Countries That Spend the Most on Research and Development 2021
Key Findings
About This Dataset
Countries That Spend the Most on Research and Development 2021Israel (5.76), South Korea (4.60) and United States (3.47) take the top three. Across the twenty shown, values run from 5.76 down to 1.89, a spread of 3.87. Israel is 1.25 times South Korea, the country in second place. 11 of the 20 reach half the leading figure, 2.88 or more. Israel stood at 5.83 in 2020, so its figure fell by 0.07 over the year. Israel also came first in 2020. Of the 19 in this table that also reported in 2020, 7 recorded a higher figure than the year before and 11 a lower one. The largest single move was Norway, from 2.24 to 1.89. The chart shows the twenty highest of 88 reporting countries, so it describes the top of the distribution rather than the world average.
Data Insights
Numbers, trends & sources behind this chart
Methodology & source
- Data source
- World Bank
- Coverage
- 20 entities · 2021 · 20 observations
- Measure
- R&D Spending (% of GDP)
- Last updated
- 7 September 2026
- Compiled by
- The ANYSTAT team, from the source above
- Values use the measure and unit named on this page. Consult the dataset description and cited source for coverage, definitions and any unit conversions. Displayed values may be rounded for readability.
- Entities are ranked highest-first on their value in 2021.
Data Sources & References
All external sources cited in this dataset
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How these countries rank across all our charts
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