Today’s infographic compares Research and development expenditure for nearly every country in the world. It uses data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics adjusted for purchasing-power parity (PPP).
Measuring R&D Spend
As you can see, R&D expenditures are heavily concentrated at the top of the food chain:
Rank Country R&D Spending (PPP) Global share (%)
| #1 | United States | $476.5 billion | 26.4% |
| #2 | China | $370.6 billion | 20.6% |
| #3 | Japan | $170.5 billion | 9.5% |
| #4 | Germany | $109.8 billion | 6.1% |
| #5 | South Korea | $73.2 billion | 4.1% |
| #6 | France | $60.8 billion | 3.4% |
| #7 | India | $48.1 billion | 2.7% |
| #8 | United Kingdom | $44.2 billion | 2.5% |
| #9 | Brazil | $42.1 billion | 2.3% |
| #10 | Russia | $39.8 billion | 2.2% |
| #11 | Italy | $29.6 billion | 1.6% |
| #12 | Canada | $27.6 billion | 1.5% |
| #13 | Australia | $23.1 billion | 1.3% |
| #14 | Spain | $19.3 billion | 1.1% |
| #15 | Netherlands | $16.5 billion | 0.9% |
All other countries $249.8 billion 13.9%
Put together the numbers for the U.S. ($476.5 billion) and China ($370.6 billion), and it amounts to 47.0% of total global R&D expenditures. Add in Japan and Germany, and the total goes to 62.5%.
At same time, the countries left off the above list don’t even combine for 15% of the world’s total R&D expenditures.
Source: https://howmuch.net/articles/research-development-spending-by-country
