U.S. predominance in science and technology eroded further during the last decade, as China and South Korea rapidly increased their innovation capacities.
Despite that erosion, the U.S. continues to invest twice as much as any other single nation in R&D, while slipping to 10th in world ranking of the percentage of its GDP it devotes to R&D. In 2011, the U.S. spent $429 billion on R&D compared to China's $208 billion and Japan's $146 billion.
The evidence is reported in the National Science Board’s (NSB) 2014 report Science and Engineering Indicators. Its conclusion is that the U.S., Japan and Europe no longer monopolize the global R&D arena.
China tripled its number of researchers between 1995 and 2008, whereas South Korea doubled its number between 1995 and 2006. And there are indications that students from these nations may be finding more opportunities for advanced education in science and employment in their home countries.
"The first decade of the 21st century continues a dramatic shift in the global scientific landscape," said NSB Chairman Dan Arvizu. "Emerging economies understand the role science and innovation play in the global marketplace and in economic competitiveness and have increasingly placed a priority on building their capacity in science and technology."
In addition, the size of China's high-tech manufacturing industry increased nearly six-fold between 2003 and 2012, raising its global share of high-tech manufacturing from 8 percent to 24 percent during that decade, closing in on the U.S. share of 27 percent.
The major Asian economies, taken together, now perform a larger share of global R&D than the U.S., and China performs nearly as much of the world's high-tech manufacturing as the U.S., according to the report.
What’s more, emerging economies now invest more in clean energy than advanced economies. In 2012, emerging economies invested nearly $100 billion in clean energy, primarily wind and solar, with China serving as the "primary driver of investment" with $61 billion. China's investment is more than double the $29 billion spent in the U.S.
Overall, it has become a more globally distributed R&D landscape. Majority-owned foreign affiliates of U.S. multinational corporations tripled their R&D investments in India and more than doubled them in Brazil between 2007 and 2010, nearly reaching the expenditure levels of the U.S. affiliates in China.
The 2014 volume of Science and Engineering Indicators is available at www.nsf.gov/statistics/indicators/.
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