science 2008-2009: 2: the big picture

Nature in January 2008 published a world map of How the World Invests in R&D. It drew on data from the United States National Science Board and gives a big picture of the global funding of science around 2004-2005.

It’s a familiar North-South picture.

The big spenders, as a proportion of GDP, are in North America, Europe, the Far East, plus Australia and, at the top of the league, Israel (4.71%). The United States has dropped slightly in proportion to other countries: compared to 2006 ‘both South Korea and Switzerland have leaped ahead’ in terms of proportion of GDP.

But size matters: the United States was still comfortably the biggest spender ($340 billion invested), while China now came third in overall funding ($115 billion), not far behind Japan.