Looking at how investment levels stack up compared with GDP provides another lens on the ecosystem. Estonia once again tops the charts, increasing 2 percentage points between 2020 and 2022 to reach investment levels at a 3.6% share of GDP. The only other country in the 'above 1% of GDP' category on their investment levels is Croatia. The Netherlands and Germany do not make this top 10 list but are beaten by Sweden, Lithuania, Finland, and others.
Another helpful way to compare the relative maturity of different countries is by comparing capital invested in proportion to population. Overall, the European average rests at $140 per capita.
Many countries punch well above that weight, including the Nordic and Baltic countries of Estonia, Iceland, and Sweden. The more populous countries of the UK and France both score higher than the European average, though Germany comes in just under. Europe's other giant countries by population, Spain and Italy, continue to see investment levels that are well below average despite the progress made in recent years. As we have highlighted in past reports, there is still scope to see the ecosystem expand as more countries track towards the per capita level of investment of Europe's leading startup ecosystems.
When looking at the number of startups per population in a country, some of these high success rates are put into perspective - Estonia, for example, produces an incredible number of unicorns, but also has the highest number of startups per capita, at over one startup per 1,000 inhabitants. Estonia's concentration of tech in society is the highest in Europe by this measure. Iceland and Ireland are almost tied next in line.
The United Kingdom is, again, further down the list but about twice the size of Europe's average of 269, at 574 startups per one million inhabitants. France is only just above the average at 307 startups. Germany is much further down the list, at only 227 startups per million people - only 83% of Europe's average.
Unicorn creation by population reveals pockets of especially efficient and productive talent within Europe's entrepreneurial ecosystem. Estonia tops this chart with a rate of 3.8 unicorns created per every one million inhabitants. Luxembourg isn't far behind at 3.1 unicorns per million inhabitants.
The United Kingdom, while still above Europe's average of 0.6 unicorns, is at less than half Estonia's rate with 1.6 unicorns per million inhabitants, the same rate as Ireland. Germany just squeaks above the European average at 0.7 unicorns created per million inhabitants, the same rate as Lithuania.
To help us quantify talent trends in European tech, Indeed provided data on the share of tech job postings proportionate to all job postings over time. Across the board, the share of tech job postings has declined relative to total postings, indicating that tech job creation has slowed compared to the broader job market. This trend is most pronounced in Italy. While many tech companies are still hiring, the net volume of new job postings is bound to slow in a bear market, as companies become more conservative in their people plans. Freezing hiring is often a first step in managing cash burn to preserve financial runway.
Despite trending downward, the share of tech jobs remains much higher in certain countries, such as Estonia and Portugal - where they make up more than double the proportion seen in most European countries.
