Our Economy

Understanding one of the most dynamic innovation economies in the UK

The Oxford region is home to over 6,000 high-tech, knowledge-intensive companies who are at the forefront of UK and global research in areas such as regenerative medicine, robotics, autonomous vehicles and digital health, space and quantum computers. These companies employ over 52,000 people – that’s 14.3% of the total employed. The region is also home to four high-tech unicorn companies and it has the largest university venturing fund in the world.

The Oxford region is one of the UK’s strongest economies and a place where innovation is thriving. It contributes around £29 billion a year to national output and has the potential to boost the UK economy by up to £180 billion by 2030 through the transformative technologies developed here.

Advanced Oxford has researched the key facts and figures that define our innovation economy today.

  • At a Glance

    6,055 knowledge-intensive businesses in the Oxford region

  • Innovative Place

    Unique area for the development of ideas

    Top university in the UK for research

  • Knowledge People

    Large, highly skilled workforce including innovators, scientists and entrepreneurs

    52,000 employed in the knowledge-intensive sector

  • Innovative Enterprise

    Cluster of science and tech businesses alongside the next generation of disruptors

    6,055 knowledge-intensive businesses

  • Knowledge Flow

    Connected for the ease of collaboration and the transfer of ideas

    48.6 miles from Heathrow airport

  • 50

    nobel prizes awarded

    51.7%

    of workforce has a degree level and above

    50

    minutes to London by train

  • 14.3%

    employed by knowledge-intensive business sector

    Top 10

    dynamic cities in Europe

    4

    knowledge-intensive companies valued over $1bn

  • 13

    big science & research facilities

    14.3%

    employed by KI sector

    <Ihr

    to the heart of the Midlands and under 2 hours to the Northern Powerhouse

  • 3.8%

    annual growth rate of knowledge-intensive sector

    12

    business & science parks

    42

    start-ups per 10,000 people

  • 35

    Innovation spaces & 13 planned or under development

    3.9%

    annual growth rate of employees in the KI sector

    95%

    super-fast broadband availability

  • £10.2 billion

    turnover per annum for knowledge-intensive sector

    168

    spin-outs from the University of Oxford since 1987

    5

    globally-recognised sectors

  • £32.70

    GVA per hour worked

    20+

    science and tech business networks

  • £29 billion

    per annum contribution to national output

    Largest

    University-focussed venturing fund in the world

    21%

    of UK’s higher education patents

  • £51,200

    GVA per filled job

    24

    science and tech meet-up groups per month

The data above was researched by SQW for Advanced Oxford in 2018 to generate evidence on the scale of the knowledge-intensive activity within the Oxford region. The research was based on the most recent official datasets produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and big data sources from Belmana with supplementary information from Dynamic Cities Index (Savills, 2018) and Oxfordshire Transformative Technologies Alliance: Science & Innovation Audit (2017).