5.5 Share of output inknowledge based industries

Why is it significant?

An economy, which is responding to the opportunities afforded by the shift to more knowledge intensive activities, would expect to see an increase over time in those sectors identified by the OECD as being knowledge based.  

How does the UK perform?

In 1998, knowledge based industries were responsible for 54 per cent of business sector value added, over 2 per cent higher than in 1996.  In terms of comparisons with the G7 countries, it is higher than in Italy, Canada and the US, similar to France and Japan but lower than in Germany (Chart 5.5).

In the UK, as for the rest of the G7, services account for a large part of value added in the knowledge intensive sector.   The share of high and medium tech manufacturing is broadly similar to that in other countries.