In 2011 there were 7.95 researchers in every 1,000 full-time workers in the UK, less than the 10.47 per 1,000 workers in Japan and 9.63 in the US.
The UK had a slightly higher share of people working in research positions than the EU at 6.75, according to the director-general for science and innovation’s Researchers’ Report 2014. It was also ahead of China where there were 1.63 researchers per 1,000 workers.
But the share of researchers in the UK labour force declined by 2.8 per cent between 2010 and 2011, while increasing by 5.2 per cent in Japan, 1.3 per cent in the US and 1.1 per cent across the EU as a whole.
