Top 10 regions with FTE R&D personnel in China

China's full-time equivalent R&D personnel has consistently ranked first in the world since 2013, according to Chinese financial media outlet Yicai.

The total number of R&D personnel in China reached 7.13 million in 2019, 1.3 times that of 2015, bringing the number of R&D personnel to a new high according to the report, which cited the China Science and Technology Talent Development Report 2020 by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

South China's Guangdong province had the most R&D personnel in China in 2019, followed by East China's Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.

China's capital city Beijing and financial center Shanghai have more high-level R&D talents, with R&D researchers accounting for 66.2 and 58.4 percent of full-time equivalent R&D personnel, respectively.