Saudi spending on R&D rises to SAR 19.2 bln in 2022: GASTAT

Riyadh city

Saudi Arabia’s expenditure on research and development (R&D) jumped 33% year-on-year (YoY) to SAR 19.2 billion in 2022, according to the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT).

By sectors, the government sector came on top in terms of expenditure on R&D with SAR 11.1 billion, or 58% of the total, followed by the private sector with SAR 7.5 billion, or 39%. The education sector accounted for SAR 558 million, or 3% of the total expenditure.

The number of researchers in the R&D field rose 21.6% YoY to 3,016. The education sector led the way in terms of researcher number with, 2,675 or 89% of the total. The private sector followed, with 181,000 researchers, or 6% of the total. The government sector tailed the list with 159,000 researchers, representing 5% of the total.

The number of employees in R&D neared 44,000 in 2022. The education sector came on top with 36,930 employees, or 84% of the total. The private sector came second with 4,440, or 10% of total employees, followed by the government sector with 2,600, or 6% of the total, GASTAT added.

However, the workers in the education sector achieved the largest percentage in the field of research and development, reaching (83%), with 25,178 workers. At the level of the government sector, the number of workers recorded 2,967 workers, with (10%) of total workers; while the private sector ranked last with 2,075 workers by (7%) during 2021, according to the publication.