Company R&D expenditures in US increased 6.7 percent in 2013

Companies spent $323 billion on research and development performed in the United States during 2013, 6.7 percent more than the $302 billion they spent the previous year.

A new report from the National Science Foundation's National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) finds that the companies' own level of R&D funding also rose, going from $247 billion to $265 billion between 2012 and 2013. The federal government was the chief source of external funding companies put into R&D, accounting for $29 billion in 2013, most of which came from the Defense Department.

Manufacturing industries, including chemicals, machinery and computer products, were responsible for 69 percent—or $221 billion—of domestic R&D spending in 2013. Of the nonmanufacturing industries, the most R&D spending came from the information sector, which includes software publishers and others, with $57 billion, followed by professional, scientific and technical services, with $31 billion.

U.S. companies that performed or funded R&D reported domestic net sales of $10 trillion in 2013. Those businesses employed 20 million people, a total of 1.5 million of whom were employees associated with R&D efforts. Of those 1.5 million workers, 30 percent were at small companies, 43 percent were at mid-size companies and 27 percent were at the largest companies.

NCSES found that business R&D spending is concentrated in a relatively small number of states, with businesses in California accounting for 29 percent of the investments companies made from their own funding. Other states with large amounts of company-funded R&D included Michigan (5.4 percent), Massachusetts (5.3 percent), Washington (5.3 percent), Texas (5.1 percent), Illinois (4.5 percent), New Jersey (4.5 percent), New York (3.6 percent) and Pennsylvania (3.8 percent).