RIYADH — The General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) has announced a significant increase in research and development (R&D) activities in Saudi Arabia, with expenditure rising by 17.4% in 2023 to reach SR22.61 billion compared to the previous year. The 2023 statistics also highlighted notable growth in the R&D workforce, which expanded by 12.2%, bringing the total number of employees in the field to 49,337. Furthermore, the number of researchers saw a substantial increase of 22.1%, reaching 36,832 compared to 2022. These figures were included in GASTAT's annual R&D report, which provides a comprehensive overview of research and development activities in the Kingdom.