Knowledge intensive activities in Norway

In recent years, a great concern about the importance of higher education and knowledge has paved the way for knowledge-focused concepts such as the knowledge economy, knowledge-intensive activities and the knowledge industry. What these concepts specifically cover seems to vary widely depending on who will apply them. Obviously, variation in definitions can provide different results while using them in specific analyses.

This report provides an overview of the industries in Norway that can be defined as knowledge-intensive activities, based on Eurostat's definition that an industry is knowledge-intensive if at least 33 per cent of the workforce holds higher education. Compared with the EU and the Nordic countries, Norwegian industries are definitively knowledge-intensive.

In addition, the report examines whether the knowledge-intensive industries are also research and development intensive (R&D intensive), which more precisely means the share of an industry's total value added spent on R&D. The results show that there is a moderate positive correlation between knowledge intensity and R&D intensity in Norwegian industries.

A grouping of knowledge-intensive industries, defined in this report, offers a specific definition of what is meant by a knowledge-intensive industry. This will enable a number of future analyses on economic variables, both within knowledge-intensive industries and compared with other industries and sectors.