科研支出趋势

The line graph illustrates how much the US government allocated to research across five different sectors from 1980 to 2008, measured in billions of dollars. Overall, health research received by far the largest amount of government funding over the period, and it was also the category that saw the most significant growth in expenditure. By contrast, spending on the other four research areas remained relatively stable, with all of these receiving less than $10 billion annually by the end of the timeframe. In detail, federal spending on health research started at around $8 billion in 1980. After a slight dip to approximately $7 billion in 1984, it rose dramatically, reaching a peak of nearly $22 billion in 2004, before falling back to around $18 billion in 2008. Looking at the other sectors, space research was the second-best funded area in 2008, at about $9 billion, having seen a gradual rise from $6 billion in 1980. Spending on energy and other research areas both ended the period at similar levels to 1980 (around $5-8 billion, and $5 billion respectively), despite some fluctuations over the years. General science had consistently the lowest funding throughout the 28-year period, remaining between $2 billion and $5 billion.