How much of GDP does Malaysia invest in research and development?

UNESCO Institute for Statistics R&D expenditure as a share of GDP, distributed through the World Bank, fixed to 2022.

UNESCO Institute for Statistics via World Bank2022 same-year request · checked 3 Oct 2026

SHOW ME THE DATA2022 · R&D expenditure · % of GDP

VIEW DATA ASSame source · different visual lens

2022

1Singapore1.81R&D expenditure · % of GDP

2Thailand1.16R&D expenditure · % of GDP

3Malaysia1.01R&D expenditure · % of GDP

4Myanmar0.04R&D expenditure · % of GDP

UIFUNESCO Institute for Statistics via World BankR&D expenditure · % of GDP

SourceUNESCO Institute for Statistics via World Bank ↗2022 same-year request · checked 3 Oct 2026HIGH CONFIDENCE

Method & notes

IN BRIEF

Malaysia is #3/4 in the same-year 2022 ASEAN subset by R&D expenditure share.

METHOD & LIMITATIONS

How the numbers were calculated

PulseKita requests World Bank indicator GB.XPD.RSDV.GD.ZS for all 11 ASEAN members and fixes the comparison to 2022, Malaysia's latest observation in the current World Bank series. Sparse coverage is shown explicitly and older values are not carried forward.

Malaysia spent about 1.01% of GDP on R&D in 2022 and ranks #3/4 among ASEAN members with a same-year observation.
No 2022 value shown for: Indonesia, Viet Nam, Philippines, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Timor-Leste.
R&D expenditure includes current and capital spending across business, government, higher education and private non-profit sectors.
A higher R&D share is an input measure, not proof that research spending is efficient or commercially successful.

Evidence trail

EVIDENCE CHAINtransformation inherited from methodology

1
Declared sourceResearch and development expenditure (% of GDP)
2
TransformationPulseKita requests World Bank indicator GB.XPD.RSDV.GD.ZS for all 11 ASEAN members and fixes the comparison to 2022, Malaysia's latest observation in the current World Bank series. Sparse coverage is shown explicitly and older values are not carried forward.
3
Published visualRanked snapshot

Source

HIGH CONFIDENCEofficial primary

COVERAGE2022

UNITR&D expenditure · % of GDP

SOURCEofficial publication

UPDATED2022 same-year request · checked 3 Oct 2026

How the numbers were calculated

Evidence trail

Source

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