• Despite a two-decade decline in its international share of all industrial R& D, the United States remains the leading performer of industrial R& D by a wide margin. In 1990, it surpassed the combined R& D performed in the industrial sector of the 12-nation European Community and was twice that performed in Japan. (For more information see: International Trends in Industrial R&D and Overall Trends.)

• R& D is highly concentrated in a few industries. Eight industries accounting for over 80 percent of all industrial R& D performed in this country. The aircraft and communications equipment industries have consistently been the largest performers of R& D in the United States. The U.S. computer and office equipment industry has taken over third place from the U.S. motor vehicle industry. In 1990, these three industries together accounted for over 50 percent of all industrial R& D performed in the United States. (For more information see: R&D Performance by Manufacturing Industries.)

• Since 1973, R& D performance in Japanese manufacturing industries grew at a higher annual rate than in the United States, and, since 1980, faster than all other industrialized countries. Industrial R& D in Japan is less concentrated than in the United States, with its top three R& D performing industries-communications equipment, motor vehicles, and electrical machinery-accounting for around 40 percent of national total. Rapid R& D growth in the Japanese computer and office equipment industry during the 1970s and 1980s moved that industry among that country's top five industry performers by 1984. (For more information see: Japan.)

• German industrial R& D appears to be somewhat less concentrated than in the United States, but more so than in Japan with the same five industries leading the country in R& D performed. The five industries included in the top five R& D performers in Germany mirror German commercial prominence as a supplier of world-class machinery and motor vehicles. (For more information see: Germany.)

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