United States Research and Development Spending as a Share of GDP by Year 2000-2023

About This Dataset

US gross domestic spending on research and development as a percentage of GDP, by year, from 2000 to 2023, from the World Bank series compiled from UNESCO Institute for Statistics data. It counts research performed in the United States by business, federal and state government, universities and non-profit institutions.

✨ AI Insight

US research intensity was remarkably flat for the first fifteen years of this series, moving only between 2.49 percent of GDP in 2004 and 2.79 percent in 2009. The sustained move up begins in 2016 and runs unbroken through 2022: 2.84, 2.88, 2.99, 3.14, 3.42, 3.47, 3.49 percent. The single biggest step is 2020, up 0.28 points, the largest in the series. Then 2023 breaks the run, slipping 0.04 points to 3.45 percent - the first decline since 2012, and enough to leave 2022 as the peak year rather than the final one. Over the full period US research intensity rose by 0.83 points, or 32 percent.

Source: World Bank / UNESCO Institute for Statistics

Key Findings

Auto-computed highlights from this dataset

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2022 leads with 3 in 2000-2023.

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Average value in 2000-2023: 3 · median: 3.

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Gap in 2000-2023: 2022 is 1.4× larger than 2004.