Research and development (R&D) investment reached 1.92% of global GDP in 2023, up from 1.71% in 2015. Yet investment remains uneven: 73% of countries devoted less than 1% of GDP to R&D in 2023, while Europe and Northern America reached 2.55%. These statistics show both the growth of scientific capacity and the persistent geographic concentration of research.
Contents
- Global investment and long-term trends
- R&D intensity across economies and regions
- Who performs R&D?
- Business-sector R&D
- Government and higher-education funding
- Researchers and gender patterns
Global investment and long-term trends
The broadest measure of R&D effort is R&D expenditure as a share of GDP, often called R&D intensity. It allows economies of different sizes to be compared by measuring research spending relative to the resources they produce.
According to the 2026 R&D Data Release from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, global R&D expenditure rose from 1.71% of global GDP in 2015 to 1.92% in 2023. The increase indicates a larger global commitment to research over that period, but it does not mean that every country followed the same path. In 2023, 73% of countries invested less than 1% of GDP in R&D.
Regional differences were substantial in 2023. Europe and Northern America had the highest regional R&D intensity, at 2.55% of GDP. Eastern and South-Eastern Asia reached 2.42%, while Sub-Saharan Africa recorded 0.38%. The gap between these regional measures is important when interpreting global averages: a worldwide percentage combines economies with very different research systems, income levels, and institutional capacity.
The OECD reported that inflation-adjusted R&D expenditure increased 2.4% from 2022 to 2023. Growth had been 3.6% in 2022, so the pace slowed in 2023. Even with that slowdown, OECD R&D intensity increased from 2.3% of GDP in 2013 to 2.7% in 2023. China’s inflation-adjusted R&D expenditure grew 8.7% in 2023, above the OECD growth rate.
These OECD figures are inflation-adjusted growth measures, whereas the UNESCO figures above describe R&D intensity and researcher density. They should not be treated as interchangeable indicators: one tracks real expenditure growth, another tracks expenditure relative to GDP, and another describes personnel.
R&D intensity across economies and regions
National R&D intensity can vary considerably even within a shared economic grouping. The OECD’s 2023 figures put Israel at the top, with R&D equal to 6.3% of GDP. Korea recorded 5.0%. The EU’s R&D intensity was 2.2% of GDP in 2023, unchanged from 2022.
The OECD Science, Technology and Innovation Outlook 2025 also reports different inflation-adjusted expenditure growth rates for major economies in 2023. Japan’s R&D expenditure grew 2.7%, Korea’s grew 3.7%, U.S. growth was 1.7%, and EU growth was 1.6%.
Within the EU, Sweden had the highest R&D intensity in 2023, at 3.6% of GDP. Romania had the lowest, at 0.5%. The Eurostat report on EU R&D spending records these figures alongside the EU-wide result. The comparison illustrates why a regional average can conceal large differences among member states.
| Measure | Geography | Value | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| R&D intensity | Israel | 6.3% of GDP | 2023 |
| R&D intensity | Korea | 5.0% of GDP | 2023 |
| R&D intensity | EU | 2.2% of GDP | 2023 |
| R&D intensity | Sweden | 3.6% of GDP | 2023 |
| R&D intensity | Romania | 0.5% of GDP | 2023 |
R&D intensity is not a direct measure of scientific quality or research outcomes. It describes the scale of expenditure relative to GDP. Comparing it with sector shares, researcher counts, and funding sources gives a fuller picture of how research systems are organized.
Who performs R&D?
The performing sector matters because research carried out by businesses has different objectives, funding patterns, and time horizons from work conducted by universities or government institutions. In the OECD, the business sector performed 73.6% of total gross domestic expenditure on R&D (GERD) in 2023. Its share had risen from 66% in 2010.
China shows a similar long-term shift toward business performance. The share of R&D performed by Chinese businesses increased from 60% in 2000 to 77.7% in 2023. These are shares of performed R&D, not necessarily shares of all funding, so they should not be read as a complete account of who ultimately paid for every project.
