The line graph illustrates the American authorities’ research funding in five categories from 1980 to 2008.
Overall, the expenditure on Health, Space, and General Science witnessed an upward trend, while the figure for Energy and other areas fluctuated over the period. The government spent the largest amount of money on Health throughout the given years.
As can be seen in the chart, Health was the most invested field compared to the others. Starting with about 8 billion in 1980, the data slightly dropped four years later before rising significantly and peaking at approximately 22 billion in 2004 and then declining to 18 billion. Having a similar trend, Space investment increased by about 5 billion over the surveyed period, whereas the funding of General Science experienced a twofold growth to 5 billion in 2000 and remained constant until 2004.
Meanwhile, Energy expenditure fairly stayed at 5 billion, except for in 1996 and 2008, when the number reached a peak of 8 billion. The figure for other fields varied throughout the years with a start of 7.5 and an end of 5 billion.