Press Release: Community Innovation Survey in Enterprises. Year 2024. Definitive Results .

Main results

Expenditure on innovative activities increased by 13.0% in 2024 in comparison with 2022, standing at 23,554 million euros.
In the 2022-2024 period, 27.3% of Spanish companies were innovative.

More information

Spending on innovative activities

Expenditure on innovative activities reached 23,554 million euros in 2024, with an increase of 13.0% as compared with 2022 (the year of the previous survey). This figure represented 0.9% of the Spanish business turnover.

54.0% of the expenditure went towards internal R&D, 9.4% to external R&D and 36.6% to other innovative activities.

Distribution of spending on innovative activities by type of spending. 2024

Percentage

¹The other innovative activities, according to the 2018 Oslo Manual, are: Engineering, design and other creative work, Marketing activities and brand equity, Activities related to Intellectual Property, Employee training activities, Development of software and activities related to databases and Acquisition and leasing of tangible assets, so long as they are used in innovation.

Companies in the Services sector accounted for 54.8% of expenditure on business internal R&D in the year 2024, while those in Industry sector accounted for 43.4%.

Spending on innovative activities by activity. 2024

Thousands of euros

By branches of activity, companies in the area of Programming, consulting and other IT activities accounted for the highest percentage of total spending on innovative activities, with 13.0% of the total.

This was followed by R&D Services companies (10.9% of the total) and Motor Vehicles (9.4%).

Spending on innovative activities by branch of activity

Percentage of the total

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Spending on innovative activities by Autonomous Communities

In 2024, the communities with the highest spending on innovative activities were the Community of Madrid (30.0% of the total), Cataluña (25.6%) and País Vasco (9.3%).

Spending on innovative activities according to the community or autonomous city where it is carried out. 2024

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Innovative enterprises

27.3% of Spanish companies were innovative (product innovation or innovation in business processes) in the 2022-2024 period, compared with 23.9% in the 2020-2022 period. Of these, 14.1% were product innovators and 24.4% business process innovators.

Innovative enterprises

Percentage

*Definition according to the 2018 Oslo Manual: https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/oslo-manual-2018_9789264304604-en.html

By activity sectors, the industrial sector (34.8%) had the highest percentage of innovative companies in the 2022-2024 period.

The sector with the fewest innovative companies was Agriculture, livestock, forestry and fishing (15.8%).

Innovative companies by branches of activity. 2022-2024 Period

Percentage

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Innovative companies by autonomous community

The autonomous communities with the highest percentage of innovative companies in the 2022-2024 period were Cataluña (33.6% of its companies were innovative), País Vasco (32.7%) and Aragón (30.4%).

Innovative companies by autonomous communities and cities*. 2022-2024 Period

Percentage of the population of companies with 10 or more employees from each

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*The data of the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla are not published by statistical secrecy.

Data revisions and updates

The data published today are final. All the results of this operation are available at INEbase.

In accordance with the Commission's Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/137, the INE has begun to work on incorporating the new National Classification of Economic Activities CNAE-2025 in all its statistical operations.

In the case of the Business Innovation Survey, the first publication of results with CNAE-2025 will take place in 2027.

Methodological note

The main objective of the Business Innovation Survey is to provide direct information on the innovation process in companies, producing indicators that allow us to ascertain the different aspects of this process (economic impact, innovative activities, cost...). As well as providing rich and varied information on the technological innovation process, this study may serve as the base framework for diverse specific studies on other aspects related to science and technology (for example, use of cutting-edge technology in manufacture, technological payments and incomes, studies about patents, etc.).

Type of survey:: continuous on an annual basis until 2019 and biennial since 2020.
Population scope:: agricultural, industrial, construction and service companies with 10 or more employees, whose main economic activity corresponds to sections A to N, P (except branch 854), Q, R, and S (except branch 94) of the CNAE-2009.
Geographical scope:: the entire national territory.
Reference period of the results:: in general, the year immediately prior to the one in which the survey is conducted; however, in order to facilitate international comparability, variables related to the innovations implemented by the company refer to the three-year period prior to conducting the survey.
Reference period of the information:: in general, the calendar year; the variables related to the innovations implemented by the company refer to the three-year period prior to conducting the survey.
Sample size:: more than 40,000 companies.
Sampling type:: stratified sampling by company size, economic activity and autonomous community.
Collection method:: mixed system that includes collection via Internet (CAWI) and by mail with significant telephone support from interviewers.

More information on the methodology and the standardised methodological report.

INE statistics are produced in accordance with the Code of Good Practice for European Statistics. More information on Quality at INE and the Code of Best Practices.