This indicator measures the proportion of businesses that were innovation active during the survey period. Find out more about this indicator.

The share of innovation active businesses in Scotland in 2018-2020 was 39.0%

The proportion of businesses that were innovation active increased from 32.2% in 2016-18 (2019 Survey) to 39.0% in 2018-20 (2021 Survey).

In 2018-20, the sectors ‘Computer and related activities/ICT’ and ‘Research and experimental development on social sciences and humanities’ had the highest shares of innovation active businesses, at 68.8% and 79.3% of businesses respectively. Between 2016-18 and 2018-20, the share of innovation active businesses in the ‘Computer and related activities/ICT’ sector increased by 8 percentage points, and the share in ‘Research and experimental development on social sciences and humanities’ increased by 9 percentage points.

Large (+250 employees) and Medium-sized business (50-249 employees) were more likely to be innovators compared to smaller businesses. In 2018-20, 54.8% of large businesses and 57.5% of medium-sized businesses in Scotland were innovation active.