China's R&D Expenditure Reached 2.79 Trillion Yuan in 2021

National Bureau of Statistics of China2022-01-27 09:30

According to preliminary estimates, China's social Research and Experimental Development (R&D) investment in 2021 reached 2.7864 trillion yuan, an increase of 14.2 percent over the previous year, and an actual increase of 9.4 percent after deducting price factors; the ratio of R&D expenditure to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reached 2.44 percent, an increase of 0.03 percentage point over the previous year [1]. Among them, the basic research fund was 169.6 billion yuan, an increase of 15.6 percent, 1.4 percentage points faster than the R&D fund of the whole society; the proportion of R&D expenditure was 6.09 percent, an increase of 0.08 percentage point over the previous year.

Note:

[1] According to the final verification result of GDP in 2020 by the National Bureau of Statistics, the ratio of R&D funds to GDP in 2020, that is, the input intensity, is revised to 2.41 percent.

Annotations:

1. Explanatory Notes

Research and Experimental Development (R&D) funds refers to all the expenses actually incurred for the implementation of R&D activities in the reporting period. R&D) refers to the creative and systematic work to increase the stock of knowledge (including knowledge about human, culture and society) and design new applications of existing knowledge. Internationally, the scale and intensity of R&D activities are usually used to reflect a country's scientific and technological strength and core competitiveness.

Basic research refers to an experimental or theoretical work that does not preset any specific application or use purpose. Its main purpose is to obtain the basic principles, laws and new knowledge of (occurred) phenomena and observable facts. Basic research activities are an important part of R&D activities.

2. Coverage and Methods of Statistics

The statistical coverage of R&D funds covers enterprises and institutions with R&D activities in the whole society, including government affiliated research institutions, colleges and universities and enterprises and institutions in industries with relatively intensive R&D activities. The preliminary amount of R&D funds is calculated and obtained according to the data of annual express report of science and technology comprehensive statistics.

3. Others

The data related to R&D funds in this paper is the preliminary data in 2021, and the final annual data is expected to be published in August 2022.