US Still Leads World in R&D Spending but Faces ‘Crisis’ in STEM Workforce, NSF Board Argues
Chart illustrating the large number of science and engineering graduate students in the U.S. from China and India. The chart also displays enrollment figures from other countries that the National Science Board identifies as potential “emerging science partner countries.”
(National Science Board)
The National Science Foundation’s biennial report on the state of U.S. science and engineering, published last week, found that the U.S. continues to spend more on R&D than any other country. The U.S. spent $806 billion, or 3.5% of its GDP, on R&D in 2021, the latest year for which data is available.
By comparison, R&D spending was $668 billion for China, $177 billion for Japan, and $154 billion for Germany, the next three highest spenders. However, the report highlights that the U.S. is particularly dependent on STEM workers born outside the U.S. at a time when math test scores for U.S.-born elementary and secondary students are low, having dropped sharply during the pandemic.
The U.S. STEM workforce consisted of 36.8 million people in 2021, and of these, 19% were born abroad, the report found. Foreign-born workers also accounted for 43% of all doctoral-level scientists and engineers in the U.S.
In a policy brief accompanying the report, NSF’s governing board argues that the U.S. now faces an “accelerating STEM talent crisis,” in part due to the longstanding underperformance of the U.S. pre-K-12 education system in comparison with many peer countries.
Another vulnerability identified by the board is the U.S.’s outsized reliance on acquiring STEM workers from just two countries, China and India. Accordingly, the board recommends the U.S. rapidly ramp up efforts to increase the domestic STEM workforce as well as enact policies to attract and retain STEM talent from around the world.
The board also suggests a new focus on recruiting from “emerging science partner countries,” defined as “low-and middle-income countries building their R&D enterprises that are poised to become the collaborators of tomorrow.”
This news brief originally appeared in FYI’s newsletter for the week of March 18.
