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Journalism of Courage
Top 10 largest countries by R&D spending in 2025: Global research and development (R&D) expenditure reached an estimated $2.87 trillion in 2024, according to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).
This represents a nearly 3 per cent increase from the previous year and almost a threefold rise since 2000, based on data from the Global Innovation Index Database released in December 2024.
Asia continued to expand its share of global R&D, accounting for about 45 per cent of total spending in 2024.
China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea all ranked among the world’s top 10 R&D spenders.
Several emerging economies, including Turkey, Egypt, India, Thailand, Poland, and Saudi Arabia, also increased their global R&D presence during the year.
In contrast, countries such as Germany, France, Italy, Canada, Russia, Brazil, and the United Kingdom recorded declines in their R&D spending shares.
China emerged as the world’s largest R&D spender in 2024, nearly tying with the United States.
Its expenditure reached $785.9 billion, marking an almost 20-fold increase since 2000.
China was also the biggest gainer, increasing its share of global R&D by more than 23 percentage points.
The US ranked second, allocating $781.8 billion to R&D in 2024, roughly double its spending over the past 24 years.
However, the US saw a significant decline of 9.7 percentage points in its share of global R&D.
Japan, which ranked third, experienced a similar trend, with its share falling by 7.2 percentage points.
Reflecting the growing significance of innovation-driven growth across advanced and emerging economies, here are the top 10 countries spending the most on R&D in 2024:
India ranked seventh globally, with R&D spending of $75.73 billion in 2024. While this figure is about one-tenth of China’s expenditure, it represents a more than threefold increase from $20.8 billion over the past two decades.
