Data for 2008

Research and Development Spending, 2008

Name: Research and Development Spending, 2008
Creator: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)
License: https://uis.unesco.org/

Figures for 2008, as UIS published them · stored as published, never rewritten

Research and Development Spending, 2008 covers 97 countries. Israel is highest, at 4.24165; Gambia is lowest, at 0.01261. The middle country reads 0.52409. Against 2007, 85 values changed (53 up, 32 down), 12 countries joined, 11 left.

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Research and Development Spending · Data for 2008

HighestIsrael

4.24165

LowestGambia

0.01261

Shaded by value in five groups of equal size, darkest at the better end.

97countries
1measure
2008the year it describes
97distinct values5 decimals, as published
Sep 10, 2026read from the publisher
CC BY-SA 4.0licence

01Position · derived

The table

Every country and every column of Research and Development Spending, 2008, as published. UIS ranks nobody on this measure; the position is derived here by ordering the published values. “=” marks a shared position.

Search this table

Showing 25 of 97 countries · select a heading to sort

Research and Development Spending, 2008: every country, as published by UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS).
derived
1	Israel`ISR`Western Asia	4.24165
2	Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	3.53719
3	Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	3.49083
4	Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	3.29224
5	South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	2.86774
6	Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	2.76081
7	United States`USA`Northern America	2.74481
8	Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	2.65296
9	Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	2.59673
10	Austria`AUT`Western Europe	2.58632
11	Germany`DEU`Western Europe	2.57152
12	Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	2.46413
13	Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	2.39898
14	France`FRA`Western Europe	2.06363
15	Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	1.93684
16	Canada`CAN`Northern America	1.85578
17	Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	1.63465
18	Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	1.61247
19	United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	1.60901
20	Luxembourg`LUX`Western Europe	1.54663
21	Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	1.54556
22	Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	1.44335
23	China`CHN`Eastern Asia	1.42330
24	Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	1.39126
25	Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	1.32156
26	Estonia`EST`Northern Europe	1.25182
27	Czechia`CZE`Eastern Europe	1.23520
28	Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	1.15548
29	Brazil`BRA`South America	1.12904
30	Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	1.04435
31	Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	0.97817
32	Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	0.87629
33	India`IND`Southern Asia	0.85876
34	Ukraine`UKR`Eastern Europe	0.80991
35	South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	0.80567
36	Lithuania`LTU`Northern Europe	0.78876
37	Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	0.78847
38	Belarus`BLR`Eastern Europe	0.74147
39	Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	0.71996
40	Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	0.68741
41	Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	0.67086
42	Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	0.64647
43	Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	0.64463
44	Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	0.63933
45	Latvia`LVA`Northern Europe	0.60627
46	Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	0.59719
47	Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	0.55215
48	Moldova`MDA`Eastern Europe	0.53463
49	Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	0.52409
50	Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	0.51090
51	Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	0.50061
52	Argentina`ARG`South America	0.47055
53	Slovakia`SVK`Eastern Europe	0.46160
54	Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	0.44731
55	Mexico`MEX`Central America	0.42416
56	Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	0.42154
57	Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	0.38594
58	Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	0.38593
59	Chile`CHL`South America	0.37492
60	Uruguay`URY`South America	0.37442
61	Mongolia`MNG`Eastern Asia	0.33667
62	Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	0.32632
63	Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	0.29374
64	Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	0.27819
65	Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	0.27024
66	Venezuela`VEN`South America	0.23803
67	Ecuador`ECU`South America	0.23011
68	Armenia`ARM`Western Asia	0.22438
69	North Macedonia`MKD`Southern Europe	0.22358
70	Kazakhstan`KAZ`Central Asia	0.21654
71	Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	0.20331
72	Colombia`COL`South America	0.19541
73	Uzbekistan`UZB`Central Asia	0.19354
74	Kyrgyzstan`KGZ`Central Asia	0.19017
75	Panama`PAN`Central America	0.18646
76	Bermuda`BMU`Northern America	0.16848
77	Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	0.16568
78	Azerbaijan`AZE`Western Asia	0.16554
79	Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	0.15417
80	Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	0.14973
81	Palestine`PSE`Western Asia	0.14914
82	Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	0.13607
83	El Salvador`SLV`Central America	0.13399
84	Madagascar`MDG`Eastern Africa	0.11764
85	Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	0.11444
86	Macau`MAC`Eastern Asia	0.10106
87	Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	0.08551
88	DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	0.08253
89	Tajikistan`TJK`Central Asia	0.06983
90	Guatemala`GTM`Central America	0.06290
91	Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	0.05439
92	Saudi Arabia`SAU`Western Asia	0.04902
93	Paraguay`PRY`South America	0.04113
94	Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	0.03435
95	Trinidad and Tobago`TTO`Caribbean	0.03072
96	Bosnia and Herzegovina`BIH`Southern Europe	0.01842
97	Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	0.01261

02In 2008

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

1Israel4.24165
2Finland3.53719
3Sweden3.49083
4Japan3.29224
5South Korea2.86774

Lowest

97Gambia0.01261
96Bosnia and Herzegovina0.01842
95Trinidad and Tobago0.03072
94Iraq0.03435
93Paraguay0.04113

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 0.52409. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

032007 → 2008

Since 2007

What changed between 2007 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

+12 / −11countries joined / left
85values changed, of 85 in both
53 · 32rose · fell
0unchanged

Rose most

Portugal1.12417 → 1.44335+0.31918
Singapore2.31986 → 2.59673+0.27687
Denmark2.50921 → 2.76081+0.25160
Sweden3.24176 → 3.49083+0.24907
Slovenia1.43261 → 1.63465+0.20204

Fell most

Belarus0.96203 → 0.74147−0.22056
Russia1.11611 → 1.04435−0.07176
Iceland2.53294 → 2.46413−0.06881
Uganda0.38821 → 0.32632−0.06189
Czechia1.29670 → 1.23520−0.06150

+ Australia

+ Switzerland

+ Gambia

+ Iran

+ Jordan

+ Sri Lanka

+ Mozambique

+ Malaysia

+ Nepal

+ Paraguay

+ Senegal

+ Zambia

− Ethiopia

− Ghana

− Kenya

− Mali

− Montenegro

− Nigeria

− New Zealand

− Pakistan

− Philippines

− Tanzania

− United States Virgin Islands

Changes in value, not in places: a country’s place also moves when others do. Every country’s full history is charted on the statistic page.

04Caveats

Read before you use

What this edition’s numbers are and are not, worked out from the file itself.

How values are stored

The position is ours
UIS publishes values only; the order is this site’s.
Nothing missing
Every one of the 97 countries has every column.

05The files

Download and cite

The table as a file, digit for digit, what this site changed, and a citation for this edition.

Licence in full

.csv
For a spreadsheet or code
97 rows · 3.3 KB · UTF-8, opens in Excel
Opens with 11 lines of source notes; the table starts on row 13.
Download rd-spending-2008-nations-inquiry.csv
↗
The publisher’s original
UIS’s own file, on its own site.
indicators

What this site changed: 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.

Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · what it allows, in plain words

Cite this edition

UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) (2008). Research and Development Spending, 2008 [data set], describing 2008. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/rd-spending/2008

0628 held

Other years

‹ The year before
Research and Development Spending, 2007
96 countries
The year after ›
Research and Development Spending, 2009
95 countries
All of them
Research and Development Spending: every year
28 held, with the data dictionary, coverage and licence.
How it has moved, charted by country

07Questions