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Dataset · UIS

Research and Development Spending

28 years, 1996–2023 · 84 countries

Research and development spending is everything spent on R&D in a country — by business, government, universities and non-profits — as a share of GDP. It is SDG indicator 9.5.1 and the standard measure of how much of an economy is aimed at producing new knowledge.

This site holds every year from 1996 to 2023, read from UIS’s own data and stored exactly as published.

Open Research and Development Spending, 2023Download all 28 · CSVSee it charted by country →
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Research and Development Spending · the file

Newest
Research and Development Spending, 2023
Held
28 years · 2,437 rows
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

0128 years

Every year

Newest first. Each opens the full table for that year, and each downloads as a CSV.

1996bar height: countries covered, up to 1022023
Every year of Research and Development Spending held on this site, newest first, with its download files.
YearCountriesChangeReadDownload
Research and Development Spending, 2023Newest84+12 −12September 10, 2026CSV
Research and Development Spending, 202284+8 −12September 10, 2026CSV
Research and Development Spending, 202188+10 −9September 10, 2026CSV
Research and Development Spending, 202087+4 −15September 10, 2026CSV
Research and Development Spending, 201998+13 −8September 10, 2026CSV
Research and Development Spending, 201893+9 −12September 10, 2026CSV
Research and Development Spending, 201796+14 −9September 10, 2026CSV
Research and Development Spending, 201691+9 −20September 10, 2026CSV
Research and Development Spending, 2015102+19 −8September 10, 2026CSV
Research and Development Spending, 201491+9 −13September 10, 2026CSV
Research and Development Spending, 201395+15 −6September 10, 2026CSV
Research and Development Spending, 201286+8 −14September 10, 2026CSV
Show all 28 years
YearCountriesChangeReadDownload
Research and Development Spending, 201192+15 −16September 10, 2026CSV
Research and Development Spending, 201093+12 −14September 10, 2026CSV
Research and Development Spending, 200995+7 −9September 10, 2026CSV
Research and Development Spending, 200897+12 −11September 10, 2026CSV
Research and Development Spending, 200796+18 −7September 10, 2026CSV
Research and Development Spending, 200685+7 −15September 10, 2026CSV
Research and Development Spending, 200593+9 −10September 10, 2026CSV
Research and Development Spending, 200494+7 −6September 10, 2026CSV
Research and Development Spending, 200393+13 −14September 10, 2026CSV
Research and Development Spending, 200294+17 −5September 10, 2026CSV
Research and Development Spending, 200182+17 −8September 10, 2026CSV
Research and Development Spending, 200073+10 −5September 10, 2026CSV
Research and Development Spending, 199968+7 −5September 10, 2026CSV
Research and Development Spending, 199866+8 −11September 10, 2026CSV
Research and Development Spending, 199769+21 −4September 10, 2026CSV
Research and Development Spending, 199652—September 10, 2026CSV

Every year in one file, one row per country per year: rd-spending-all-editions-nations-inquiry.csv

023 columns

What’s in the file

Every column, what it holds, how it is stored and what its values look like — what a reader needs before opening the file.

Every column in the newest file of Research and Development Spending: what it holds, how it is stored, and its range.
ColumnWhat it holdsStored asRange, 2023DistinctEmptySpread
CountrycountryNameThe country’s name, as this file spells it.Text—840
ISO Codecountry_codeIdentifierThe ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code, added by this site. Every table here joins on it.Text · 3 letters—840
Gross domestic expenditure on R&D (% of GDP)rd_spending_gdpHeadlineThe headline figure: Gross domestic expenditure on R&D (% of GDP).Number · up to 5 decimals0.00609Guatemala6.34589Israelmiddle 0.81394840

Profiled from the newest file. Range: the lowest and highest value, with the country holding it when only one does. Spread: countries in ten equal steps from lowest to highest. A higher value is the better result.

03156 countries across every year

Who is covered

How many countries each year holds, continent by continent, who joined and who left, and which places this site covers that the dataset never has.

All regions
Countries in each year of Research and Development Spending, by continent.
201220132014201520162017201820192020202120222023
Africa768999794569
Americas202120201618181817161513
Asia232926332829313030272523
Europe363737383738373936383838
Oceania020212020201
All8695911029196939887888484

The newest 12 of 28 years.

