Bibliometric indicators: Fractional counts of scientific publications in China
China: Bibliometric indicators: Fractional counts of scientific publications was 63,005 Scientific publications in 2024. ▲ Rising
Bibliometric indicators, by Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in China, 2015–2024
Source: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Measured in Scientific publications.
Analysis
The most recent figure for bibliometric indicators, by sustainable development goals (sdgs) in China is 63,005 Scientific publications, measured in 2024. That is the highest value across all 10 years on record.
Compared with earlier readings it is up 13.1% on the previous year and up 218.0% over ten years.
Over the whole period, bibliometric indicators, by sustainable development goals (sdgs) in China peaked at 63,005 Scientific publications in 2024 and was at its lowest, 19,816 Scientific publications, in 2015.
China ranks 2nd of 48 countries on this measure, in the top 10%.
Bibliometric indicators: Fractional counts of scientific publications in China, year by year
| Year | Scientific publications | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 19,816 Scientific publications | — |
| 2016 | 21,912 Scientific publications | +10.6% |
| 2017 | 24,596 Scientific publications | +12.2% |
| 2018 | 27,836 Scientific publications | +13.2% |
| 2019 | 32,820 Scientific publications | +17.9% |
| 2020 | 37,484 Scientific publications | +14.2% |
| 2021 | 42,846 Scientific publications | +14.3% |
| 2022 | 50,453 Scientific publications | +17.8% |
| 2023 | 55,709 Scientific publications | +10.4% |
| 2024 | 63,005 Scientific publications | +13.1% |
China compared with similar countries
- China's 63,005 Scientific publications is above the median for upper middle income countries, which is 854.82 Scientific publications, 73.7× the median. (12 countries reporting)
- China's 63,005 Scientific publications is above the median for East Asia & Pacific, which is 2,010 Scientific publications, 31.3× the median. (8 countries reporting)
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010s | 25,396 Scientific publications | 19,816 Scientific publications | 32,820 Scientific publications | 5 |
| 2020s | 49,899 Scientific publications | 37,484 Scientific publications | 63,005 Scientific publications | 5 |
Countries ranked near China
- 1 United States 36,544 Scientific publications compare
- 1 OECD 118,504 Scientific publications compare
- 2 United Kingdom 8,547 Scientific publications compare
- 3 India 15,616 Scientific publications compare
- 3 Viet Nam 857.17 Scientific publications compare
- 4 Germany 9,839 Scientific publications compare
- 4 Netherlands 2,639 Scientific publications compare
- 5 Italy 6,756 Scientific publications compare
- 5 Türkiye 2,460 Scientific publications compare
More public sector data for China
- Democracy, annual growth rate -100 % change on previous year (1949)
- Chief executive of the government is elected, annual growth rate -100 % change on previous year (1949)
- Men's universal right to vote, annual growth rate 0 % change on previous year (2025)
- Universal right to vote, annual growth rate 0 % change on previous year (2025)
- Democracy 0 (2025)
- Chief executive of the government is elected 0 (2025)
- Elected parliament 0 (2025)
- Men's universal right to vote 1 (2025)
- Competitive elections 0 (2025)
- Universal right to vote 2 (2025)
Frequently asked questions
- What is bibliometric indicators, by sustainable development goals (sdgs) in China?
- Bibliometric indicators, by sustainable development goals (sdgs) in China was 63,005 Scientific publications in 2024, according to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
- What is the highest bibliometric indicators, by sustainable development goals (sdgs) recorded in China?
- The highest recorded value was 63,005 Scientific publications in 2024.
- What is the lowest bibliometric indicators, by sustainable development goals (sdgs) recorded in China?
- The lowest recorded value was 19,816 Scientific publications in 2015.
- How does China rank for bibliometric indicators, by sustainable development goals (sdgs)?
- China ranks 2nd out of 48 countries with data for 2024.
- Is bibliometric indicators, by sustainable development goals (sdgs) rising or falling in China?
- Over the last ten years it is up 218.0%. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.
- Where does this China data come from?
- The figures come from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, published as part of Bibliometric indicators, by Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) — Fractional counts of scientific publications. Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.
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About this data
This dataset presents trends in the total number of scientific publications relevant to societal goals, as proxied by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework, expressed in fractional counts, for the 2015–2024 period. Coverage includes OECD member and accession countries, key partners (Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, and South Africa), and other selected non-OECD economies. This is an experimental indicator, developed under the OECD’s Fundstat initiative to improve evidence on the directionality and societal relevance of research and development (R&D) activities, by linking scientific output to 17 SDGs or none. To produce this indicator, the OECD developed a probabilistic AI-assisted classification model that identifies the SDG relevance of scientific publications based on their titles and abstracts. The approach builds on insights from the OECD International Survey of Science (ISSA2021), in which researchers reported which SDG their research contributed to. Using these responses, a labelled dataset was created to fine-tune SciBERT, a large language model (LLM) pre-trained on scientific literature, enabling it to predict the probability of relevance of a given text to each of the 17 SDGs, or to none. The trained classifier is then applied to publication titles and abstracts from the Scopus Custom Data. Publication counts are fractionalised across countries and aggregated annually for comparability. For further information on the methodology, see: Aristodemou, L., et al. (2025), “Assessing the direction of R&D funding towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with a new classifier and the OECD Fundstat infrastructure”, OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers. Source: OECD Bibliometric Indicators, calculations based on Elsevier's Scopus Custom Data, Elsevier, Version 1.2026. Please cite as: OECD (2026), OECD Bibliometric indicators, OECD Science, Technology and Innovation Statistics, http://oe.cd/scientometrics, accessed on xx/xx/xxxx.