| Year | Korea’s proportion of R&D expenditure to GDP | Proportion of OECD national average R&D expenditure to GDP | Proportion of China’s R&D expenditure to GDP |
| 1998 | 2.16 | 2.05 | - |
| 1999 | 2.07 | 2.10 | - |
| 2000 | 2.18 | 2.14 | - |
| 2001 | 2.34 | 2.18 | 1.00 |
| 2002 | 2.27 | 2.15 | 1.10 |
| 2003 | 2.35 | 2.15 | 1.30 |
| 2004 | 2.53 | 2.13 | 1.35 |
| 2005 | 2.63 | 2.16 | 1.30 |
| 2006 | 2.83 | 2.19 | 1.41 |
| 2007 | 3.00 | 2.22 | 1.49 |
| 2008 | 3.12 | 2.29 | 1.52 |
| 2009 | 3.29 | 2.34 | 1.62 |
| 2010 | 3.47 | 2.30 | 1.75 |
| 2011 | 3.74 | 2.33 | 1.83 |
| 2012 | 4.03 | 2.34 | 1.97 |
| 2013 | 4.15 | 2.37 | 2.09 |
| 2014 | 4.29 | 2.37 | 2.09 |