China is behind only the US and Japan in terms of spending on research and development, according to a report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. It spent around US$60bn on R&D in 2001, less that a quarter spent in the US, but ahead of Germany. As a percentage of GDP, China's R&D spending has increased from 0.6 per cent in 1996 to 1.1 per cent in 2001. In 2001, China had the world's second highest number of researchers (743,000) and it awarded 793,000 its university degrees.