SDG #9 is to “Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation”
Within SDG #9 are 8 targets, of which we here focus on Target 9.5:
Enhance scientific research, upgrade the technological capabilities of industrial sectors in all countries, in particular developing countries, including, by 2030, encouraging innovation and substantially increasing the number of research and development workers per 1 million people and public and private research and development spending
Target 9.5 has two indicators:
Indicator 9.5.1: Research and development expenditure as a proportion of GDP
Indicator 9.5.2: Researchers (in full-time equivalent) per million inhabitants
We can measure innovations in science and technology which allow the capacity of the industries to grow and countries to develop. One of the clearest measures is R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP. The greatest spenders are the high-income countries, as well as China. But for the sake of this target, we want the developing countries to foster science and technology innovations. Spending on R&D as a share of the global world product is 2.7% as of 2021, which has risen a fractional amount since the start of the SDG period. This is an impressive share when considering its larger than China’s share, itself one of the leaders. Though it's still half of the leader, Israel, who has a 5.6% share.
The leaders for the measure of researchers in a country’s population comports with R&D expenditure. The worldwide total as of 2018 was 1,525 researchers per million people, a slight increase since 2015 from 1,385 per million. The world leader as of 2021 is South Korea with 9,082 researchers per million in the population. Korea's competitor for world leader in research, Israel, didn’t have data for this year for comparison.
