Research and development business enterprise expenditure: 2024

The most recent data in this report is for 2024.

In 2024, business expenditure on Research and Development (BERD) for Wales was £884 million, up 7.2% on the figure for 2023.  

This represented 1.6% of the UK total.

For the UK, business expenditure on R&D increased by 4.5%.

The level of BERD in Wales can be influenced greatly by a small number of individual projects commencing or ending in a period.

The main source of data used to compile estimates for this publication is the annual BERD survey. This collects annual data on UK businesses that perform research and development (R&D). In previously published BERD statistics, up to the 2020 reference period, it has been established that there was under coverage, particularly of small businesses. 

For 2022, Office for National Statistics (ONS) introduced a new sample, that increased the volume of data received and ensured that the BERD statistics now better reflect the level of R&D performed across the UK economy. This means that the estimates in this bulletin supersede those from the interim uplift approach taken in 2021 and are considered the most accurate estimates of business R&D in the UK. Therefore, estimates from 2022 to 2024 are not directly comparable with previous years except at the UK level. ONS are working with the Office for Statistics Regulation as they carry out a quality assessment of BERD statistics. This review focuses on the new methods and how these meet user needs with the aim of regaining Accredited Official Statistics status for these statistics.

Further information is available in the ONS release.

Please note, the Research and Development gross expenditure: 2023 statistical publication and StatsWales datasets that were due to be published on 18 August 2025 were cancelled. This was due to the level of suppression that the ONS applied to the data, leading to the total R&D figure for Wales in 2023 being unavailable.

Due to this, the related StatsWales datasets have not been updated, but the underlying data can still be accessed from the ONS website.

Economic statistics
Email: economic.stats@gov.wales

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