How to Read the NCSES Business R&D (BERD) InfoBrief — Funding Sources, R&D Intensity, States and a 2023 Break

As of 9 November 2026, 01:31 KST (retrieved by this page at that time); latest listed on the agency page at retrieval: Business R&D Performance in the United States Increases to $765 Billion in 2024 (NSF 27-301), an InfoBrief of the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) at the U.S. National Science Foundation, from the Business Enterprise Research and Development (BERD) Survey run with the Census Bureau. Page and PDF date: October 29, 2026; reference period: calendar year 2024. Primary source: https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf27301/assets/nsf27301.pdf^[1][2][3]

Comparison basis: amounts are in millions of current dollars, not adjusted for inflation, and the text gives them rounded to billions. The previous column is from the 2023 InfoBrief (NSF 25-353, September 29, 2025); its 2023 values in Table 1 are the same as the 2023 column of the 2024 InfoBrief's Table 1. The survey page says 2023 and 2024 are not comparable with years before 2023 because some companies changed how they report R&D.^[1][3][4]

In three lines

1. U.S. companies performed $765 billion of R&D in the United States in 2024 (Table 1), 6.0% more than in 2023.
2. Development was $608 billion; basic research fell to $40,530 million and federal funding to $30,995 million (Table 1).
3. California had 33.7% of the total (Table 5); R&D was 5.1% of domestic net sales as defined by NCSES (Table 3).^[1]

Which companies. The BERD sample represents for-profit, nonfarm companies with 10 or more employees in the United States that performed or funded R&D. The 2024 InfoBrief says: "Small company includes only companies with 10 or more domestic employees." The 2023 InfoBrief put it this way: "The Business Enterprise Research and Development Survey does not include companies with fewer than 10 domestic employees."^[1][4]

A dollar threshold. "Beginning in survey year 2018, companies that performed or funded less than $50,000 of R&D were excluded from tabulation." The survey page adds: "Had the companies under this threshold been included in the 2024 estimates, they would have contributed approximately $70 million to overall R&D expenditures and would have added approximately 5,400 companies to the estimated count of U.S. companies with R&D expenditures."^[1][3]

What domestic means. Domestic R&D is R&D performed in the 50 states and the District of Columbia by the responding company, whether paid for by the company or by others. "In this InfoBrief, money amounts are expressed in current U.S. dollars and are not adjusted for inflation." R&D intensity divides R&D by domestic net sales as NCSES defines them; the note to Table 3 says: "Included are revenues from a company’s foreign operations and subsidiaries and from discontinued operations."^[1]

Sample and response. For 2024, 45,500 companies were sampled to represent 1,171,000 companies; 66% of in-scope reporting units met the complete response criteria, against 71% for 2023. The survey page says the total quantity response rate for total U.S. R&D in 2024 was 70%, with the rest imputed or reweighted.^[1][3]

A break before 2023. The 2023 InfoBrief (NSF 25-353) said: "Businesses continued to increase their research and development (R&D) performance in 2023, spending $722 billion on R&D in the United States, a 4.4% increase from 2022 (table 1)." The survey page says some respondents changed their reporting in the 2023 collection: "This has resulted in a meaningful decrease in the 2023 R&D performance compared to the amount of 2023 R&D performance that would have been estimated based on respondent reporting practices used in 2022 and earlier." "This change has affected the comparability of the 2023 and 2024 estimates to those published for years prior to 2023." So the 2022-to-2023 change spans a break in reporting practice, while the 2023-to-2024 change does not.^[3][4]

Rounded shares. The 2024 InfoBrief (NSF 27-301) says: "In 2024, of the $765 billion that companies spent on R&D, $41 billion (5%) was for basic research, $116 billion (15%) was for applied research, and $608 billion (79%) was for development (table 1)." The shares add to 99%, and basic research of $40,530 million is 5.3% of the total (this page's calculations). Rounding may explain both, but the InfoBrief does not say so.^[1]

Semiconductor intensity. A simple comparison of Table 3's published estimates gives an R&D intensity for semiconductor and other electronic products (NAICS 3344) of 25.8% in the 2023 InfoBrief and 19.4% in the 2024 InfoBrief. R&D in the industry rose from $50,079 million to $52,358 million while domestic net sales rose from $193,953 million to $269,245 million (4.6% and 38.8%; this page's calculations). Neither InfoBrief discusses the change. The 2024 InfoBrief says: "All comparative statements in this InfoBrief have undergone statistical testing and are significant at the 90% confidence level unless otherwise noted." This comparison is not one of the InfoBrief's statements, and this page has not tested the statistical significance of this difference.^[1][4]

Similar, not unchanged. "Funding from other sources accounted for $86 billion, similar to 2023 funding levels." In Table 1, R&D paid for by others is $85,711 million in 2024 against $86,314 million in 2023, and the federal part fell from $32,008 million to $30,995 million (this page's reading of Table 1). The InfoBrief describes the first as similar and does not comment on the federal decline.^[1]

Dates kept apart. Reference period: calendar year 2024. 2024 InfoBrief (NSF 27-301) and data tables (NSF 27-300): October 29, 2026. 2023 InfoBrief (NSF 25-353): September 29, 2025. The survey page lists a questionnaire titled Annual Business Survey: 2025 Business Enterprise Research and Development Module.^[1][2][3][4]

Next release. NCSES's Schedule of Release Dates lists the BERD Survey's next reference period as calendar year 2025 with the next release date TBD, so the date is not established.^[5]