The Zhitong Finance App learned that recently, the National Bureau of Statistics, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued the “2025 National Science and Technology Investment Statistics Bulletin”, which was read by Luo Qiushi, statistician from the Department of Social Science and Literature of the National Bureau of Statistics. In 2025, China's total investment in research and experimental development (R&D) exceeded 3.9 trillion yuan, reaching 3928.82 billion yuan, an increase of 8.2% over the previous year, maintaining a steady growth trend. During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, China's R&D expenditure grew at an average annual rate of 10.0%, higher than the United States (8.4%), Germany (6.2%), France (4.8%), Japan (5.8%), South Korea (8.9%), etc., and ranked among the world's leading economies. China currently ranks second in the world in terms of total funding for research and experimental development (R&D), after the US, 3.4 times that of Germany (third) and 3.5 times that of Japan (fourth). The scale of investment in research and experimental development (R&D) continues to increase, providing a strong guarantee for China to accelerate the construction of a scientific and technological power.
The original text is as follows:
Investment in research and experimental development (R&D) is growing steadily, and the share of basic research funding is steadily increasing
——Luo Qiushi, statistician of the Social Science and Literature Department of the National Bureau of Statistics, interprets the “2025 National Science and Technology Investment Statistics Bulletin”
Recently, the National Bureau of Statistics, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued the “2025 National Science and Technology Investment Statistics Bulletin”, which was read by Luo Qiushi, statistician of the Department of Social Science and Literature of the National Bureau of Statistics.
1. Research and experimental development (R&D) funding is growing steadily, and the investment intensity exceeds the average of the OECD countries
In 2025, China's total investment in research and experimental development (R&D) exceeded 3.9 trillion yuan, reaching 3928.82 billion yuan, an increase of 8.2% over the previous year, maintaining a steady growth trend. During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, China's R&D expenditure increased at an average annual rate of 10.0%, higher than the United States (8.4%), Germany (6.2%), France (4.8%), Japan (5.8%), South Korea (8.9%), etc. [1], and ranked among the world's leading economies. China currently ranks second in the world in terms of total funding for research and experimental development (R&D), after the US, 3.4 times that of Germany (third) and 3.5 times that of Japan (fourth). The scale of investment in research and experimental development (R&D) continues to increase, providing a strong guarantee for China to accelerate the construction of a scientific and technological power.
In terms of investment intensity, China's research and experimental development (R&D) investment intensity (ratio of R&D expenditure to GDP) in 2025 was 2.80%, an increase of 0.11 percentage points over the previous year, continuing the relatively rapid upward trend. In 2025, China's research and experimental development (R&D) investment intensity ranked 12th in the world, surpassing the average of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries (2.72%) for the first time.
2. The dominant position of enterprises in innovation is stable, and R&D investment in research institutions and universities has maintained a relatively rapid growth
Enterprises, government research institutes and universities are the three major implementing entities of research and experimental development activities in China. In 2025, the research and experimental development (R&D) funding for these three implementing entities was 3039.44 billion yuan, 457.23 billion yuan, and 34.73 billion yuan respectively, an increase of 7.7%, 8.1% and 11.1% over the previous year. The dominant position of enterprises in scientific and technological innovation is stable. For the first time, enterprise R&D expenditure exceeded 3 trillion yuan, accounting for 77.4% of the R&D expenditure of the whole society. It has stabilized at more than 77% for four consecutive years, contributing 73.7% to the growth of R&D expenditure in the whole society, which is the main force driving the growth of R&D expenditure in China. In 2025, government research institutes and universities accounted for 11.6% and 8.7% of the R&D expenditure of the entire society, respectively, which was basically the same as the previous year.
Looking at international comparisons, China's share of enterprise research and experimental development (R&D) funding (77.4%) is close to that of the US (77.6%) and Japan (78.9%), higher than that of EU countries such as Germany (68.2%) and France (66.0%).
