Statistics and resources

Here, you can download the data, explore interactive data visualizations or find factsheets about the main trends in science around the world between 2011 and 2019.

Some of the key findings of the UNESCO Science Report address:

Human resources in research
Between 2014 and 2018, the researcher pool grew three times faster (13.7%) than the global population (4.6%). This translates into 8.854 million full-time equivalent (FTE) researchers by 2018. In 28 countries, researcher density expanded by at least 20% over this period.
Research expenditure
Between 2014 and 2018, global research spending (in PPP$ billions, constant 2005 prices) rose by 19.2%, outpacing the growth of the global economy (+14.6%). This translated into a rise in research intensity from 1.73% to 1.79% of GDP. In 25 countries, research intensity grew by 0.15% of GDP or more.
Scientific publications
There has been a general trend towards more intense scientific publishing, with global output being 21% higher in 2019 than in 2015. Publications on cross-cutting strategic technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics, energy and materials science even surged by 33%. Among broad fields, environmental sciences showed the fastest growth between 2015 and 2019 (+45.7%), albeit from a low starting point: environmental sciences accounted for 3.6% of global output in 2015. At the global level, the rate of international scientific collaboration rose from 22% to 24% between 2015 and 2019, with wide variations between countries.