R&D Expenditure (% GDP) — methodology
Category: Innovation & Future Capacity · Unit: % of GDP · Published annual
What this metric measures
Total gross expenditure on research and development as a percentage of GDP.
Why it matters: Investment in R&D drives innovation and long-term productivity gains. Australia consistently invests below OECD peers.
Source & provenance
- Publisher
- ABS
- Update frequency
- annual
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
How the score is computed
The score is a 0–100 normalisation of the latest observation, compared to a baseline window. The traffic-light rating (RAG) reflects both the absolute level and the recent trend.
- Direction
- Higher is better
- Trend window
- 120 months
- Baseline
- Last 10 years
Thresholds:
{
"red_max_pct_of_baseline": 95,
"amber_min_pct_of_baseline": 95,
"green_min_pct_of_baseline": 102
}See related corrections at /corrections, or the live data and chart at https://www.australiametrics.org/metric/rd-expenditure.