Press release 28/09/2020

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY SECTOR (ICT) STATISTICS. 2018

Employment in the ICT sector increased by 5.1% in the Basque Country in 2018

68.8% of companies in the ICT sector engaged in e-commerce, compared to 26.3% of the total in all sectors

In 2018 the Information and Communication Technology sector (ICT) in the Basque Country registered positive data, with increases in both the number of companies, up 1.6% and employment, up 5.1%, according to Eustat data. Specifically, 2,691 companies and 23,534 jobs were registered in this sector, with an average company size of 8.7 people. The turnover figure also grew by 6.2% and the value added by 3.8%.

With these data, the ICT sector represented 2.2% of those employed in the Basque economy, and also 2.2% of total value added (1,673.9 million), and reached a turnover of 4,119.8 million euros.

Companies in the ICT sector carried out more R&D&i activities than all the other sectors

6.0% of companies in the ICT sector carried out internal R&D activities, a percentage far higher than the 1.0% of the total for all sectors. Furthermore, this sector, despite representing just 1.8% of companies in the Basque Country, accounted for 11.5% of those implementing R&D and, with 72.9 million euros, carried out 6.8% of the total expenditure on internal R&D in the business sector.

In 2018 there were 1,277 people working in R&D in “full-time equivalent positions” of whom 23.9% (305) were women. Within personnel dedicated to R&D in the business sector, 9.3% are found in companies belonging to the ICT sector; this percentage drops to 6.6% if the comparison is made with respect to total R+D personnel.

Regarding innovation, as with R&D, there were significant differences between the total for all sectors and that for the ICT sector. In 2018, 32.7% of establishments in the ICT sector were innovators compared to 17.3% of the total for all sectors. If company size is taken into account, those with “10 or more employees” recorded percentages of 60.7% in the first case and 30.1% for the total number of sectors.

Regarding expenditure on innovation, ICT establishments contributed 157.6 million euros, 5.6% of total expenditure for all sectors Of this expenditure, 138.2 million corresponded to establishments with “10 or more employees”, which represented 5.8% of the total spent by companies of this size.

The ICT sector also allocated a greater proportion of resources towards R&D&i than the other sectors, as indicated by the figures spent both on innovation and on internal R&D with regards to the turnover figure (innovation and internal R&D intensity ratios). Specifically, innovation intensity in this sector was 2.8 compared to 1.6 over the economic sectors as a whole. In the case of internal R&D, the ratio was 1.4 for the ICT sector and 0.8 for all sectors.

E-commerce was more widespread in the ICT sector than in the total of all the sectors

As the use of ICT technology is extremely commonplace amongst the companies in this sector, e-commerce, although more developed than in the other sectors, is not as widely implemented, above all in terms of sales. The establishments that made purchases via this method in the ICT sector accounted for 66.6% and those that carried out sales accounted for 15.1%, compared to 24.1% and 6.9% respectively for the total of all sectors. Hence, 68.8% of ICT establishments engaged in e-commerce, 5.2 percentage points more than in 2017, whereas for the total of all sectors, it represented 26.3%, up 1.2 points on the previous year.

Meanwhile, the impact of the ICT sector on the foreign trade of goods remained at insignificant levels: exports accounted for 365.5 million euros out of a total of 25,788.3 million and imports stood at 446.9 million out of 20,485.1 million total imports, accounting for 1.4% and 2.2% respectively.

The most common products traded in terms of exports were Electronic Components (35.9%), and Other ICT Products (33.8%). In terms of imports, the most common products were, once again, Other ICT Products (32.4%), Electronic Components (27.6%) and Telecommunications Equipment (22.8%).

More companies in the ICT sector in the Basque Country had a website and broadband connection than in Spain as a whole, but engaged in less e-commerce

Lastly, if we compare ICT sector data for the Basque Country with Spain as a whole in companies with 10 or more employees, it can be observed that 99.7% of Spanish companies and 100% of Basque companies had internet connection. Regarding the availability of a web site, the Basque Country is ahead once again, with 99.7% as compared to 95.7%. In relation to broad band Spain and the Basque Country were on a par, both attaining 100%. Spain as a whole is ahead of the Basque Country in terms of electronic sales and purchases with 63.3% and 16.2%, respectively, compared to 60.6% and 13.5% for the Basque Country.

Methodological note:

The ICT sector is made up of manufacturing industries and of services whose primary activity is linked to the development, production, commercialisation, and intensive use of Information and Communication Technologies, characterised by high rates of innovation, technological progress, and productivity. Accordingly, it has a considerable impact on economic activity. Eustat website. Methodology file: ICT sector

For further information:

Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Basque Statistics Institute C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Press service: servicioprensa@eustat.es Tel: 945 01 75 62