Real-Time Industrial Classifications

UK Photonics Industry

Discover the UK’s Photonics industry and the companies working with advanced optical technologies. View company data, industry trends, market size, financials and download our free sector report today.

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What is Photonics?

Photonics refers to the physical science of light waves. A branch of optics (the study of the behavior and properties of light), Photonics describes the generation, detection and manipulation of light.

In the UK, the Photonics industry is made up of a wide range of companies designing, manufacturing and using advanced optical technologies. This includes those working in microelectronics, remote sensing, telecommunications and even quantum technology. Examples of Photonics include lasers, smartphone screens and cameras and fibre optic cables.

Photonics sector summary

Key information you should know about the Photonics sector from our AI-driven platform of over 5 million companies:

Photonics has turnover of £16.17bn, meaning it is our 39th largest RTIC, and our 5th fastest growing sector.
The Photonics sector has not received additional investor attention in recent years and the amount of venture capital funding is not increasing as fast as our other emerging economy sectors.
On average the roles advertised in this sector are 10.4% lower than the UK’s average salary.

1,263

COMPANIES CONSIDERED

£16.2bn

TOTAL TURNOVER

125,557

TOTAL EMPLOYEES

£2.3bn

TOTAL INVESTMENT FUNDING

£290.0m

TOTAL INNOVATE UK GRANT FUNDING

35.2%

AVERAGE COMPANY GROWTH PER YEAR

Photonics verticals

Our Photonics RTIC is made up of 7 individual industry verticals, including verticals such as Industry 4.0, Microelectronics, Optics. You can find out more about the verticals by buying a report, visualising the sector on our platform, or by downloading the data.

Sector Code Description Records
RTIC0027 Photonics 1234 companies
Companies working with advanced optical technologies, often lasers, fibre optic cables, rapid data transmission, etc..

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- Photonics: Industry 4.0
  Companies providing products using photonics technology (i.e, light sensors) for smart factories
  
  308 companies
- Photonics: Microelectronics
  Companies using advanced photonics technology (i.e, laser) for the manufacture of microelectronics
  
  135 companies
- Photonics: Optics
  Companies developing specialised optical products
  
  356 companies
- Photonics: Photovoltaics
  Companies producing photovoltaic technology and/or derived products
  
  261 companies
- Photonics: Quantum Tech
  Companies applying photonics technology and knowledge into the development of quantum technologies
  
  229 companies
- Photonics: Smart Sensors
  Companies supplying remote monitoring products that use photonics technology
  
  341 companies
- Photonics: Telecommunications
  Companies applying photonics technology and knowledge to the development of telecommunications infrastructure, products and services
  
  188 companies

Photonics industry growth

We estimate that the UK Photonics sector could be worth approximately £73.1bn by 2027, based on the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 35.2%. Below you can see the five year turnover forecast for the RTIC from 2023 to 2027.

Get your free Photonics report

Dig deeper into the UK’s Photonics Economy with our free 2023 RTIC report, which includes:

– Summary of RTIC data & industry performance
– Overview of key verticals
– Geographic analysis & breakdown
– Key insights & trends

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Real-Time Industrial Classifications (RTICs)

At The Data City we’re mapping the emerging economy through accurate and reliable real-time data. We’ve produced Real-Time Industrial Classifications (RTICs) for some of the UK’s fastest growing sectors, across over 350 industry verticals, including the Photonics industry.

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