The line graph illustrates how much money the US government spent on research over a 28-year period (1980-2008).
Overall, the graph indicates that government expenditure on research in nearly all given domains grew, with the most notable rise being observed in the health sector. Additionally, it is worth noting that general science received the least amount of funding in all the years in question.
Starting with the sectors that obtained the most state funding over the years, the health sector dominated the chart. Although its figure initially declined slightly, it grew steadily in the following years to reach a high of around 16 billion dollars in 2000. Later on, it soared to its all-time peak of about 22 billion dollars in 2004, but in the final year, it dropped by 5 billion dollars. Likewise, the spending on space research decreased at first; however, it recovered subsequently to reach nearly 10 billion dollars – double its initial figure.
Similarly, the energy and general science fields saw their figures rise. Even though the figure for the former remained unchanged at 5 billion dollars for the better part of the period, it increased to 8 billion dollars in both 1996 and 2008. In contrast, the government doubled its spending on general science research gradually, from 2.5 to 5 billion dollars by 2000, after which the figure remained stable for the rest of the period.
The amount of investment in other sectors generally fell. The figure initially dropped to 5 billion dollars, followed by a gradual rise to 7 billion in 2000. Despite this, it plummeted to 5 billion dollars again, converging with general science.