Science funding · Explorer · AAAS data
Seven decades of US research money, two ways to read it
How federal budgets moved over time, and how the dollars flow from funders to federal agencies. Every view has its own link: scrub, reframe, and share.
Science funding · Explorer · AAAS data
How federal budgets moved over time, and how the dollars flow from funders to federal agencies. Every view has its own link: scrub, reframe, and share.
Fig. 1 · Funding history
Federal research and development, split between defense and everything else.
This view shows the funding-history lens from fiscal year 1976 to 2026, framed in spending as a share of US gross domestic product.
Total federal research and development fell from 1.23% in fiscal year 1976 to 0.51% in 2026. Defense R&D alone was 0.31% in 2026. Figures for fiscal year 2026 and later are estimates carried from the White House budget request; the enacted FY 2026 cycle is tracked on the appropriations page.
All figures come from the AAAS Historical R&D Data as of 2025-10-23.