South Korea's research industry consists of 21,000 companies that generated 28.6 trillion won in domestic and overseas sales, the data showed.

The Ministry of Science and ICT on Monday released the results of the "2025 Research Industry Survey". The research industry refers to an industry that contributes to the creation, use and diffusion of research outcomes by providing services such as research and development strategy formulation, design and analysis, testing and analysis, prototype production, and development and supply of research equipment and materials.

The latest survey is the second conducted since it was designated as national approved statistics in June 2024. It confirmed for the first time two-year time-series changes in the research industry.

As of 2024, the number of research-industry companies was tallied at 21,007, up 6.1 percent from a year earlier at 19,797. Sales in the sector totalled 28.6 trillion won, comprising 25.9 trillion won domestically and 2.7 trillion won overseas, up 3.6 percent from a year earlier.

By sales across the research industry's four major fields, contract research ranked first at 17.8 trillion won, followed by research materials at 8.0 trillion won, research management at 1.6 trillion won and research equipment at 120,000,000 won.

Among employees at research-industry companies, the number working in the research-industry field was 190,000 out of a total workforce of 286,000, up 2.2 percent from a year earlier. The share of workers with master's or doctoral degrees was 28.7 percent, higher than 8.1 percent across all South Korean companies. Among all employees at research-industry companies, the share with bachelor's degrees was 67 percent, with master's degrees 23.4 percent and doctorates 5.3 percent.

Internal research capabilities in the research industry also strengthened. The share of companies with research organisations or departments was 42.8 percent, up 4.6 percentage points from a year earlier. The share of companies with in-house research and development performance was also higher at 51.6 percent, up 7.9 percentage points from a year earlier.

Total R&D spending by research-industry companies was 5.2 trillion won, down 2.5 percent from a year earlier. As a share of total sales, it was 11.3 percent, far exceeding the South Korean corporate average of 3.85 percent.

Research-industry companies cited securing specialised personnel at 49.3 percent and improving technological competitiveness at 46.3 percent as necessary for technology development. For management-related issues, they pointed to the impact of economic fluctuations at 56.0 percent and difficulties in raising funds at 51.4 percent.

Eun-young Lee (이은영), director general for research outcomes and innovation at the ministry, said it confirmed the research industry is growing into a knowledge-intensive industry. She said the ministry will continue to conduct highly reliable surveys and use them to establish policies to strengthen the competitiveness of South Korea's research industry.

The survey results are available on the websites of the ministry, the Korea Research Industry Association and the national statistics site.