International R&D comparison

R&D is performed and funded primarily by a small number of developed nations.

• In 2002 (the latest year of available data), global R&D expenditures totaled at least $813 billion, of which 45% was accounted for by the two largest countries in terms of R&D performance, the United States and Japan.
• The R&D performance of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, which accounted for $657 billion in 2002, grew to $726 billion in 2004. The G-7 countries performed more than 83% of OECD R&D in 2004. Outside of the G-7 countries, South Korea is the only country that accounted for a substantial share of the OECD total.
• More money was spent on R&D activities in the United States in 2004 than in the rest of the G-7 countries combined.
• In 2004, Brazil performed an estimated $14 billion of R&D, and India performed an estimated $21 billion in 2000, making it the seventh largest country in terms of R&D in that year, ahead of South Korea.
• China had the fourth largest expenditures on R&D in 2000 ($45 billion), which increased in 2005 to an estimated $115 billion. Given the lack of R&D-specific exchange rates, it is difficult to draw conclusions from these absolute R&D figures, but the country's nearly decade-long, steep ramp-up of R&D expenditures appears unprecedented in the recent past.