Research and Development

Hannah Ritchie; Edouard Mathieu; Max Roser

Research and Development

by Hannah Ritchie, Edouard Mathieu and Max Roser

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Research and development underpin nearly all the transformative changes we see on Our World in Data.

Cures for diseases, vaccines, and techniques to prevent infection have helped us survive beyond childhood and live much longer lives. Understanding hygiene, water, and sanitation have saved countless lives from preventable diseases.

Electricity, artificial light, transport, and other energy technologies have transformed our lives. Agricultural research has broken deadlocks in crop yields and allowed us to produce enough food for eight billion people.

Even beyond the long list of technological advances, research into effective political and economic systems, human rights, and social sciences have reshaped societies worldwide.

More research is needed to address our largest problems – old and new. We will need innovations in clean energy to tackle climate change, in agriculture to feed a growing population, and developments in medical research to tackle existing and prevent new diseases. Research is vital to address emerging risks such as artificial intelligence and nuclear weapons.

You can find all of our data, visualizations, and writing on research, development, and innovation on this page.

Research & Writing

Talent is everywhere, opportunity is not. We are all losing out because of this.

The world needs ideas and innovation to make progress against the many problems we face. But opportunities are limited to only a small number of well-off children.

Max Roser

The price of batteries has declined by 97% in the last three decades

To transition towards low-carbon energy systems we need low-cost energy storage. Battery costs have been falling quickly.

Hannah Ritchie

Medical research and innovations

Deaths caused by smallpox as a share of all deaths in London

Our history is a battle against the microbes: we lost terribly before science, public health, and vaccines allowed us to protect ourselves

Max Roser

Antiretroviral therapy has saved millions of lives from AIDS and could save more

Bernadeta Dadonaite

Five year cancer survival rates usa v2 01 768x563

Cancer death rates are falling; five-year survival rates are rising

Hannah Ritchie

Interactive charts on Research and Development

Cite this work

Our articles and data visualizations rely on work from many different people and organizations. When citing this topic page, please also cite the underlying data sources. This topic page can be cited as:

Hannah Ritchie, Edouard Mathieu and Max Roser (2023) - "Research and Development". Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: 'http://staging-site-cloudflare-pages/research-and-development' [Online Resource]

BibTeX citation

@article{owidresearchanddevelopment,
    author = {Hannah Ritchie and Edouard Mathieu and Max Roser},
    title = {Research and Development},
    journal = {Our World in Data},
    year = {2023},
    note = {http://staging-site-cloudflare-pages/research-and-development}
}

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Research and Development

Research & Writing

More key articles on Research and Development

Why did renewables become so cheap so fast?

The brief history of artificial intelligence: The world has changed fast – what might be next?

Yields vs. Land Use: How the Green Revolution enabled us to feed a growing population

Medical research and innovations

Interactive charts on Research and Development