Nature analysis finds China overtook the United States as the largest spender on research and development on a purchasing power parity basis

14 October 2026

A Nature news feature published on 14 October 2026 traces China's rise in science. In 1978 China published fewer than 120 papers in international journals, 0.02 per cent of the global total, according to Elsevier's Scopus. China's overall research and development spending rose roughly 100-fold over three decades and grew by more than 10 per cent a year on average over the past ten years. OECD data show that in 2024 China overtook the United States as the largest gross domestic expenditure on research and development measured at purchasing power parity; at market exchange rates China's spending was about half the United States level in 2024, up from 8 per cent in 2004. China plans to raise research and development expenditure by at least 7 per cent a year through 2030. Basic research took just under 7 per cent of China's research budget in 2024, against 14.4 per cent in the United States, 11.6 per cent in Japan and 14.7 per cent in South Korea; the share reached a record 7.08 per cent in 2025 but missed the previous five-year plan's 8 per cent target. China surpassed the United States in 2023 as the top-ranked country for papers in influential journals, according to the Nature Index, which tracks 178 journals. The feature cautions against reading the purchasing power parity figure as settling the question, because comparing the research and development spending of two countries is complex.