R&D Expenditure
R&D Expenditure by country
Commentary
Notable countries
Israel leads the ranking with R&D spending equal to 6.34589% of GDP, followed closely by Liechtenstein at 6.00984%, while South Korea ranks third at 4.94352%. At the other end, Guatemala records the lowest share at 0.00609%, with Mauritania and Madagascar also near zero. A notable surprise is that the global top 10 is dominated by Europe and Asia, with the United States the only North American country in that group.
Regional trends
Europe has the highest continental average at 1.643% of GDP, well above the overall mean of 0.9025, and it also places several countries in the top 10. Oceania ranks second at 1.146, though Papua New Guinea appears among the bottom 10, suggesting uneven performance within the region. Asia’s average is 0.8662, slightly below the global mean, but it includes both the world leader Israel and several of the lowest-ranked countries. North America (0.517), South America (0.4334), and Africa (0.3547) all trail the global average, with Africa posting the lowest regional mean.
Data source
The figures come from the World Bank/UNESCO and measure R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP. The dataset covers 147 countries. Comparisons should be read as shares of national output rather than absolute spending levels.
Interpretation
Higher values indicate that a country devotes a larger share of its economy to research and development, which generally signals stronger support for innovation and knowledge creation. Lower values suggest more limited investment in R&D relative to economic size. Overall, the data show a wide gap between the leading innovation investors and countries allocating very small shares of GDP to R&D. Still, this metric reflects intensity, not total spending or the effectiveness of that spending.