3.1 Literacy and numeracy

Data for literacy and numeracy are taken from OECD, Literacy Skills for the Knowledge Society. The chart shows the percentage of adults with ‘poor’ level 1 literacy and numeracy skills. Further results from the Adult Literacy Survey, November 1997, OECD.

Data measuring progress in meeting National Learning Targets for England for 2002, set by the Department for Education and Employment, are derived from National Statistics, Spring Labour Force Surveys.

3.2 Intermediate and higher level skills

Data on the highest completed level of education are derived from the OECD indicators on education and skills Education at a glance, 2001 Edition. 

Data on vocational and general qualifications in France, Germany and the UK are taken from the Skills Task Force Research Paper.

3.3 Lifelong learning

Data on continuing education and training are taken from the OECD Programme for International Study Assessment (PISA), sourced on the International Adult Literacy Survey 1994-98 and national household surveys on adult education and training.

3.4 Management skills

Data on business perceptions of the efficiency of management are taken from the International Institute for Management Development’s World Competitiveness Yearbook 2000. The indicators used from the publication chosen were principally the availability of competent senior managers and the international experience of management. The priority of employee training was also included (with a lower weight) as an indicator of the degree to which management invests in its people.

3.5 Business investment per worker

Figures for investment per worker in the business sector are taken from the OECD’s Economic Outlook Database, EO71.  Business investment includes investment in public corporations. In contrast to data used in last year’s Indicators report, the latest data are compiled in accordance with the new System of National Accounts (SNA93) standard.

3.6 Government investment

Government investment and GDP data, were taken from the OECD Economic Outlook database.

The source for the Government investment and Gross Domestic Product data was the OECD Economic Outlook 71 data base.

The source for real public and private investment in transport was the former Department of Environment, Transport and Regions, now the Department for Transport, Local Government and Regions.

3.7 Venture capital

The data on the amount and composition of venture capital comes from the European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association. 

• “Seed” venture capital is defined as: financing provided to research, assess and develop an initial concept before a business has reached the start-up phase.
• “Start-up” venture capital is defined as: the provision of finance to companies for use in product development and initial marketing.  Companies may be in the process of being set up or may have been in business for a short time, but have not yet sold their product commercially.  
• “Early stage” venture capital is defined as: the provision of financing to companies that have completed the product development stage and require further funds to initiate commercial manufacturing sales. They may not yet be generating profits.   

3.8 Parallel markets

Data on capitalisation and numbers of companies incorporated in parallel markets are taken from the International Federation of Stock Exchanges (FIBV).

The denominator used in 3.8.2 for the Euronext index, is the GDP for France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

3.9 Main equity markets

Data on stock market capitalisation taken from the International Federation of Stock Exchanges (FIBV).

3.10 Connectivity by business size

Data on connectivity are taken from the DTI Business in the Information Age: International Benchmarking Study, 2001.

3.11 E-commerce

Data on e-commerce adoption are taken from the DTI Business into the Information Age: International Benchmarking Study, 2001.

Data on B2B e-commerce are taken from the Merrill Lynch study Benchmarking the New Economy: Europe in a Global Context, August 2000.

Data on B2C e-commerce are taken from the Merrill Lynch study Benchmarking the New Economy: Europe in a Global Context, August 2000.

3.12 IT skills shortage reason for not adopting or further developing ICT

Data on IT skills shortages as a reason for not adopting or developing ICT are taken from DTI Business into the Information Age: International Benchmarking Study, 2001.  Note that this indicator has changed since UK Competitiveness Indicators: 2nd Edition.  The latter recorded data on IT skills shortages as a reason for not adopting or further developing e-commerce.  Another change to UK Competitiveness Indicators: 2nd Edition is the scale, 5 measuring disagree strongly.

3.13 Papers &Citations per head of population

The Office of Science and Technology from the Science Citation Index (SCI) compiled this data.  The Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) is part of Thomson Scientific, itself part of Thomson Corporation.  The SCI accesses biographical information, author abstracts and cited references in 5,700 of the world's leading scholarly and technical journals covering more than 150 disciplines in over 170 countries.  Data are continuously updated: the latest three years for citations especially are less than half the likely final totals and in order to allow for this the latest six year interval has been selected. 

3.14 Real government R&D expenditure per worker

Data taken from the twice yearly OECD Main Science and Technology Indicators

3.15 Business spend on R&D

Data are taken from the OECD Annual Business Enterprise R&D (ANBERD) database, which collates the results of national R&D surveys.

Last updated on 07 August 2002