Research and development worldwide - Statistics & Facts

Research and development (R&D) refers to the activities which governments and corporations undertake to create new products and services, and/or improve existing products and services. R&D includes both the work done by engineers to develop specific new products, as well as research done by industrial scientists that may result in future unspecified products. Aside from the cost of salaries, R&D requires significant investment in materials and equipment. This makes R&D a very expensive process, with total global R&D expenditures amounting to almost 2.5 trillion U.S. dollars in 2022 (once local currencies are adjusted for purchasing power parity). The United States and China are by far the two largest spenders, with R&D spending of around 680 billion U.S. dollars and 550 billion U.S. dollars respectively in 2022. However, when expenditure is considered as a share of overall gross domestic product, smaller countries with tech-heavy economies such as Israel and South Korea invest larger shares of their GDPs into R&D.

Leading R&D industries

The two industries accounting for the highest share of R&D spending worldwide are ICT software producers and health industries, accounting for about 20 and 17 percent of global R&D expenditure, respectively. ICT hardware companies are also heavy investors. Although all of these sectors have a global presence, different regions outspend each other in different areas: while the United States is the largest R&D spender within software and health care, Europe is a large spender within automobiles & transport. Moreover, China is dominating R&D spending in construction. R&D-intensive industries also have differing levels of importance to different economies, with high-intensity R&D exports being more central to European and Asian economies than in other regions.

Leading R&D companies

Amazon top the list of largest corporate R&D spenders, investing over 70 billion U.S. dollars in R&D in 2022. Most of the other major spenders were producers of information and communication technology (ICT). This is a result not only of their need to create new consumer products, but also because many of these companies are at the cutting edge of developing future, high-growth technologies like artificial intelligence. Corporate investment in healthcare R&D is also expected to remain high into the near future, despite this industry seeing a decrease in return on investment over recent years, with the exception of 2021.

Influence of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the R&D sectror

Of course, all market-based projections made prior to the global COVID-19 pandemic need to be taken with caution. However, key R&D markets such as healthcare and computing have been relied upon in global efforts to deal with the crisis: pharmaceutical R&D has been necessary to develop a vaccine, while computing and software technology has helped reducing social contact.
This text provides general information. Statista assumes no liability for the information given being complete or correct. Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date data than referenced in the text.
Published by Statista Research Department, Sep 21, 2023

Key insights

Total global spending on R&D
2.48tr USD
Leading country for R&D spending
United States
Company spending the most on R&D
Amazon
Get more insights

Editor’s Picks Current statistics on this topic

Leading countries by gross research and development (R&D) expenditure worldwide in 2022 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Science & Research

Leading countries by R&D spending worldwide 2022

Leading countries by research and development (R&D) expenditure as share of gross domestic product (GDP) worldwide in 2022

Science & Research

Leading countries by R&D spending as share of GDP globally 2022

Ranking of the companies with the highest spending on research and development worldwide in 2022 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Business Enterprise

Companies with the highest spending on research and development 2022

Related topics

Recommended

5

Recommended statistics

Global R&D spending

7

Global R&D spending

Industry and geographic distribution

5

Industry and geographic distribution

Pharmaceuticals & healthcare

7

Pharmaceuticals & healthcare

Software, computing, communication & electronics

7

Software, computing, communication & electronics

Automotive, Aerospace & Defense

5

Automotive, Aerospace & Defense

Chemicals, Energy & Industrial Manufacturing

6

Chemicals, Energy & Industrial Manufacturing

Further reportsGet the best reports to understand your industry

Contact

Get in touch with us. We are happy to help.
Statista Locations
Contact Meredith Alda
Meredith Alda
Sales Manager– Contact (United States)
Email
support@statista.com

Mon - Fri, 9am - 6pm (EST)

Contact Yolanda Mega
Yolanda Mega
Operations Manager– Contact (Asia)
Email
asia.support@statista.com

Mon - Fri, 9am - 5pm (SGT)

Contact Kisara Mizuno
Kisara Mizuno
Senior Business Development Manager– Contact (Asia)
Email
support.japan@statista.com

Mon - Fri, 10:00am - 6:00pm (JST)

Contact Lodovica Biagi
Lodovica Biagi
Director of Operations– Contact (Europe)
Email
eu.support@statista.com

Mon - Fri, 9:30am - 5pm (GMT)

Contact Carolina Dulin
Carolina Dulin
Group Director - LATAM– Contact (Latin America)
Email
latam@statista.com

Mon - Fri, 9am - 6pm (EST)

Menu