U.S. Business R&D Spending Reaches $765 Billion in 2024
The latest national survey data offers businesses a key benchmark to evaluate innovation investments against market norms.
Updated on Oct. 29, 2026 in Economic Indicators
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Business research and development spending in the United States totaled $765 billion in 2024. The figure is drawn from the Business Enterprise Research and Development Survey, which monitored 42,500 reporting units across the country.
Why it matters
Tracking R&D expenditure levels provides operators with a benchmark for national innovation intensity. Understanding these trends helps businesses calibrate their own competitive investment strategies against broader industry benchmarks.
The 2024 survey sampled 45,500 companies to represent a national landscape of 1,171,000 entities, with 42,500 units meeting the inclusion criteria for the $765 billion total. The survey achieved a 66% response rate.
The players
National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics
A federal statistical agency that tracks data on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Census Bureau
The primary federal agency responsible for producing data about the American people and economy.
The details
The data is derived from the Business Enterprise Research and Development Survey, which requires companies to report R&D expenditures meeting a minimum $50,000 threshold. Researchers classify businesses by their dominant domestic activity to ensure that the aggregate spend accurately reflects performance across different sectors of the economy.
Timeline
2023: 46,000 companies were sampled for the survey.
2024: Total business R&D spending reached $765 billion.
Market Landscape
This data point functions as the primary annual update provided by the Business Enterprise Research and Development Survey to quantify national innovation investment. It provides the essential yardstick for comparing private sector R&D intensity against long-term historical averages.
Operators should use this $765 billion aggregate as a macro-level indicator of competitive spending intensity within the U.S. market. Evaluate how your own internal R&D allocations compare to industry norms to ensure your firm remains competitive in the broader innovation lifecycle.
The takeaway
The $765 billion in R&D spending highlights the scale of investment required to drive domestic market competitiveness. Operators should track these annual survey releases to calibrate their own capital allocation strategies and R&D budgets against the broader national trend.
Further reading
For more context on national innovation trends, see our Economic Indicators section.
More information
Access the complete BERD Survey data tables for detailed annual findings.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Nsf.
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