The start-up rate—that is, the proportion of new businesses founded relative to the total number of companies—in the ICT sector is 7.7 percent, higher than in any other sector of the German economy. Transport and logistics ranks second with 5.8 percent, and tourism ranks third with 5.7 percent.
This is the result of the annual study commissioned by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK) and carried out by the ZEW “ICT industry profile”It also shows that, in addition to the start-up rate, the ICT sector also has the highest innovator rate. This measures the proportion of companies that have introduced a new product or process or significantly improved it in the last three years. According to the study authors, this applies to around 80 percent of ICT companies between 2018 and 2020. Accordingly, the ICT sector ranks first here as well, followed by the electrical and mechanical engineering sectors (around 77 percent) and automotive engineering (75 percent).
ICT sector with 304 billion euros in sales
In 2021, the industry generated Information and communication technologies According to the study, the ICT sector generated revenues of almost 304 billion euros. After a temporary decline in revenues in 2020, it was able to resume its previous trend of six years of growth. The sector's revenues grew by around 37 billion euros, corresponding to growth of almost 14 percent. Compared to other sectors, only the basic materials, pharmaceuticals and chemicals sectors (around 26 percent) and transport and logistics (around 16 percent) saw stronger growth in 2021. The gross value added of the ICT sector also increased by around 10.5 billion euros to 134.6 billion euros. Overall, the ICT sector generated around 5.4 percent of the value added of the entire commercial economy in 2021.
Study author Dr. Thomas Niebel, researcher in the ZEW Research Department Digital Economy, explains:
"It [the ICT sector] thus represents a key factor in maintaining and further expanding Germany's future viability as a business location. The sector has demonstrated this particularly during the coronavirus pandemic."
