 per person, while Bulgaria saw the largest increase at 495.5%, from €15.5 to €92.3.
Where the R&D money is going
More than a third of the EU’s R&D budget allocations in 2025 — 37.3% — is directed to the “general advancement of knowledge”, most of it channelled through public general university funds, a block grant provided to public higher education institutions, Eurostat said.
A further 18.4% is allocated to general knowledge advancement from sources other than those university funds, while 9.5% is directed to industrial production and technology, 6.7% to health and 5.8% to defence.
