In 2021, the EU’s total sold production of high-tech products stood at €368 billion, the highest value of the 2011-2021 decade and an 11% increase compared with 2020 (€332 billion).
Much of this increase can be attributed to the growth in the pharmaceutical and electronics-telecommunications sectors. Pharmacy increased 25%, from €97 billion in 2020 to €122 billion in 2021. The electronics-telecommunications sector reported an increase of 13%, from €73 billion in 2020 to €82 billion in 2021.
Source dataset: DS-056120
The largest category in production of high-tech products in 2021 was pharmacy, representing 33% of the total sold production of high-tech products. Electronics-telecommunications was the second largest category with a 22% share, followed by scientific instruments with 19% and the other categories with shares inferior to 10%.
EU trade in high-tech products up in 2021
Both EU imports and exports of high-tech products increased 13% in 2021, compared with 2020, reaching €392 billion and €385 billion, respectively. These values are above pre-pandemic levels, since in 2019 imports were at €365 billion and exports at €382 billion, and also represent a record high.
Source dataset: DS-018995
In 2021, more than half of the total EU imports of high-tech products from non-EU countries came from China (38%) and the United States (19%). This trade accounted for €223 billion of the total €392 billion imports. The remaining top trading partners consisted of Switzerland (€30 billion), the United Kingdom and Taiwan (both €16 billion).
The largest category in these imports was electronics-telecommunications with €152 billion.
In exports, the situation was reversed: the United States was the top trading partner in 2021 (€98 billion), with China second (€48 billion) and representing a combined 37% share of all high-tech exports. These countries were followed by the United Kingdom (€37 billion), Switzerland (€24 billion) and Japan (€16 billion).
In 2021, the largest category in the exports of high-tech products was pharmacy, with €127 billion.
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Source: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/product?code=ddn-20220928-1