Sweden and Finland are ahead of most Member States in R&D expenditure with respectively 4.27% and 3.51% of R&D intensity, with more than two thirds of it being financed by the Business Enterprise Sector. 

The US (2.76%) and Japan (3.12%) still have higher R&D intensities than the EU-25 (1.93%) and China (1.23%).

In the five years to 2002, the EU's R&D expenditure grew 6.47% a year on average in million current EUR, the US's by 5.83%, Japan's by 6.19%, and China's by more than 18.51%. 

The majority of EU-25 Member States' R&D expenditure underwent sustained growth in the years to 2002, the fastest growth rates being registered by Estonia, Cyprus and Hungary, with more than 11% annual average growth in real terms.