Amidst a breathtaking surge of global investment exceeding $2.5 trillion annually, a relentless and expansive scientific enterprise is driving unprecedented progress.
Key Takeaways
- In 2022, global R&D expenditure reached $2.5 trillion, with the United States accounting for 27% or approximately $675 billion.
- The European Union invested €95.5 billion in civil R&D in 2021, representing 54% of total government R&D budget.
- China's R&D spending grew by 10.4% in 2022 to 3.09 trillion yuan ($448 billion), surpassing the US growth rate.
- The U.S. science and engineering workforce grew to 36 million in 2021.
- Globally, there were 8.8 million full-time equivalent researchers in 2021.
- Women comprised 33% of the global research workforce in 2020.
- The world filed 3.46 million patent applications in 2022, up 1.8% from 2021.
- U.S. granted 422,000 patents in 2022, with 59% to residents.
- China led with 1.58 million patent applications in 2022.
- World published 2.9 million scientific articles in 2022.
- U.S. researchers published 429,000 articles in 2021.
- China overtook U.S. with 740,000 science papers in 2022.
- Global life sciences market size was $1.6 trillion in 2022.
- U.S. biotech market revenue reached $1.55 trillion in 2023.
- Global pharmaceutical market was $1.48 trillion in 2022.
Global R&D investment and scientific activity reached unprecedented levels in 2022.
Industry Market Data
- Global life sciences market size was $1.6 trillion in 2022.
- U.S. biotech market revenue reached $1.55 trillion in 2023.
- Global pharmaceutical market was $1.48 trillion in 2022.
- Scientific instruments market valued at $60 billion globally in 2022.
- Clean energy tech market hit $1.2 trillion in 2022.
- AI market in science applications: $15 billion in 2022.
- Global R&D services market: $70 billion in 2022.
- U.S. chemical industry revenue: $800 billion in 2022.
- Semiconductors market for science: $550 billion in 2022.
- Lab automation market: $5.3 billion globally in 2022.
- Global CRO market reached $68 billion in 2022.
- Aerospace R&D market: $120 billion in 2022.
- Genomics market valued at $27 billion in 2022.
- Quantum computing market: $1.2 billion in 2023.
- Global scientific publishing market: $25 billion in 2022.
- India's science industry contributed 2.4% to GDP in 2022.
- Europe's medtech market: $160 billion in 2022.
- U.S. software R&D spending: $200 billion in 2022.
- Nanotechnology market: $90 billion globally in 2022.
- Global vaccine market: $140 billion in 2023.
- Scientific data analytics market: $12 billion in 2022.
Industry Market Data Interpretation
While our species still hasn't cured the common cold, we are now spending a truly astronomical sum—enough to buy a small planet or at least its very shiny, AI-driven, quantum-accelerated lab equipment—to collectively try to do just that and everything else.
Patent and Innovation Metrics
- The world filed 3.46 million patent applications in 2022, up 1.8% from 2021.
- U.S. granted 422,000 patents in 2022, with 59% to residents.
- China led with 1.58 million patent applications in 2022.
- Global biotech patents grew 7% to 12,000 in 2022.
- AI-related patents worldwide reached 65,000 in 2022.
- EPO granted 188,600 patents in 2022, 6.5% increase.
- U.S. utility patents issued: 332,346 in FY2022.
- Japan's patent office received 290,000 applications in FY2022.
- Green technology patents globally: 50,000 in 2022.
- Pharma sector filed 250,000 patents worldwide in 2021.
- South Korea granted 144,000 patents in 2022.
- Quantum tech patents tripled to 12,000 since 2015 by 2022.
- India filed 81,000 patents in 2022, up 12%.
- Global 5G patents: 250,000 families by 2022.
- U.S. universities received 6,000 patents in 2022.
- China's utility model patents: 2.5 million in 2022.
- Nanotechnology patents peaked at 15,000 globally in 2021.
- EU granted 25,000 ICT patents in 2022.
- Blockchain patents: 60,000 worldwide by 2022.
- U.S. design patents issued: 40,000 in FY2022.
- Australia's patent grants: 25,000 in 2022.
- Global semiconductor patents: 300,000 active in 2022.
Patent and Innovation Metrics Interpretation
The world's innovation treadmill is running faster than ever, with China leading the sprint in sheer volume while everyone else, from biotech labs to quantum garages, is fiercely racing to patent the future before someone else does.
Publication Output
- World published 2.9 million scientific articles in 2022.
- U.S. researchers published 429,000 articles in 2021.
- China overtook U.S. with 740,000 science papers in 2022.
- Global open access articles reached 2 million in 2022.
- Elsevier indexed 2.8 million publications in Scopus 2022.
- EU produced 25% of world's top 10% cited papers in 2021.
- Biomedical field saw 1.1 million papers published globally in 2022.
- Citations to global papers grew 7% annually to 1.5 billion in 2022.
- India published 100,000 science articles in 2022, up 15%.
- UK's output: 120,000 papers, ranking 3rd globally in 2022.
- Physics publications worldwide: 250,000 in 2022.
- Open science preprints hit 3 million on arXiv and bioRxiv by 2023.
- Germany published 110,000 articles in 2021.
- High-impact journals published 50,000 articles from Nature family in 2022.
- Climate science papers doubled to 20,000 annually since 2010 by 2022.
- Japan's science output: 100,000 papers in 2022.
- Brazil's publications grew 10% to 70,000 in 2022.
