Gross domestic R&D expenditure on health (health GERD) as a % of gross domestic product (GDP)

Published: January 2021

The gross domestic expenditure on R&D in the health and medical sciences (health GERD) are collected from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); and Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. The gross domestic product (GDP) data are collected from the World Bank. Data on this indicator are reported using the most recent available data since 2010 by country (Note: not all countries have reported data on this indicator).

What you see | Data sources | Current version

What you see

The data visualization compares health GERD by country as a % of GDP. The regional weighted averages and medians are provided by WHO region and country income groups (charts A and B). (To see the data using either of the two calculation methods, select the desired method from the two options above the charts).

Points to note:

The regional weighted averages and medians are derived from the 86 Member States for which data are available. They need to be interpreted cautiously because of the number of missing observations. Data used are the most recent available since 2010, with 87% of them from 2015 onward.
The regional weighted average health GERD as a % of GDP ranged from 0.01% (Eastern Mediterranean) to 0.06% (Western Pacific) for the reported period and countries. The median value ranged from 0.01% (South-East Asia) to 0.07% (Europe). (chart A)
The weighted average health GERD as a % of GDP was substantially higher in high income countries (0.19%) than other income groupings; this was maintained with the median values albeit with a lower % (ranging from 0.09% in high-income to 0.01% in lower-middle income countries)(chart B). Using either weighted average or median values, low-income countries had a higher % of health GERD as % of GDP than in lower middle-income countries (0.02 and 0.03%, respectively).

To explore the data further

To explore by country estimates and differences with regional averages (the income group average is symbolized by vertical dashed line):

Select a region and/or income group in charts A and B to filter countries according to those categories.
- For example, clicking on the Eastern Mediterranean group (chart A), and then hovering the cursor over the bar for Saudi Arabia displays a popup window that shows that health GERD was 0.09 % of its GDP in the reported year; almost 10 times the regional average (0.01%)
To see countries belonging to a particular income group within a region: after selecting a region (chart A), select an income group (chart B) which will filter the countries belonging to this income group within this region (view chart C).
- For example, selecting the low-income group within the WHO Africa region shows that the health GERD as a % of GDP for the countries with data in this income group and region are all above the income group average (see vertical dashed line at the 0.02% mark in chart C), except for Burkina Faso and Madagascar.
Hover the cursor over a bar in a graphic to see more information in a popup window (i.e, year, total GERD in local currency and US dollars, health GERD in local currency (with health GERD as a % of GDP) and in US dollars, GDP in local currency and in US dollars, and regional/income level averages).

Undo a selection by clicking ‘undo’ or ‘reset’ near the bottom of the visualization or by clicking the same element again.