From the UNESCO Science Report, Towards 2030
Global gross expenditure on research and development (GERD) totalled 1.48 trillion PPP (purchasing power parity) dollars in 2013.
World GERD grew faster (30.5%) than the global economy (20.1%) between 2007 and 2013. This was largely because the private sector in wealthier countries maintained or increased its own level of spending on R&D over this period, even though public commitment to R&D declined in many of these countries in the context of austerity budgets.
- Figure 1.7: World shares of GDP, GERD, researchers and publications for the G20, 2009 and 2013 (%) (pdf)
High-income economies continue to generate the bulk of global R&D expenditure: 69.3% in 2013, down from 79.7% in 2007. The USA (28.1% of world GERD) still spends more than any other country.
China's share of world GERD rose from 10.2% in 2007 to 19.6% in 2013. Some 84.6% of research spending in China consists of experimental development (2013), compared to 64.3% in the USA (2012).
The share of all low or middle-income economies other than China surveyed (135 countries) in global GERD changed little between 2007 (10.1%) and 2013 (11.1%).
The top five countries for R&D expenditure are (in billions of current PPP$) are the USA (PPP$ 454 billion), China (PPP$ 337 billion), Japan (PPP$ 160 billion), Germany (PPP$ 101 billion) and the Republic of Korea (PPP$ 69 billion).
Switzerland has the highest GERD per capita: PPP$1 657 current PPP dollars, followed by Singapore (PPP$1 537), Sweden (PPP$1 479), the USA (PPP$ 1 429) and Israel (PPP$ 1 427).
Switzerland is considered a global leader in innovation but also devotes 30% of GERD to basic research, thereby ensuring the continual generation of new knowledge and quality university education. Switzerland also hosts one of the biggest contingents of foreign PhD students: 51% in 2012.