Korea ranks 2nd worldwide in R&D spending relative to GDP, 8th in top-cited papers

South Korea's spending on science and technology research and development by the government, businesses and other entities ranks second in the world when measured against the size of its economy, according to a Japanese government report.

The report, titled "Science and Technology Indicators," was released Wednesday by Japan's National Institute of Science and Technology Policy, under the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. It found that South Korea's government, businesses, universities and nonprofit organizations spent 131.05 trillion won ($97.6 billion), or 15.3 trillion yen ($99.3 billion), on science and technology R&D in 2024. The institute compiles and publishes science and technology indicators for major countries every year.

This year's survey found that China became the world's largest R&D spender for the first time. China spent 97.14 trillion yen on R&D, surpassing the United States, which spent 95.34 trillion yen, for the first time since the survey began in 1981.

Japan ranked third, after China and the United States. South Korea's R&D spending was lower than Germany's 18.27 trillion yen but higher than France's 8.82 trillion yen.

The report also tallied total R&D spending as a share of gross domestic product across 24 countries and regions, with the EU counted as a single region. This was done to gauge how much each economy invests in R&D relative to its size. South Korea's ratio stood at 5.13 percent, the second-highest after Israel's 6.76 percent. The gap with other countries was wide: Sweden posted 3.56 percent, the United States 3.44 percent, Japan 3.44 percent, the United Kingdom 2.75 percent, China 2.69 percent and the 27 EU member states 2.13 percent.

"South Korea ranks first among major countries, with its R&D spending as a share of GDP rising rapidly since the 2000s," the report said. "Along with China, it shows a trend of rising R&D spending as the economy expands."

A breakdown showed that 78.5 percent of South Korea's total R&D spending came from businesses, while 20.5 percent came from the government. "Over the long term, the share of the corporate sector is increasing, while that of universities and public institutions is decreasing," the report said.

Meanwhile, South Korea produced 4,460 "top 10 percent" papers — those cited frequently enough to rank in the top 10 percent of their respective fields — from 2022 to 2024. This gave the country a 2.1 percent share and the eighth-largest output among the 20 countries surveyed. China ranked first with a 40.6 percent share, or 84,392 papers, followed by the United States with 14.4 percent, or 29,911 papers.

The United Kingdom (3.7 percent), India (3.6 percent), Germany (3.1 percent), Italy (2.8 percent) and Australia (2.3 percent) all ranked higher than South Korea, while Japan came in 13th with a 1.5 percent share.