Technology
Visualizing How Much Countries Spend on R&D
Visualizing How Much Countries Spend on R&D
Innovation can be a major competitive advantage for any developed economy.
However, achieving a sustainable rate of innovation isn’t necessarily a straightforward exercise. The reality is that innovation is a complex and difficult outcome to measure, and there are many different variables that factor into it at a national level.
Research and development (R&D) expenditure is certainly one of these factors – and while it doesn’t always directly correlate with innovation outcomes, it does represent time, capital, and effort being put into researching and designing the products of the future.
Measuring R&D Spend
Today’s infographic comes to us from HowMuch.net, and it compares R&D numbers for nearly every country in the world. It uses data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics adjusted for purchasing-power parity (PPP).
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.
As a Percentage of GDP
Measuring R&D in absolute terms shows where most of the world’s research happens, but it fails to capture the countries that are spending more in relative terms.
Which countries allocate the highest percentage of their economy to research and development?
Rank | Country | R&D (as a % of GDP) |
---|---|---|
#1 | South Korea | 4.3% |
#2 | Israel | 4.2% |
#3 | Japan | 3.4% |
#4 | Switzerland | 3.2% |
#5 | Finland | 3.2% |
#6 | Austria | 3.1% |
#7 | Sweden | 3.1% |
#8 | Denmark | 2.9% |
#9 | Germany | 2.9% |
#10 | United States | 2.7% |
As you can see, countries like South Korea and Japan allocate the highest portion of their economies to R&D, which is part of the reason they rank so highly on the list in absolute terms as well.
Meanwhile, there are some smaller economies – namely Israel (4.2%) – that spend a far higher portion than normal on research.
Technology
Charted: The Jobs Most Impacted by AI
We visualized the results of an analysis by the World Economic Forum, which uncovered the jobs most impacted by AI.
Charted: The Jobs Most Impacted by AI
This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.
Large language models (LLMs) and other generative AI tools haven’t been around for very long, but they’re expected to have far-reaching impacts on the way people do their jobs. With this in mind, researchers have already begun studying the potential impacts of this transformative technology.
In this graphic, we’ve visualized the results of a World Economic Forum report, which estimated how different job departments will be exposed to AI disruption.
Data and Methodology
To identify the job departments most impacted by AI, researchers assessed over 19,000 occupational tasks (e.g. reading documents) to determine if they relied on language. If a task was deemed language-based, it was then determined how much human involvement was needed to complete that task.
With this analysis, researchers were then able to estimate how AI would impact different occupational groups.
Department | Large impact (%) | Small impact (%) | No impact (%) |
---|---|---|---|
IT | 73 | 26 | 1 |
Finance | 70 | 21 | 9 |
Customer Sales | 67 | 16 | 17 |
Operations | 65 | 18 | 17 |
HR | 57 | 41 | 2 |
Marketing | 56 | 41 | 3 |
Legal | 46 | 50 | 4 |
Supply Chain | 43 | 18 | 39 |
In our graphic, large impact refers to tasks that will be fully automated or significantly altered by AI technologies. Small impact refers to tasks that have a lesser potential for disruption.
Where AI will make the biggest impact
Jobs in information technology (IT) and finance have the highest share of tasks expected to be largely impacted by AI.
Within IT, tasks that are expected to be automated include software quality assurance and customer support. On the finance side, researchers believe that AI could be significantly useful for bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing.
Still interested in AI? Check out this graphic which ranked the most commonly used AI tools in 2023.
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