Business Innovation Activity in Northern Ireland - NI statistics from the UK Innovation Survey (2023)
The most recent report presents results from the Northern Ireland element of the UK Innovation Survey (UKIS) 2023. This is the thirteenth such survey and covers the three-year period from 2020 to 2022.
Headline Results
- The percentage of innovation active businesses in NI has decreased with just under one-third of businesses (32%) engaging in innovation in 2020-2022. The rate of innovation activity was lower in NI than in the UK overall, where 36% of UK businesses were innovation active in 2020-2022.
- Across the UK, the percentage of innovation active businesses ranged from 31% in Wales to 40% in the South East of England. There has been a reported decrease in the rate of innovation activity across all regions of the UK between 2018-2020 and 2020-2022.
- As is the case across the UK, a higher proportion of large businesses (with more than 250 employees) in NI were innovation active (45%) than small and medium businesses (10-249 employees, 32%).
- ‘Improving quality of goods or services’, ‘meeting regulatory requirements’ and ‘replacing outdated products or processes’ were the main factors driving innovation in NI, being of ‘high’ importance to 49%, 37% and 35% of broader innovators respectively in 2020-2022.
Current publication
Archive data
Northern Ireland Innovation Survey 2006
This NI-only Innovation Survey covered the period 2003-2005, and among other things, collected information on the extent of business innovation, factors perceived to be limiting innovation, and co-operation arrangements on innovation activities.
By adopting similar methodologies as those used in the fourth Community Innovation Survey (UKIS 2005), the survey offers a time-series for 2002-2004 and 2003-2005 regional innovation activity.