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November 01, 2024RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE HIGHER EDUCATION SECTOR, 2022/2023 
Nova Scotia’s higher education research and development (R&D) spending increased by 11.7% to $556.9 million, the second fastest growth among provinces from 2021/2022 to 2022/2023. Nationally, higher education sector spending on R&D totalled $18.1 billion in 2022/2023, up 8.7% from the previous year. Across Canada, all provinces except Newfoundland and Labrador reported growth in higher education R&D spending.
Nova Scotia's higher education R&D spending was on an upward trend until 2017/2018. In three of the past four years, there has been notably stronger growth for Nova Scotia's higher education R&D spending.
On a per capita basis, Nova Scotia’s higher education sector has the third largest R&D spending in the country at $543.2 per capita, behind Newfoundland and Labrador ($552.8 per capita) and Quebec ($546.4 per capita). Nationally, higher education sector spending on R&D averaged to $464.3 per capita in 2022/2023.
Nova Scotia had the largest higher education research and development spending as a share of GDP at 1.02%. Nationally Canada spent 0.64% of (2022) GDP on higher education research and development.
Since 2002, Canada's higher education R&D spending has fluctuated in a narrow range. Nova Scotia's higher education R&D spending (as a share of GDP) has been the highest in the country since 2005/2006, except for the years between 2018/2019 and 2020/2021 when Newfoundland and Labrador was higher.
Source: Statistics Canada, Table 27-10-0025-01 Provincial estimates of research and development expenditures in the higher education sector, by funding sector and type of science (x 1,000,000)
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