The information and communication technology (ICT) sector is composed of specialised enterprises of industry (ICT goods production), enterprises trading ICT goods (ICT wholesale trade) and enterprises providing services in the field of IT and telecommunications (ICT services) as their principal activity.
In 2016 the ICT sector comprised 107,170 enterprises. Their number was up by 4,050 (+3.9%) compared with the previous year. Most of these enterprises (97,664 or 91.1%) belonged to the service sector. Enterprises of the ICT sector employed 1.2 million people, which is an increase of 50,839 (+4.4%) from 2015.
The turnover of ICT enterprises in Germany amounted to 343.9 billion euros in 2016 (excluding turnover tax). This is an increase in turnover of 6.5 billion euros (+1.9%) on the previous year. The largest turnover was recorded in the ICT service sector (212.2 billion euros or 61.7%).
The ICT sector invested 18.6 billion euros in 2016. After investments in 2015 (20.7 billion euros) had increased markedly from 2014 (14.8 billion euros), they declined by 2.1 billion euros in 2016 year on year.