In 2022-23, of total government expenditure on R&D (GOVERD):
- $2,800 million (64%) was contributed by Commonwealth government organisations,
- $1,544 million (36%) was contributed by State and territory government organisations.
Compared to 2020-21, R&D expenditure increased by:
- $463 million (20%) for Commonwealth government organisations,
- $263 million (21%) for State and territory government organisations.
GOVERD as a proportion of GDP remained unchanged at 0.17% in 2022-23.
2014-15 | 2016-17 | 2018-19 | 2020-21 | 2022-23 | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Expenditure on R&D - Current prices | |||||||
Commonwealth | $m | 2,257 | 2,139 | 2,110 | 2,337 | 2,800 | |
State/territory | $m | 1,072 | 1,140 | 1,219 | 1,281 | 1,544 | |
Total (a) | $m | 3,329 | 3,279 | 3,330 | 3,618 | 4,344 | |
Expenditure on R&D - Chain volume measures (b) | |||||||
Commonwealth | $m | 2,668 | 2,472 | 2,342 | 2,580 | 2,800 | |
State/territory | $m | 1,267 | 1,317 | 1,353 | 1,414 | 1,544 | |
Total (a) | $m | 3,935 | 3,790 | 3,695 | 3,993 | 4,344 | |
Human resources devoted to R&D | |||||||
Commonwealth | PYE | 8,443 | 8,000 | 7,763 | 7,791 | 8,277 | |
State/territory | PYE | 6,273 | 6,773 | 6,758 | 7,257 | 7,612 | |
Total (a) | PYE | 14,715 | 14,773 | 14,521 | 15,047 | 15,889 |
a. Where figures have been rounded, discrepancies may occur between the sum of the component items and totals.
b. The reference year for chain volume measures is 2022-23. Refer to the Chain volume measures section of the Methodology page for details.
Compared to 2020-21, GOVERD increased by:
- 20% in current price terms,
- 9% in chain volume terms.
Subsequent expenditure figures and supporting commentary relate to current price terms.
Government expenditure on R&D (GOVERD)
Type of expenditure
In 2022-23, GOVERD included:
- $4,022 million (93%) in Current expenditure,
- $322 million (7%) in Capital expenditure.
Compared to 2020-21:
- Current expenditure increased $680 million (20%),
- Capital expenditure increased $46 million (17%).
In 2022-23, the largest components of GOVERD were:
- Current expenditure – Labour costs at $2,312 million (53%),
- Other current expenditure at $1,710 million (39%).
Other current expenditure recorded the largest GOVERD increase of $354 million (26%) between 2020-21 and 2022-23.
Location
Location of expenditure relates to the region in which R&D activity was performed. Please refer to the Methodology section for further information.
Compared to 2020-21, Victoria recorded the largest GOVERD increase in dollar terms, up $218 million (25%).
GOVERD and Gross State Product (GSP)
NSW (%) | VIC (%) | QLD (%) | SA (%) | WA (%) | TAS (%) | NT (%) | ACT (%) | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2020-21 | |||||||||
Commonwealth | 0.07 | 0.12 | 0.08 | 0.23 | 0.03 | 0.52 | 0.21 | 0.87 | |
State | 0.06 | 0.06 | 0.10 | 0.09 | 0.03 | 0.01 | 0.06 | 0.02 | |
Total (b) | 0.12 | 0.18 | 0.17 | 0.32 | 0.07 | 0.53 | 0.27 | 0.90 | |
2022-23 | |||||||||
Commonwealth | 0.06 | 0.13 | 0.08 | 0.32 | 0.04 | 0.35 | 0.18 | 0.73 | |
State | 0.07 | 0.06 | 0.07 | 0.08 | 0.03 | 0.03 | 0.06 | 0.03 | |
Total (b) | 0.12 | 0.19 | 0.15 | 0.41 | 0.07 | 0.38 | 0.24 | 0.75 |
a. Refer to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross State Product (GSP) section of the Methodology page for details.
b. Where figures have been rounded, discrepancies may occur between the sum of the component items and totals.
Between 2020-21 and 2022-23, two state/territories recorded an increase in the GOVERD/GSP ratio. South Australia recorded the largest increase, up 0.09 percentage points, and Victoria recorded an increase of 0.01 percentage points.
Fields of Research
Fields of Research (FoR) classifies R&D expenditure based on the area of knowledge and methodology used in the R&D.
In 2022-23, the greatest contributions to GOVERD by FoR classification were recorded in:
- Agricultural, Veterinary and Food Sciences at $636 million (15%),
- Biomedical and Clinical Sciences at $551 million (13%),
- Engineering at $485 million (11%).
Compared to 2020-21, the largest dollar increases in FoR were recorded in:
- Environmental Sciences up $173 million (73%),
- Information and Computing Sciences up $107 million (32%).
Socio-Economic Objectives
Socio-Economic Objectives (SEO) classifies R&D expenditure according to the areas that may benefit from the R&D.
In 2022-23, the greatest contributions to GOVERD by SEO classification were recorded in:
- Health at $806 million (19%),
- Defence at $753 million (17%).
Compared to 2020-21, the largest dollar increases in SEO were recorded in:
- Defence up $138 million (23%),
- Health up $136 million (20%).
Government human resources devoted to R&D
In 2022-23, Australian government organisations devoted a total of 15,889 person years of effort (PYE) to R&D, an increase of 842 PYE (6%) in comparison to 2020-21.
Researchers accounted for most of the human resources effort devoted to R&D in 2022-23, totalling 8,423 PYE (53%).