Communiqué on National Expenditures on Science and Technology in 2018

Communiqué on National Expenditures on Science and Technology in 2018 [1]

National Bureau of Statistics

Ministry of Science and Technology

Ministry of Finance

August 30, 2019

In 2018, China’s total expenditures on science and technology (S&T) have increased, and the investment in research and test development (R&D) maintained a rapid growth. The S&T funds allocated by national finance has accelerated, and the intensity of investment in R&D continued to improve.

I. Research and Experimental Development (R & D) expenditures

In 2018, national total R&D expenditures reached 1,967.79 billion yuan, an increase of 207.18 billion yuan or 11.8 percent over that in the previous year. R&D expenditure intensity (ratio to GDP [2]) was 2.19 percent, which was 0.04 percentage point [3] higher than last year. According to the full-time workload of R&D personnel, the per-capita expenditure was 449,000 yuan, an increase of 13,000 yuan over the previous year.

In terms of different types of activities, the expenditure on basic research, applied research, and experimental development hit 109.04, 219.09 and 1,639.67 billion yuan, respectively increased 11.8, 18.5 and 10.9 percent than that in last year, while the proportion of expenditure respectively was 5.5, 11.1 and 83.3 percent.

In terms of different performing sectors of activities, the expenditures by all types of enterprises, research institutions subordinated to the government departments, and universities reached 1,523.37, 269.17 and 145.79 billion yuan, respectively up 11.5, 10.5 and 15.2 percent than that in the previous year, while the proportion of expenditure accounted for 77.4, 13.7 and 7.4 percent respectively.

In terms of different regions, in view of provinces and municipalities with the investment on R&D above 100 billion yuan, the top six were Guangdong (13.7 percent), Jiangsu (12.7 percent), Beijing (9.5 percent), Shandong (8.4 percent), Zhejiang (7.3 percent) and Shanghai (6.9 percent). There were 6 provinces and municipalities where the intensity of R&D expenditure (ratio to GDP[4]) exceeded the national average level, namely, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Tianjin and Zhejiang (see appendix).

II. S&T funds allocated by finance

In 2018, S&T funds allocated by national finance amounted to 951.82 billion yuan, an increase of 113.46 billion yuan or 13.5 percent than that in last year, sharing 4.31 percent in national financial expenditure of that year and an increase of 0.18 percentage point over last year. Among which, S&T funds allocated by central finance jumped 373.85 billion yuan, increased 9.3 percent, and accounted for 39.3 percent of S&T funds allocated by finance, S&T funds allocated by local finance reached 577.97 billion yuan, increased 16.5 percent, and accounted for 60.7 percent. 

Notes: [1] Data in this Communique do not include the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Macao Special Administrative Region and Taiwan Province. Because of rounding some data, there are differences between total and sub-total.

[2] Preliminary accounting data of GDP in 2018.

[3] According to the final verification data of gross domestic product of the National Bureau of Statistics in 2017, the intensity of R&D investment in 2017 has been revised to 2.15 percent.

[4] Preliminary annual accounting data of GDP. 

 Annotations:

1. Explanatory Notes on Main Statistical Indicators

Expenditures on Research and Development (R&D): refers to the actual expenditures spent in basic researches, applied researches and experimental development by the whole society within statistical year. Including personnel fees, material costs, purchasing and construction fees of fixed assets, management fees and other expenses that actually spent in R&D activities.

Basic Research refers to empirical or theoretical research aiming at obtaining new knowledge on the fundamental principles regarding phenomena or observable facts to reveal the intrinsic nature and underlying laws and to acquire new discoveries or new theories. Basic research takes no specific or designated application as the aim of the research.

Applied Research refers to creative research aiming at obtaining new knowledge on a specific objective or target. Purpose of the applied research is to identify the possible uses of results from basic research, or to explore new (fundamental) methods or new approaches.

Experiments and Development refer to systematic activities aiming at using the knowledge from basic and applied researches or from practical experience to develop new products, materials and equipment, to establish new production process, systems and services, or to make substantial improvement on the existing products, process or services.

2. Statistical Coverage

R&D expenditure statistics covered all enterprises and institutions with R&D activities in the whole society, including industrial legal entities, research institutions subordinated to the government departments, universities, and enterprises and institutions in the industries with relatively intensive R&D activities (including agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishery, construction, transportation, storage and postal industries, information transmission, computer services and software industry, finance, rent and business services, scientific research, technical services and geological prospecting, water conservancy, environment, and public facilities management industry, health, social security and social welfare, culture, sports and entertainment, etc.).

3. Data Collection

Expenditure on R&D: complete survey were applied to the industrial legal entities above designated size, key service enterprises, research institutions subordinated to the government departments, and universities, while for other enterprise and institutions, several methods were used, i.e, the complete survey, key survey and estimation according to the data from the Second National Survey on R&D Resources.