Press Release 28/07/2021

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY SECTOR (ICT) STATISTICS. 2019

E-commerce and R&D+i activities stood out in the ICT sector in the Basque Country in 2019

76.8% of companies in the ICT sector engaged in e-commerce, compared to 27.1% of the total in all sectors

In 2019, companies belonging to the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector in the Basque Country stood out against companies as a whole in the use of e-commerce and in carrying out R&D+i activities, according to Eustat data.

Furthermore, this sector recorded positive data for another year running, with increases compared to 2018 in both the number of companies, up 0.6%, and employment, up 1.9%. Since 2010, the first year of the available historical series, the number of companies included in the ICT sector has increased by 29.5%, while the number of jobs has risen by 17.4%.

Specifically, in 2019, 2,708 companies and 23,975 jobs were registered in this sector, the highest figures since 2010, with an average company size of 8.9 people.

The turnover figure also grew by 3.6% compared to the previous year and the value added by 8.8%.

In 2019, the ICT sector accounted for 2.2% of jobs and 1.8% of companies in the Basque economy. Likewise, it represented 2.3% of total value added (1,821 million), and reached a turnover of 4,269.5 million euros.



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

6.6% 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 12.8% of those implementing R&D and, with 76.0 million euros, carried out 6.7% of the total expenditure on internal R&D in the business sector.

In 2019, there were 1,252 people working in R&D in “full-time equivalent positions” of whom 24.4% (305) were women. Within personnel dedicated to R&D in the business sector, 9.0% are found in companies belonging to the ICT sector; this percentage drops to 6.4% 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 2019, 32.8% of establishments in the ICT sector were innovators compared to 18.2% of the total for all sectors. If company size is taken into account, those with “10 or more employees” recorded percentages of 59.9% in the first case and 30.8% for the total number of sectors.

Regarding expenditure on innovation, ICT establishments contributed 223.2 million euros, 7.7% of total expenditure for all sectors Of this expenditure, 181.5 million corresponded to establishments with “10 or more employees”, which represented 7.4% 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 regard to the turnover figure (innovation and internal R&D intensity ratios). Specifically, innovation intensity in this sector was 3.9 compared to 1.6 over the economic sectors as a whole. In the case of internal R&D, the ratio was 1.9 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

The use of ICT technology is extremely commonplace amongst the companies in this sector, to the point that internet access and online presence reached almost 100%, compared to percentages slightly above 90% for the total of all sectors.

However, e-commerce, although much 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 75.7% and those that carried out sales accounted for 15.5%, compared to 24.7% and 7.0%, respectively, for the total of all sectors.

Hence, 76.8% of ICT establishments engaged in e-commerce in 2019, whereas for the total of all sectors, it represented 27.1%, an increase of 8 percentage points in the first case and only 0.8 points more in the second, compared to the previous year.

Meanwhile, the impact of the ICT sector on the foreign trade of goods remained at insignificant levels: exports accounted for 396.7 million euros out of a total of 25,485.8 million and imports stood at 575.3 million out of 20,158.7 million total imports, accounting for 1.6% and 2.9% respectively.

The most common products traded in terms of exports were Other ICT Products (36.1%) and Electronic Components (35.2%). In terms of imports, the most common products were, once again, Electronic Components (36.5%), Other ICT Products (28.7%) and Telecommunications Equipment (21.0%).

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