Australia: Research and development expenditure (% of GDP)

Key figures

Since 1996 it is up 0.2 percentage points from 1.66% in 1996. The World Bank has no value for 12 of the years in between; the chart leaves those gaps open rather than joining across them.

How it compares

See how every economy compares in the full ranking.

Closest to Australia in the 2021 ranking

• Iran, Islamic Rep. — 2nd of 4: 0.73%
• Bolivia — 3rd of 4: 0.06%
• Iraq — 4th of 4: 0.04%

What this measures

Gross domestic expenditures on research and development (R&D), expressed as a percent of GDP. They include both capital and current expenditures in the four main sectors: Business enterprise, Government, Higher education and Private non-profit. R&D covers basic research, applied research, and experimental development.

Limitations: Estimates of the resources allocated to R&D are affected by national characteristics such as the periodicity and coverage of national R&D surveys across institutional sectors and industries; and the use of different sampling and estimation methods. R&D typically involves a few large performers, hence R&D surveys use various techniques to maintain up-to-date registers of known performers, while attempting to identify new or occasional performers. R&D totals from SNA accounts may differ from these estimates, due in part to the different treatments of software R&D in the totals.

Regional and income-group figures are computed by the World Bank as a weighted average.

All 14 values

Research and development expenditure (% of GDP) in nearby economies

• China — 2.58% (2023)
• Hong Kong SAR, China — 1.13% (2024)
• Japan — 3.44% (2023)
• Korea, Rep. — 4.94% (2023)
• Macao SAR, China — 0.31% (2024)
• Malaysia — 1.01% (2022)
• Mongolia — 0.08% (2022)
• Myanmar — 0.02% (2023)
• New Zealand — 1.55% (2023)
• Philippines

More infrastructure data for Australia

• Fixed telephone subscriptions — 5.95 million (2024)
• Fixed telephone subscriptions (per 100 people) — 22.28 (2024)
• Air transport, registered carrier departures worldwide — 678,852 (2023)
• Air transport, freight (million ton-km) — 1,188 (2023)
• Air transport, passengers carried — 68.96 million (2023)
• Mobile cellular subscriptions — 30.07 million (2024)
• Mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people) — 112.58 (2024)
• Patent applications, nonresidents — 27,945 (2024)
• Patent applications, residents — 2,542 (2024)
• Medium and high-tech exports (% manufactured exports)

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Questions people ask

What is Australia's research and development expenditure (% of GDP)?

1.86% in 2021, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1996?

It is up 0.2 percentage points from 1.66% in 1996. The highest value was 2.4% in 2008 and the lowest 1.51% in 1998.

Where does this data come from?

The World Bank's World Development Indicators, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: 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.

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator GB.XPD.RSDV.GD.ZS, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: 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 Figures are fetched from the World Bank API and refreshed monthly; see the series on data.worldbank.org. The full definition and method are in the World Bank's metadata glossary. Comparisons use the same World Bank release.

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