EU spending in 2023 was distributed across four performing sectors. Business enterprises accounted for 66%, or €253.1 billion. Higher education accounted for 21%, or €81.7 billion. Government institutions accounted for 11%, or €41.0 billion, while private nonprofit organizations accounted for 1%, or €5.5 billion. The percentages are rounded sector shares reported by Eurostat.
The U.S. sector picture includes both higher education and government activity. U.S. higher education performed $94 billion of R&D in 2022, equal to 11% of national R&D. The U.S. federal government performed $72 billion, including $45 billion intramurally and $27 billion at federally funded research and development centers. Nonprofit organizations performed $28 billion, or 3% of national R&D. These figures come from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics and refer to 2022.
Business-sector R&D
U.S. business R&D performance reached $721.792 billion in 2023, an increase of 4.4% from 2022. Company-funded sources supplied $635 billion, while other sources supplied $86 billion. The NCSES business R&D report describes these as domestic business R&D performance figures.
The 2023 total was concentrated in development rather than the two research categories. U.S. business R&D comprised $43 billion in basic research, $110 billion in applied research, and $568 billion in development. The categories describe the type of work performed; they are not forecasts of future commercial success or measures of research quality.
Manufacturing industries performed $394 billion, or 55%, of U.S. domestic business R&D in 2023. Nonmanufacturing industries performed $328 billion, or 45%. Together, these figures account for the reported $722 billion total after rounding.
External support was also targeted by industry and source. The federal government provided $32 billion of external funding for U.S. business R&D in 2023. Aerospace products and parts received $19 billion of federal funding. Pharmaceuticals and medicines received $9 billion of foreign-company funding. These funding figures identify selected sources and recipients; they do not represent the full R&D budgets of those industries.
Government and higher-education funding
Government budget allocations provide a forward-looking view of planned public R&D support, so they should be distinguished from completed expenditure. The EU allocated an estimated €130.2 billion to R&D in 2025, equal to 0.69% of GDP. The estimate was up 2.4% from €127.144 billion in 2024 and up 60.5% from 2015. EU government R&D budget allocations were €288.9 per inhabitant in 2025.
Per-inhabitant allocations varied sharply across the EU. Luxembourg had the highest allocation, at €917.2 per inhabitant in 2025. Romania had the lowest, at €18.8. The figures are government budget allocations rather than a claim that each euro had already been spent. They are reported by Eurostat, which identifies the 2025 values as estimates.
Higher education is another major research setting. U.S. higher-education R&D totaled $108.8 billion in current dollars in fiscal year 2023, up from $97.8 billion in fiscal year 2022. Federal funding accounted for almost $60 billion, or 55%, of the FY 2023 total. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services funded $33.1 billion, equal to 30% of the total. These figures are from Higher Education R&D Expenditures Increased 11.2%; current-dollar values are not inflation-adjusted.
Researchers and gender patterns
Research capacity also depends on people, not only money. The global number of researchers increased from 1,141 per million inhabitants in 2015 to 1,486 per million in 2023. In 2023, Europe and Northern America had 4,358 researchers per million inhabitants, compared with 88 per million in Sub-Saharan Africa. These densities show the scale of the geographic difference in available research personnel.
Women represented 31.4% of researchers globally in 2023, up from 29.5% in 2013. The increase marks progress over the decade, while the 2023 share also indicates that women remained a minority of researchers globally.
The EU had 2.15 million full-time-equivalent researchers in 2024, 679,000 more than in 2014. Business enterprises employed 57.0% of EU researchers in 2024, compared with 31.6% in higher education and 10.1% in government. The Eurostat R&D personnel statistics use full-time-equivalent researchers for the EU total and employment shares.
Researcher numbers also grew strongly in selected Asian economies. China had 3.01 million researchers in 2023, more than twice its 2013 level. South Korea’s researcher count increased 52.3% between 2013 and 2023. In the EU, women accounted for 34.3% of researchers by head count in 2023, while men accounted for 65.7%.
Together, the spending and personnel measures point to a research landscape that is expanding but uneven. Global intensity and researcher density increased over time, business enterprises perform most R&D in several major systems, and public and higher-education funding remain substantial parts of national research capacity. The measurement period and definition behind each statistic remain essential when comparing countries, sectors, or years.