Source: HowMuch.net (Click to view full size image).
For any developed economy, innovation can be a major competitive advantage.
However, achieving a sustainable innovation rate has never been easy. In fact, innovation is a complex and difficult to calculate result, and there are many different factors that can affect it at the national level.
Research and development (R&D) costs are clearly one of those components. Although R&D is not always commensurate with the results of innovation, it is still representative of the time, effort and capital invested in the research and design of future products.
Calculating R&D costs
Information from HowMuch.net and data are taken from UNESCO Institute for Statistics, adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP). This information compares the amount invested in R&D by all countries in the world.
As you can see, R&D costs are concentrated largely in developed economies:
Only R&D costs of the US (476.5 billion USD) and China (370.6 billion USD) accounted for 47% of the total global R&D costs. If adding Japan and Germany, this figure is up to 62.5%.
At the same time, the countries at the bottom of the list account for less than 15% of global R&D costs.
The number of R&D in Vietnam is about 1.8 billion USD.
GDP ratio for R&D
Calculating R&D costs under absolute conditions shows that most countries invest in R&D, but do not evaluate which countries invest more.
Which country allocates the highest percentage of GDP to research and development?
South Korea and Japan are the most "paying" countries, so these two countries also rank quite high in the list under absolute conditions.
Meanwhile, some smaller economies, particularly Isael (4.2%), have the highest percentage of R&D on GDP.
|
Rank |
Country |
R&D (Proportion % Rank) |
|---|---|---|
|
#1 |
Korea |
4,3% |
|
#2 |
Israel |
4,2% |
|
#3 |
Japan |
3,4% |
|
#4 |
Switzerland |
3,2% |
|
#5 |
Finland |
3,2% |
|
#6 |
Austria |
3,1% |
|
#7 |
Sweden |
3,1% |
|
#8 |
Denmark |
2,9% |
|
#9 |
Germany |
2,9% |
|
#10 |
USA |
2,7% |
