Key Takeaways

• Israel spent $28.3 billion on research and development (R&D) in 2023 to reach 6.3% of GDP—more than double the OECD average.
• South Korea falls next in line, with an R&D intensity of 5% of GDP, driven mainly from private sector funding.
• Meanwhile, the U.S. spent 3.4% of GDP on R&D, amounting to $823.4 billion, the highest level in the world.
• Since 2000, China's R&D investment has surged nearly 18X to reach $723 billion in 2023.

Ranked: The R&D Intensity of OECD Countries

Below, we show OECD countries by R&D spending as a share of GDP in 2023, based on the most recent data available:

Since 2020, OECD countries have spent an average of 2.7% of their GDP on R&D, altogether spending $1.9 trillion in 2023.

Israel stands out globally—not only for leading in R&D intensity, but also for having the highest number of high-tech startups per capita. Overall, it spent $28.3 billion on R&D, with about 92% driven by the private sector.

Also seeing among the highest R&D to GDP are South Korea, Taiwan, and Sweden.

In Taiwan, corporate R&D investment rose by 3.7% in 2023, a slowdown compared to the 8.8% annual average over the previous five years—largely fueled by the semiconductor sector. The small island nation spent $59.9 billion on R&D in 2023, the eighth-highest in the OECD.

When it comes to China, R&D investment has surged nearly eighteenfold since 2000, to reach $723 billion—the second-highest globally. To look at it another way, China’s share of global R&D spending grew from 4% to 26% over the period. Overall, the private sector contributed 77.6% of this spending in 2023, a similar level seen in America.

More By This Author:

Charted: The S&P 500’s Trump-Driven Tariff Turbulence
Chart: The Average U.S. Tariff Rate (1890-2025)
Charted: How Microsoft Makes Its Billions