- Global APC for OA averaged $2,200 per article in 2022.
- Engineering papers: 400,000 worldwide in 2022.
- South Africa's research output: 15,000 papers in 2022.
- Citations per paper in top countries averaged 15 in 2021.
- Neuroscience publications: 80,000 globally in 2022.
- Australia's output: 45,000 articles in 2022.
Publication Output Interpretation
In a deluge of data, it's clear the global scientific output is a booming, fiercely competitive, and increasingly open marketplace of ideas, where sheer volume is impressive but the true measure of impact remains a nuanced and expensive chase for citations.
Research Funding
- In 2022, global R&D expenditure reached $2.5 trillion, with the United States accounting for 27% or approximately $675 billion.
- The European Union invested €95.5 billion in civil R&D in 2021, representing 54% of total government R&D budget.
- China's R&D spending grew by 10.4% in 2022 to 3.09 trillion yuan ($448 billion), surpassing the US growth rate.
- U.S. federal R&D funding for FY2023 was $190.9 billion, a 7.6% increase from FY2022.
- Venture capital investment in biotech reached $48.7 billion globally in 2022.
- Japan's government R&D budget for FY2023 was ¥4.4 trillion, focusing on quantum and AI technologies.
- In 2021, philanthropic funding for science research in the US totaled $14.5 billion.
- South Korea's R&D intensity reached 4.93% of GDP in 2022, the highest among OECD countries.
- Global clean energy R&D funding hit $1.4 trillion in 2022, led by solar and wind sectors.
- NSF awarded $8.4 billion to basic research in FY2022, supporting 2,200 institutions.
- Germany's R&D tax incentives claimed €13.5 billion in 2021.
- India’s R&D expenditure was 0.64% of GDP in 2022, totaling INR 1.25 lakh crore.
- Australia's research funding via ARC was AUD 1.1 billion for 2023-24.
- UKRI allocated £8 billion for 2022-2025 research and innovation programs.
- Brazil's CNPq budget for science grants was R$4.5 billion in 2022.
- Canada's NSERC invested CAD 3.2 billion in natural sciences research in 2022.
- France's ANR funded 5,200 projects with €1.1 billion in 2022.
- Israel's R&D spending was 5.44% of GDP in 2022, highest globally.
- Singapore's A*STAR budget for 2023 was SGD 1.8 billion.
- Russia's R&D funding was 1.11% of GDP in 2022, RUB 2.1 trillion.
- NIH budget for FY2023 was $47.7 billion, up 2.1% from prior year.
- DARPA's FY2023 budget request was $4.2 billion for advanced tech R&D.
- Global AI R&D investment projected at $200 billion by 2025.
- Quantum computing R&D funding worldwide reached $5.2 billion in 2022.
- NASA's science mission directorate budget was $7.5 billion in FY2023.
- DOE's Office of Science FY2023 budget was $8.1 billion.
- Global pharma R&D spending hit $238 billion in 2022.
- U.S. states invested $3.2 billion in R&D incentives in 2021.
- Horizon Europe program budgeted €95.5 billion for 2021-2027.
- Sweden's R&D tax relief scheme supported SEK 20 billion in 2022.
Research Funding Interpretation
We find ourselves in a global arms race of ideas where the ledger reveals America's brute financial force, Europe's strategic civil focus, and Asia's meteoric rise, while nations from Israel to South Korea bet existential shares of their wealth on innovation, proving that the future is not just being imagined but fiercely, expensively purchased.
Workforce Statistics
- The U.S. science and engineering workforce grew to 36 million in 2021.
- Globally, there were 8.8 million full-time equivalent researchers in 2021.
- Women comprised 33% of the global research workforce in 2020.
- U.S. STEM employment reached 34.1 million jobs in 2022, 24% of total workforce.
- In the EU, 1.9 million people worked in R&D in 2021.
- China's researcher population hit 6.4 million in 2022.
- PhD holders in science fields in OECD countries numbered 2.5 million in 2021.
- U.S. biotech industry employed 907,000 workers in 2022.
- Global life sciences workforce projected to reach 5.9 million by 2025.
- 42% of U.S. scientists hold doctoral degrees as of 2021.
- India's science workforce grew 15% to 1.6 million in 2022.
- Japan had 675,000 researchers per million population in 2021.
- UK life sciences sector employed 258,000 people in 2022.
- South Korea's R&D personnel totaled 663,000 in 2022.
- 28% of global researchers are in clinical trials roles as of 2023.
- U.S. academia employed 1.5 million science faculty in 2021.
- Australia's STEM workforce was 2.4 million, 20% of total employment in 2022.
- Germany had 710,000 R&D employees in high-tech sectors in 2021.
- 15% of U.S. scientists are immigrants, contributing to 25% of publications.
- Brazil's science researchers numbered 200,000 FTE in 2021.
- Singapore's R&D workforce grew 5% to 40,000 in 2022.
- 52% of EU researchers are in business enterprise sector in 2021.
- Global data scientists numbered 2.7 million in 2023.
- France employed 2.3 million in knowledge-intensive services in 2022.
- U.S. women in STEM workforce increased to 28% in 2022 from 24% in 2016.
Workforce Statistics Interpretation
While we can proudly field an army of millions of global researchers marching toward progress, we must remember that this battalion is still far from reflecting the full spectrum of humanity it serves, as women remain significantly underrepresented and geographic concentration creates pockets of immense scientific density amidst vast, untapped potential.
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