Southern Africa
Research spending and researcher density in Southern Africa
Namibia spent an estimated 0.65% of GDP on research and development in 2022, slightly above South Africa’s 0.61%. South Africa recorded nearly twice as many full-time-equivalent researchers per million people in the same year.
Sources checked
- Botswana (2013)0.56%
- Lesotho (2023)0.09%
- Mozambique (2015)0.31%
- Namibia (2022)0.65%
- South Africa (2022)0.61%
- Zambia (2008)0.28%
Natural Earth land outlines and dashed land boundaries.
Switch between spending intensity and the number of full-time-equivalent researchers per million residents.
Namibia and South Africa show why both measures matter
The 2022 spending ratio was 0.65% for Namibia and 0.61% for South Africa. Researcher density was 224.81 per million people in Namibia and 444.16 in South Africa. Spending relative to GDP and workforce relative to population answer different questions. Source 1 Source 2
South Africa’s researcher density fell from its 2017 reading
South Africa recorded 516.54 researchers per million in 2017 and 444.16 in 2022. Its R&D spending share also fell from 0.76% to 0.61%. The published data are historical observations from the same country, rather than a comparison of different reporting years. Source 1 Source 2
The other countries have widely separated reporting years
Lesotho’s latest pair was in 2023, with 0.09% of GDP and 32.24 researchers per million. The latest pairs for Mozambique, Botswana and Zambia were in 2015, 2013 and 2008, respectively. The chart labels those years and does not present them as current positions. Source 1 Source 2
Full-time equivalents measure research work time
Researchers working part time on R&D contribute a fraction of a full-time equivalent. Spending includes qualifying current and capital expenditure on R&D across sectors. Neither series gives the number of successful discoveries, papers or commercial products. Source 3 Source 1