The cybersecurity sector in Catalonia generates a turnover of 1,200 million euros (figures for 2022, the latest available), 16% more than the previous year and the highest figure ever recorded. That is one of the main conclusions of the annual report entitled ‘Cybersecurity in Catalonia’, produced by the Government through the Cybersecurity Agency of Catalonia and the Ministry of Business and Labour, according to which Catalonia is now consolidated as one of the leading regions in Europe in this field.

The study, which is being presented this week as part of the IoT Solutions World Congress at the Fira de Barcelona trade fair centre in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, highlights the growth of this sector in Catalonia. It is currently made up of 516 Catalan companies, an increase of 50% over the last five years, which account for 9,458 skilled jobs.

The vast majority of the companies working in cybersecurity in Catalonia are small and medium-sized (85.3%), and 27.5% of them export their services. As for turnover per company, 54.5% exceeded one million euros and 24.2% recorded more than 10 million euros a year.

Catalonia – a leader in Europe

As regards international positioning, the study shows that Catalonia is the third-ranked region in the European Union in terms of attracting the most foreign investment projects in 2023. It attracted a total of more than 66 million euros, leading to the creation of 400 new jobs. This included investments by multinationals such as T-Systems, getronics and aDvens.

Aside from the presence of multinationals such as CISCO, IBM and Microsoft, the study highlights the presence in Catalonia of a dozen bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and postgraduate courses specialising in cybersecurity, as well as around fifty vocational training courses. There are also top-level technology centres and research institutes including i2Cat, Eurecat, the Computer Vision Centre (CVC), the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) and the Telecommunications Technology Centre of Catalonia (CTTC).