“Researchers are professionals engaged in the conception or creation of new knowledge, products, processes, methods and systems and also in the management of the projects concerned. The measure shown in this map is researchers in full time equivalents divided by the total annual average employed population.”
Of course, quantity does not equal quality, which is much harder to judge objectively, so higher numbers are not necessarily better—but usually they are. Keeping that in mind, take a look at the list of regions where more than 2% of people work in research:
Inner London – West, UK 5.2
Capital Region of Denmark 2.8
Walloon Brabant, Belgium 2.8
Bratislava Region, Slovakia 2.4
Helsinki-Uusimaa, Finland 2.2
Trøndelag, Norway 2.2
Prague, Czech Republic 2.1
Braunschweig, Germany 2.1
Île de France 2.0
Notice nice 4th place for the Bratislava region. :)
Source: jakubmarians blog, Eurostat