We are immersed in a knowledge society that calls for indicators to go beyond economic factors to measure the development of a country. In this paper we use an adapted microeconomic model that determines the value of a country’s intellectual capital. For this, we consider intangibles such as human development, economic structure, international trade, foreign image and innovation. This measurement of intellectual capital is divided into human and structural capital and is used to analyse the relationship between these capitals and the economic development of the 27 countries in the European Union (EU27). The results show that when we consider aspects other than economic variables, the differences between countries are larger. Moreover, there is an inverse relationship between the management of intangibles and economic growth, which is why the former progresses after the latter have occurred.