The sector, it reveals, contributes almost €1 trillion to the EU’s Gross Domestic Product - or 7.4 per cent of GDP - and supports some 12 million jobs, or 5.3 per cent of all jobs in the 28 member states.
“Unlike traditional industry sectors, software doesn’t need an external catalyst for change — it is the catalyst,” said Victoria Espinel, President and CEO of BSA | The Software Alliance, which authored the report.
Its report, “Software: A €910bn Catalyst for the EU Economy,” says the industry is “driving” the economies in several member states and has “revolutionised“ the way people work.
The 16-page document, published on Tuesday, comprises data and economic impact assessment conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit.
It says the software sector is making a “profound” impact on the European economy and investing close to €13bn in R&D.
The report analyses the contribution made in the five largest EU member states.
In France, it contributes a total of €113.1bn to the country’s economy, 5.3 per cent of French GDP.
In Spain it supports 624,471 jobs, or 3.7 per cent of all employment, while nearly two million jobs depend on software in Germany, where the economy benefits to the tune of €152.6bn from the industry. The Italian economy receives a €50bn boost from the sector and nearly 750,000 jobs are software-related.
Elsewhere, the industry contributes some €160.2bn to the UK economy, or 7.1 percent of its GDP, and supports a total of 2,585,792 British jobs.
In its analysis, the report said that the software industry directly added €249bn to the EU economy in 2014, equivalent to two per cent of European GDP. When factoring in its full effect, software supports 7.4 per cent of EU GDP, contributing €910bn to the EU economy, it says.
Software supports nearly 12 million jobs in the EU, more than the entire population of Belgium, directly employing over three million people and another 8.5 million in associated jobs.
BSA | The Software Alliance say that software companies invest strongly in R&D - as much as €12.7bn in 2013, which is more than 7.3 per cent of total private sector research expenditure in the EU.
The report concludes, “Software is driving economic gains in member states whose economies and workforces are benefitting from new jobs that fit our modern digital economy, and opportunities driven by software advances.”
Espinel predicts that software will “continue to revolutionise how we work, communicate, plan, and create, in ways that we can only now begin to fathom,”, adding, “Software-driven data innovation and data analytics are leading to benefits throughout broad sectors of the EU economy.
“Every aspect of every business and every government department depends on software to become more inventive, more creative, more competitive, and more efficient.”
“We urge the EU to seize the opportunity to craft a regulatory framework that will allow such promising technology to thrive.”
Espinel added, “Championing the free flow of data across borders, opposing mandates on data localisation, fostering IoT technology applications, and pushing for the development of the next generation of digital standards in international fora would send a strong signal that the EU is ready to fully embrace the benefits of software.”
Download the report.