Global Space Economy: Government Budgets and Growth

The OECD estimates worldwide civil space budgets at USD 46.4 billion in 2025, up from USD 40.5 billion in 2022, with defence demand climbing strongly in parallel [1]. That is a nominal rise of about 14.6% over three years (FREEE.REPORT calculation from the two OECD figures).

Across the OECD, civil space accounted for 6.3% of civil R&D budget allocations in 2024 [1].

Between 2010 and 2025, some countries invested heavily in space, while others increased spending as part of COVID-19 recovery programmes [1]. Several European countries increased their contributions to optional European Space Agency (ESA) programmes [1].

At the OECD level, civil public space budgets have remained broadly stable as a share of GDP between 2010 and 2025, while keeping pace with above-average inflation rates [1]. In other words, the nominal increases largely reflect inflation and GDP growth rather than a step change in space intensity.

The OECD's regular Space Economy in Figures and Space Economy at a Glance reports are the standard reference for this series [1]. OECD also publishes policy work on space sustainability and on attracting high-quality funding to the sector [1].

Figures come from the OECD Space Economy topic page, which summarises findings from OECD's Space Economy at a Glance and Space Economy in Figures reports [1]. 'Civil space budgets' excludes military space spending. OECD defines the space economy as the full range of activities that create and provide value-added products and services to humankind in the course of exploring, understanding, managing and using space.

FREEE.REPORT calculation: the 2022-2025 growth rate is (46.4 / 40.5) - 1 = 14.6%. This is a nominal change and does not adjust for inflation; OECD notes that civil space budgets have broadly kept pace with inflation and GDP growth rather than growing in real intensity.