Bolivia: Research and development expenditure (% of GDP)

Key figures

Since 1996 it is down 0.26 percentage points from 0.33% in 1996. The World Bank has no value for 15 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 Bolivia in the 2021 ranking

• Australia — 1st of 4: 1.86%
• Iran, Islamic Rep. — 2nd of 4: 0.73%
• 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 11 values

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

• Argentina — 0.6% (2023)
• Brazil — 1.19% (2023)
• Chile — 0.39% (2022)
• Colombia — 0.29% (2020)
• Costa Rica — 0.34% (2023)
• Cuba — 0.44% (2024)
• El Salvador — 0.1% (2023)
• Guatemala — 0.00609% (2023)
• Mexico — 0.25% (2024)
• Panama — 0.2% (2024)

More infrastructure data for Bolivia

• Air transport, registered carrier departures worldwide — 50,459 (2023)
• Air transport, freight (million ton-km) — 19.89 (2023)
• Air transport, passengers carried — 5.6 million (2023)
• Mobile cellular subscriptions — 12.17 million (2024)
• Mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people) — 98.03 (2024)
• Fixed telephone subscriptions — 368,926 (2024)
• Fixed telephone subscriptions (per 100 people) — 2.97 (2024)
• Medium and high-tech exports (% manufactured exports) — 4.8% (2024)
• Individuals using the Internet (% of population) — 79.7% (2024)
• ICT service exports (BoP, current US$)

Reading data like this

• Where to find free public data, and how to check it before you trust it — 2 min read
• Data analysis examples: 6 worked from one dataset — 3 min read
• Real change or random noise? A plain guide to reading your numbers — 2 min read

Questions people ask

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

0.06% in 2021, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1996?

It is down 0.26 percentage points from 0.33% in 1996. The highest value was 0.33% in 1996 and the lowest 0.06% in 2021.

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.

Want to ask your own questions of data like this? Try AnalyzeIt: upload a file or ask about public data in plain words, and every figure comes with its working.