Technology

Ranked: Countries Investing the Most in R&D

Published

1 month ago

April 17, 2025

Dorothy Neufeld

Graphics/Design:

Sabrina Lam

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Visualizing R&D Investment by Country

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Key Takeaways

Israel spent $28.3 billion on research and development (R&D) in 2023 to reach 6.3% of GDP—more than double the OECD average.
South Korea falls next in line, with an R&D intensity of 5% of GDP, driven mainly from private sector funding.
Meanwhile, the U.S. spent 3.4% of GDP on R&D, amounting to $823.4 billion, the highest level in the world.

Globally, research and development (R&D) spending totaled $2.8 trillion in 2023—growing from $1 trillion, adjusted for inflation, since the turn of the century.

Overall, Asian economies accounted for 46% of this spending, followed by North America (29%) and Europe (21%). As a critical driver of innovation, R&D investment shapes countless industries, from defense and healthcare to tech and green energy.

This graphic shows R&D investment as a percentage of GDP by country, based on data from the OECD.

Ranked: The R&D Intensity of OECD Countries

Below, we show OECD countries by R&D spending as a share of GDP in 2023, based on the most recent data available:

Country	R&D Spending as a % of GDP 2023
🇮🇱 Israel	6.3
🇰🇷 South Korea	5.0
🇹🇼 Taiwan	4.0
🇸🇪 Sweden	3.6
🇺🇸 United States	3.4
🇯🇵 Japan	3.4
🇧🇪 Belgium	3.3
🇨🇭 Switzerland	3.3
🇦🇹 Austria	3.3
🇩🇪 Germany	3.1
🇫🇮 Finland	3.1
🇩🇰 Denmark	3.0
🇬🇧 United Kingdom	2.8
🇮🇸 Iceland	2.7
🇨🇳 China	2.6
🇳🇱 Netherlands	2.2
🇫🇷 France	2.2
🇸🇮 Slovenia	2.1
🇳🇴 Norway	1.9
🇸🇬 Singapore	1.8
🇪🇪 Estonia	1.8
🇨🇿 Czechia	1.8
🇨🇦 Canada	1.8
🇵🇹 Portugal	1.7
🇦🇺 Australia	1.7
🇮🇪 Ireland	1.6
🇵🇱 Poland	1.6
🇪🇸 Spain	1.5
🇬🇷 Greece	1.5
🇳🇿 New Zealand	1.5
🇹🇷 Türkiye	1.4
🇭🇷 Croatia	1.4
🇭🇺 Hungary	1.4
🇮🇹 Italy	1.3
🇱🇹 Lithuania	1.0
🇸🇰 Slovak Republic	1.0
🇱🇺 Luxembourg	1.0
🇱🇻 Latvia	0.8
🇧🇬 Bulgaria	0.8
🇿🇦 South Africa	0.6
🇦🇷 Argentina	0.6
🇷🇴 Romania	0.5
🇨🇱 Chile	0.4
🇨🇴 Colombia	0.3
🇨🇷 Costa Rica	0.3

Since 2020, OECD countries have spent an average of 2.7% of their GDP on R&D, altogether spending $1.9 trillion in 2023.

Israel stands out globally—not only for leading in R&D intensity, but also for having the highest number of high-tech startups per capita. Overall, it spent $28.3 billion on R&D, with about 92% driven by the private sector.

Also seeing among the highest R&D to GDP are South Korea, Taiwan, and Sweden.

In Taiwan, corporate R&D investment rose by 3.7% in 2023, a slowdown compared to the 8.8% annual average over the previous five years—largely fueled by the semiconductor sector. The small island nation spent $59.9 billion on R&D in 2023, the eighth-highest in the OECD.

When it comes to China, R&D investment has surged nearly eighteenfold since 2000, to reach $723 billion—the second-highest globally. To look at it another way, China’s share of global R&D spending grew from 4% to 26% over the period. Overall, the private sector contributed 77.6% of this spending in 2023, a similar level seen in America.