3. Investment in basic research is growing rapidly, and the contribution of the country's strategic scientific and technological strength is outstanding
By type of activity, in 2025, China's funding for basic research, applied research and experimental development was 283.46 billion yuan, 444.16 billion yuan, and 32012.0 billion yuan respectively, up 13.3%, 3.2%, and 8.4% from the previous year, respectively. The growth rate of basic research funding was 5.1 percentage points higher than the growth rate of R&D funding, continuing the rapid double-digit growth trend. The growth rates of basic research funding in the US, Japan, and South Korea were 4.8%, 6.6%, and 8.6% respectively during the same period. Currently, China ranks second in the world in terms of total funding for basic research, after the United States, about 2.3 times that of Japan (third) and 2.8 times that of South Korea (fourth). In 2025, China's basic research accounted for 7.21% of research and experimental development (R&D) funding, an increase of 0.33 percentage points over the previous year.
Universities and government research institutions are the main forces in basic research activities in China. Their contribution rates to basic research funding growth in 2025 are 49.9% and 38.7%, respectively. As an important component of the country's strategic scientific and technological strength, the construction of a national laboratory system continues to advance. High-level research universities have increased investment in scientific research, and investment in basic research by central research institutions and universities has increased by 18.5% in total. Investment in basic research by enterprises increased by 14.2%, continuing the rapid growth trend in recent years.
4. Financial expenditure on science and technology is growing steadily, which strongly guarantees self-reliance and self-improvement in high-level science and technology
In recent years, China has continued to enhance its ability to systematize scientific and technological innovation, focusing on safeguarding the needs of basic research and national strategic scientific and technological tasks, and strengthening support for the country's strategic scientific and technological forces. According to national financial accounting data, the national financial expenditure on science and technology in 2025 was 1318.45 billion yuan, an increase of 55.53 billion yuan over the previous year, an increase of 4.4%. Among them, central and local financial science and technology expenditure was 447.32 billion yuan and 871.12 billion yuan respectively, accounting for 33.9% and 66.1% of the country's financial science and technology expenditure, respectively.
5. The leading role of science and technology innovation centers is outstanding, and the leading effect of innovation is even more prominent
The leading role of the regional innovation highland is outstanding. In 2025, China's R&D expenditure for Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta regions and Guangdong was 536.82 billion yuan, 1221.91 billion yuan, and 551.04 billion yuan respectively, up 10.3%, 8.7% and 8.1% from the previous year. The total R&D funding of the three highlands of innovation accounted for 58.8% of the country, an increase of 0.4 percentage points over the previous year, and the leading role of the International Science and Technology Innovation Center was even more prominent.
In 2025, 13 regions spent more than 100 billion yuan on R&D, an increase of 1 over the previous year; 6 regions spent more than 200 billion yuan, the same as the previous year. There are 7 regions where the intensity of R&D expenditure exceeds the national average, followed by Beijing (7.10%), Shanghai (4.55%), Guangdong (3.78%), Jiangsu (3.48%), Tianjin (3.47%), Zhejiang (3.36%), and Anhui (2.86%). The total R&D expenditure in the seven regions accounted for 56.2% of the country, an increase of 0.5 percentage points over the previous year. The innovation agglomeration effect is even more obvious.
Overall, in 2025, the scale of research and experimental development (R&D) funding for the whole society continued to expand, and the share of basic research increased relatively rapidly. The construction of a scientific and technological power is progressing steadily, scientific and technological innovation is deeply integrated with industrial innovation, and the driving force for high-quality development is being cultivated and expanded at an accelerated pace. In the next stage, it is necessary to continue to increase investment in R&D by the whole society, consolidate the supply of inclusive policies in the field of scientific and technological innovation, establish a technology finance system compatible with scientific and technological innovation, effectively play the role of financial resources as a weather vane in science and technology investment, improve the diversified investment pattern, and provide a solid guarantee for accelerating self-reliance and self-improvement in high-level science and technology.
Note: [1] The most recent data reporting period for relevant countries and international organizations is 2024, and the relevant country data is the average for 2021-2024.
This article was compiled from the official website of the “National Bureau of Statistics”, Zhitong Finance Editor: Feng Qiuyi.