Last year, Korea invested KRW 119 trillion in R&D… Maintains second place in the world as a percentage of GDP

2023 Research and Development Activity Survey
Enterprises account for 79% of the total

Last year, the amount invested in domestic research and development (R&D) by the private and government sectors was calculated to be 119.74 trillion won. The ratio of research and development expenses to gross domestic product (GDP) was 4.96%, remaining second in the world after Israel.

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced the ‘2023 Research and Development Activity Survey Results’ on the 29th. According to the survey results, Korea’s total research and development expenditure last year increased by 6.428 trillion won compared to the year before.

The proportion of GDP also increased by 0.11 percentage points from 4.85% in 2022. The proportion of GDP in 2022 revealed in last year’s announcement was 5.21%, but the figure was adjusted as the Bank of Korea changed the base year for GDP compilation from 2015 to 2020.

Among the research and development expenses in 2023, government resources amounted to KRW 28.1276 trillion (23.6%), and private and foreign resources amounted to KRW 90.9464 trillion (76.4%), an increase of 0.2 percentage points from the previous year.

By research conductor, companies spent KRW 94.2968 trillion, accounting for 79.2% of the total, public research institutes spent KRW 13.8837 trillion, and universities spent KRW 10.8935 trillion.

By stage of research and development, basic research amounted to KRW 17.7404 trillion (14.9%), applied research amounted to KRW 23.4752 trillion (19.7%), and development research amounted to KRW 77.8584 trillion (65.4%).

The total number of researchers in Korea in 2023 is 603,566, an increase of 2,036 from the previous year. The number of research and development personnel, including research assistants, was 827,963, and the number of female researchers was 143,127.

The number of full-time researchers was 490,256, an increase of 1,482 from the previous year, ranking fourth in the world after China, the United States, and Japan. The Ministry of Science and ICT explained that the number of researchers per 1,000 employed people is 17.3 and the number of researchers per 1,000 people is 9.5, ranking first in the world.

The number of corporate researchers decreased by 4,596 from the previous year to 438,674. There were 119,447 people in universities and 45,445 people in public research institutes. By degree, there were 128,703 doctoral degrees, 167,214 master’s degrees, and 279,063 bachelor’s degrees.

Meanwhile, the top 10 companies in terms of sales decreased both their research and development expenses and the number of researchers, while the research and development expenses of the companies ranked 11th to 30th increased by 40.3% to KRW 16.2633 trillion, an increase of 40.3% compared to the previous year.

<ⓒ투자가를 위한 경제콘텐츠 플랫폼, 아시아경제(www.asiae.co.kr) 무단전재 배포금지>