Number of Researchers by World Region and in EU-27, 2000 and 2006

The Figure above compares the number of researchers in major research-intensive world regions or countries. In 2006, there were 1.33 million researchers in EU-27, 1.39 million in the US and 1.22 million in China. Strong increases in the number of researchers have been observed from 2000 to 2006 in China (+9.9 % per annum) and South Korea (+10.8 % per annum), compared to EU-27 (+3.1 % per annum), Japan (+1.5 % per annum) and US (+1.5 % per annum). The number of researchers has grown on average twice as fast in the EU as in the US and Japan since 2000.

The Figure above compares the number of researchers in EU-27 Members. It illustrates that in EU-27, the three biggest countries – Germany (282,063), France (204,484) and the United Kingdom (183,534) – account for half of the researchers.

The Figure above shows the evolution of the total number of researchers and its per thousand labour force representation in EU-27. Within EU-27, the number of researchers has increased in all Member States over recent years. The strongest average annual growth rates have been observed in Malta, Cyprus, the Czech Republic and Denmark (more than 8 % per annum) .

The EU remains less researcher-intensive than the US and Japan. In 2006, the number of researchers per thousand labour force was 5.6 in EU-27, compared to 10.7 in Japan and 9.3 in the US. Within the ERA, the share of researchers in the labour force is highest in Finland (15.3 researchers per thousand labour force), Iceland (12.5), Sweden (11.7) and Luxembourg (11.4). The number of researchers per thousand labour force is lower than 5 in 11 EU Member States, as well as in Turkey and Croatia.

EU-27 experienced an increase in the number of researchers per thousand labour force, from 5 in 2000 to 5.6 in 2006, which corresponds to an average annual growth rate of 1.9 %. In comparison, the US and Japan have had average annual increases of 0.7 % (from 8.96 to 9.27) and 1.8 % (from 9.57 to 10.66) respectively over the same period. Many ERA countries had significant growth in the number of researchers per thousand labour force, in particular the Czech Republic, Denmark and Turkey.

Read more in:
Science, Technology and Competitiveness key figures report 2008/2009

Remuneration of Researchers in EU25

The Figure above presents the average researchers’ remunerations in EU25 and Associated Countries. The averages are also presented in terms of standardized PPS, that considers the cost of living in each country, while allowing multilateral comparison at international level (including Australia, China, India, Japan and the United States).

The corrective coefficients in those countries are the PPP (Purchasing Power Parities) from 2003 published by the World Bank.

The accuracy of the data (consistency and reliability of the study results) are either excellent or high in 20 out of the 33 countries analyzed in this study, representing 87,15% of the total number of researchers in Europe.

A number of results from this study can be discerned:

• High differences between the remuneration of researchers throughout the EU25 and Associated Countries, although the gap between the levels of remuneration in each country reduces when considering the cost-of-living.
• Only Austria, The Netherlands, Israel, Switzerland and Luxembourg have an average remuneration similar to that of the United States, considering the cost of living in each country.
• High differences in expected career progression throughout the EU25 and Associated Countries.
• In most of the countries, the remuneration for men is higher than for women.

In Greece, the average researcher's salary is 25.685 Euro much below the EU25 average of 37.948 Euro. If we normalize in terms of standardized PPS, that considers the cost of living in each country, the numbers are 30.835 Euro and 40.126 Euro respectively.

Read more here (dated: Apr 2007)