China's research and development (R and D) expenditure rose 8.2 percent year on year to nearly 3.93 trillion yuan (about 584.5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2025, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Friday.
During the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) period, the country's R and D spending grew at an average annual rate of 10 percent, making China the world's second-largest R and D investor, said Luo Qiushi, an NBS statistician.
China's R and D intensity, which measures spending as a share of gross domestic product, rose 0.11 percentage points to 2.8 percent last year, exceeding the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average of 2.72 percent for the first time and ranking 12th globally.
By type of R and D activity, spending on basic research, applied research and experimental development grew 13.3 percent, 3.2 percent and 8.4 percent year on year to 283.46 billion yuan, 444.16 billion yuan and 3.2 trillion yuan, respectively.
Enterprise R and D spending exceeded 3 trillion yuan for the first time, accounting for 77.4 percent of the total.
Enterprises have accounted for more than 77 percent of the country's total R and D spending for four consecutive years, and their contribution to the overall increase reached 73.7 percent, cementing their role as the main engine of China's R and D spending expansion, according to the NBS.
China's investment on research, development rises 8.2 pct in 2025: data