Who joined and who left

  • 2023
    + Burkina Faso+ Bhutan+ Switzerland+ Algeria+ Liechtenstein+ Lesotho+ Mali+ New Zealand+ Pakistan+ Rwanda+ Uganda+ Vietnam− Albania− Andorra− Chile− Republic of the Congo− Sri Lanka− Mongolia− Malaysia− Namibia− Singapore− Syria− Trinidad and Tobago− South Africa
  • 2022
    + Andorra+ Republic of the Congo+ Kenya+ Kuwait+ Sri Lanka+ Malaysia+ Namibia+ Syria− United Arab Emirates− Australia− Burkina Faso− Bolivia− Switzerland− Iran− Iraq− Mali− New Zealand− Pakistan− Qatar− Vietnam
  • 2021
    + Albania+ Australia+ Bolivia+ Switzerland+ Iran+ Mali+ New Zealand+ Pakistan+ Qatar+ Vietnam− Bermuda− Colombia− Indonesia− India− Kuwait− Sri Lanka− Malaysia− Philippines− Tajikistan
  • 2020
    + Costa Rica+ Sri Lanka+ Malaysia+ Saudi Arabia− Australia− Bolivia− Switzerland− Honduras− Iran− Liechtenstein− Mali− Montenegro− Malawi− Nigeria− New Zealand− Pakistan− Rwanda− Tunisia− Vietnam
  • 2019
    + Australia+ Burkina Faso+ Bolivia+ Switzerland+ Iran+ Liechtenstein+ Mali+ Malawi+ Nigeria+ New Zealand+ Pakistan+ Rwanda+ Vietnam− Burundi− Brunei− Costa Rica− Gambia− Sri Lanka− Mauritania− Malaysia− Qatar
  • 2018
    + United Arab Emirates+ Burundi+ Bermuda+ Brunei+ Gambia+ Mauritania+ Malaysia+ Philippines+ Qatar− Australia− Burkina Faso− Bolivia− Switzerland− Algeria− Ethiopia− Iran− Madagascar− Mali− New Zealand− Pakistan− Vietnam
  • 2017
    + Australia+ Burkina Faso+ Bolivia+ Switzerland+ Algeria+ Ethiopia+ Honduras+ Iran+ Mali+ Myanmar+ Mauritius+ New Zealand+ Pakistan+ Vietnam− Angola− United Arab Emirates− Côte d’Ivoire− Jordan− Malaysia− Papua New Guinea− Rwanda− Seychelles− Chad
  • 2016
    + Angola+ Côte d’Ivoire+ Indonesia+ Jordan+ Madagascar+ Papua New Guinea+ Rwanda+ Seychelles+ Chad− Australia− Bermuda− Switzerland− DR Congo− Honduras− Iran− Cambodia− Lesotho− Mali− Mozambique− Nicaragua− New Zealand− Pakistan− Philippines− Puerto Rico− Qatar− Senegal− Eswatini− Syria− Vietnam

Not in this dataset · 69 places this site covers

UIS gives no figure for these in any year held here. It is the publisher’s choice of scope, and each place’s profile shows what is measured.

AfghanistanAnguillaAntigua and BarbudaArubaBahamasBangladeshBarbadosBelizeBeninBritish Virgin IslandsCameroonCayman IslandsCentral African RepublicChannel IslandsComorosCook IslandsCuraçaoDjiboutiDominicaDominican RepublicEquatorial GuineaEritreaFijiFrench PolynesiaGibraltarGrenadaGuineaGuinea-BissauGuyanaHaitiIsle of ManKiribatiKosovoLebanonLiberiaLibyaMaldivesMarshall IslandsMicronesiaMontserratNauruNew CaledoniaNigerNiueNorth KoreaNorthern CyprusNorthern Mariana IslandsPalauSaint Kitts and NevisSaint MartinSamoaSan MarinoSão Tomé and PríncipeSierra LeoneSint MaartenSolomon IslandsSomaliaSomalilandSouth SudanSurinameTaiwanTimor-LesteTongaTurks and Caicos IslandsTuvaluVanuatuVatican CityYemenZimbabwe

04Provenance

Where it comes from

The path from the publisher to this page, and what was checked and changed on the way.

The site’s method

  1. 1 · Publisher

    UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)

    databrowser.uis.unesco.org

  2. 2 · Their file

    Research and Development Spending 2023

    indicators

  3. 3 · Read by this site

    September 10, 2026

    Imported by a script that parses each figure and writes it down unrounded.

  4. 4 · Stored as

    28 files, one per year

    Each downloads as a CSV, or every year together as rd-spending-all-editions-nations-inquiry.csv

  5. 5 · Used on

    Its statistic page, and every profile it measures

    /statistics/rd-spending

Precision

The headline is stored to 5 decimals, as published.

Rounded by this site

Never. Tables on screen may show fewer decimals; the files never do.

Changed by this site

Reshaped into one row per country: regional and income-group totals are left out, only the columns listed are kept, each row gets its ISO 3166 code, and some country names are brought to one spelling. No value is recalculated, rescaled or rounded.

From the UNESCO Institute for Statistics data API (gross domestic expenditure on R&D). Years reporting fewer than 50 countries are left out.

05Reuse

Licence and credit

What the publisher’s licence lets you do, what it asks of you, and a credit line and citation ready to copy.

Every publisher’s terms

Licence · checked September 5, 2026

CC BY-SA 4.0

  • Share and redistribute it
  • Adapt it and build on it
  • Use it commercially
  • Credit the publisher
  • Say what you changed
  • Publish anything adapted from it under the same licence

Share, adapt and use commercially with credit — and anything you publish that adapts it must carry the same licence.

A credit line

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), Research and Development Spending, via Nations Inquiry.

Cite this dataset

UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). Research and Development Spending, 1996–2023 [data set]. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/rd-spending

The publisher’s own citation: UNESCO Institute for Statistics. UIS Data Browser. Montreal: UNESCO Institute for Statistics.

Plain-language summary, not legal advice. The licence text is what binds.

06Questions

Research and Development Spending: questions and answers

What is the Research and Development Spending?

Research and development spending is everything spent on R&D in a country — by business, government, universities and non-profits — as a share of GDP. It is SDG indicator 9.5.1 and the standard measure of how much of an economy is aimed at producing new knowledge.

Which years of the Research and Development Spending can I download?

All 28, from 1996 to 2023, each as a CSV file, or every year together in one CSV.

Does UIS rank countries on it?

No. UIS publishes values only. The positions shown on this site are derived by ordering the published values, and are labelled as ours.

Can I use it commercially?

Yes, under CC BY-SA 4.0, with credit to UIS. The licence text is linked on this page.

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