China’s research and development (R&D) spending rose 8.2 per cent year on year to 3.93 trillion yuan (about 584.5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2025, reinforcing the country’s position as the world’s second-largest investor in research and innovation.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced that China’s average annual R&D spending growth reached 10 per cent over the 2021-2025 period, which covers the 14th Five-Year Plan.
R&D intensity, which measures research spending as a share of gross domestic product (GDP), increased by 0.11 percentage points to 2.8 per cent in 2025. The figure exceeded the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average of 2.72 per cent for the first time, placing China 12th globally.
Spending increased across all three categories of research activity. Investment in basic research rose 13.3 per cent to 283.46 billion yuan, while applied research spending grew 3.2 per cent to 444.16 billion yuan. Experimental development expenditure increased 8.4 per cent to 3.2 trillion yuan.
Businesses remained the main drivers of growth, with enterprise R&D spending surpassing 3 trillion yuan for the first time and accounting for 77.4 per cent of total expenditure.
According to the NBS, enterprises have contributed more than 77 per cent of China’s total R&D spending for four consecutive years. Their contribution accounted for 73.7 per cent of the overall increase in expenditure in 2025, underscoring the central role of the private and corporate sector in expanding the country’s research investment.
