AmericaUnited States / Opportunity & connection
U.S. Research & Development Spending.
How much of the economy is invested in R&D?
The historical record
Older reporting period2023
Latest observation in this snapshot—not a real-time reading. ↓ <0.1 pp vs 2022.
Fitted vertical axis · missing periods are not interpolated · annual
What the number means
Domestic research and development expenditure as a share of GDP.
R&D expenditure is an input to discovery, not a measure of successful innovations or their public benefit. The GDP denominator also affects the ratio. Translating research into useful access requires additional evidence.
Spending is an input, not a measure of useful discoveries or their equitable distribution.
A better question to ask
Ask an innovation proposal for its research milestones, public benefit, deployment path, and evidence of adoption.
This is a prompt for investigation, not evidence that a particular policy works. A trend alone cannot establish a cause.
Read the related practical guide ↗Exact observations
24 available observations since 2000. Annual and quarterly dates represent the start of the reporting period; fiscal years are labeled explicitly. Display values are rounded to the precision shown; downloads retain the source values.
Open the complete data table
| Reporting period | Period start | Value |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 | 3.4% |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 | 3.5% |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 | 3.5% |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 | 3.4% |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 | 3.1% |
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 | 3.0% |
| 2017 | 2017-01-01 | 2.9% |
| 2016 | 2016-01-01 | 2.8% |
| 2015 | 2015-01-01 | 2.8% |
| 2014 | 2014-01-01 | 2.7% |
| 2013 | 2013-01-01 | 2.7% |
| 2012 | 2012-01-01 | 2.7% |
| 2011 | 2011-01-01 | 2.7% |
| 2010 | 2010-01-01 | 2.7% |
| 2009 | 2009-01-01 | 2.8% |
| 2008 | 2008-01-01 | 2.7% |
| 2007 | 2007-01-01 | 2.6% |
| 2006 | 2006-01-01 | 2.5% |
| 2005 | 2005-01-01 | 2.5% |
| 2004 | 2004-01-01 | 2.5% |
| 2003 | 2003-01-01 | 2.6% |
| 2002 | 2002-01-01 | 2.5% |
| 2001 | 2001-01-01 | 2.6% |
| 2000 | 2000-01-01 | 2.6% |
Follow this series home
- Series identifier
- GB.XPD.RSDV.GD.ZS
- Provider
- World Bank / original statistical sources
- Original source attribution
- Stat Bulk Data Download Service, UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), uri: https://databrowser.uis.unesco.org/resources/bulk, publisher: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), date accessed: 2025-03-26, date published: 2025-02
- Frequency
- Annual
- Source units
- % of GDP
- Displayed units
- % of GDP
- Retrieval time
- 2026-10-04T09:04:46.416Z
- Provider database update
- 2026-07-13 — not the observation date
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