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September 05, 2024INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, 2022 Statistics Canada has recently released Industrial Research and Development (R&D) characteristics actuals for 2022 at a provincial level and preliminary/intentions for 2023/2024 at a national level. Results from 2014 and beyond are not directly comparable to earlier data.
In 2022, Nova Scotia businesses spent $298 million on research and development, up 27.9% from the previous year. Nova Scotia’s total business enterprise expenditures on R&D accounted for 0.55% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2022, up from 0.46% in the previous year.
Nationally, businesses spent $30.4 billion on R&D in 2022, an increase of 9.4% over 2021 spending. Canada’s R&D spending accounted for 1.08% of its GDP in 2022, down from 1.10% in the previous year.
Ontario (1.40%), Quebec (1.35%), and British Columbia (1.11%) had the largest share of their economy in research and development expenditures in 2022.
As a share of GDP, business R&D expenditures in Nova Scotia has risen in each of the last two years. nationally, the share of business R&D in GDP increased in 2021 before contracting in 2022.
Nova Scotia's research and development spending increased by 27.9% from 2021 to 2022. This was the second fastest pace of growth among provinces after New Brunswick. All provinces except Newfoundland and Labrador and Manitoba reported higher levels of industrial research and development spending in 2022. Growth rates were fastest in the Maritime provinces.
Nova Scotia's industrial research and development spending increased from $233 million in 2021 to $298 million in 2022.
In 2022, R&D personnel accounted for 0.73% of Nova Scotia’s business sector employment. Nationally, business enterprise R&D personnel was 1.39% of Canada’s total business sector employment in 2022. The largest shares were recorded in Quebec (1.86%), Ontario (1.60%) and British Columbia (1.36%).
Nova Scotia's share of business sector employment in research and development personnel has increased in each of the last four years. Nationally, research and development personnel as a share of business sector employment has remained stable for the last three years.
The number of business research and development personnel increased by 21.5% in Nova Scotia in 2022, the third fastest growth among provinces (after New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island). Nationally, business research and development personnel increased by 4.6% with gains in all provinces, though gains in Manitoba were slower.
In 2022, there were 2,428 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs for in-house research and development in Nova Scotia. This was up from 1,998 in the previous year. Researchers and research managers (1,638) was the most dominant occupational category among most Nova Scotia’s business enterprise R&D personnel in 2022. The rest of the R&D personnel was divided among research and development technical, administrative and support staff (704), and consultants and contractors (86).
Preliminary estimates show that Canada’s business enterprise research and development spending grew by 3.4% from the previous year to $31,428 million in 2023. National research and development expenditures by businesses are expected to accelerate by 4.8% to $32,936 million in 2024.
Looking at the research and development spending by industry, majority of spending in Canada was undertaken by businesses in service sectors. The computer systems designs and related services sector had the largest R&D spending ($6,314 million) in 2022.
In 2022, Canadian businesses with revenues higher than $500 million had the largest share of total R&D spending accounting for 37.4% of total research and development expenditures. This was followed by businesses with revenues between $100 million and $500 million (17.3%) and revenues between $10 million and $50 million (16.3%) in 2021.
Source: Statistics Canada,Table 27-10-0333-01 Business enterprise in-house research and development expenditures, by industry group based on the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), country of control and expenditure types (x 1,000,000); Table 27-10-0334-01 Business enterprise in-house research and development expenditures, by country of control and revenue group (x 1,000,000); Table 27-10-0341-01 Business enterprise in-house research and development characteristics, by industry group based on the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), country of control and provinces and territories; Table 36-10-0222-01 Gross domestic product, expenditure-based, provincial and territorial, annual (x 1,000,000); Table 36-10-0480-01 Labour productivity and related measures by business sector industry and by non-commercial activity consistent with the industry accounts
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