The Space Economy at a Glance 2026

The space economy is evolving rapidly, with implications that extend beyond the space sector itself. Governments are seeking to understand how public investment, technological capabilities, commercial activity and growing reliance on space-based infrastructure shape economic performance, strategic autonomy, public-service delivery and resilience. This report responds to that need by providing a concise, comparative, and evidence-based overview of recent developments in the space economy. Its coverage is selective rather than exhaustive, focusing on areas where new indicators and policy-relevant evidence are available, while pointing to areas where further measurement work will be needed.

The publication is designed primarily for policy makers, space agencies, statistical offices, regulators and public institutions involved in science, technology, innovation, industrial, digital, environmental and resilience policies. It may also be useful to stakeholders in industry, research organisations and international bodies seeking a clearer view of how space activities are changing and how their benefits and risks are distributed across economies and value chains.

The report brings together new OECD indicators and analysis across several dimensions of the space economy, including public space budgets, civil space R&D, policy instruments, private finance, scientific publications, patents, orbital activity, satellite-enabled services, market concentration and supply-chain dependencies. It also draws on emerging measurement approaches, including thematic accounts and indicators of satellite-service uptake, to improve understanding of how space activities contribute to national economies and public value.

The report’s contribution is to connect several dimensions that are often analysed separately: public investment and market-shaping policies; scientific and technological capabilities; changing market structures and commercial dynamics; and the risks linked to growing dependence on space infrastructure. By doing so, it aims to help governments assess not only how to support a more innovative and competitive space economy, but also how to preserve open access to essential data and signals, safeguard orbital resources, manage strategic dependencies and embed resilience across the wider economy.

The Space Economy at a Glance is organised around four thematic chapters that together examine the strategic foundations of the space economy, the evolution of innovation capabilities, changing market structures and the vulnerabilities that accompany growing dependence on space systems. The report is complemented by a series of country profiles showcasing selected OECD Space Forum members and illustrating how national space economies, policy priorities and institutional arrangements differ across countries.

The indicators presented in The Space Economy at a Glance cover different aspects of the space economy, which the OECD Handbook on Measuring the Space Economy defines in the following way:

The space economy is the full range of activities and the use of resources that create and provide value and benefits to human beings in the course of exploring, understanding, managing and utilising space. Hence, it includes all public and private actors involved in developing, providing and using space-related products and services, ranging from research and development, the manufacture and use of space infrastructure (ground stations, launch vehicles and satellites) to space-enabled applications (navigation equipment, satellite phones, meteorological services, etc.) and the scientific knowledge generated by such activities. It follows that the space economy goes well beyond the space sector itself, since it also comprises the increasingly pervasive and continually changing impacts (both quantitative and qualitative) of space-derived products, services and knowledge on economy and society.

This provides the starting point for adapted definitions in the fields mentioned below, which may be further refined depending on data availability. Capturing and delimiting statistics associated with the exploitation of space data and signals remains a recurring challenge.

Government space budgets cover activities whose primary objective is civilian or dual-use (i.e. not exclusively military). For example, the US Global Positioning System is considered dual use because it is available both for defence and civilian uses. Military space programmes play an important role in the space economy and are mentioned several times in this report, but because they are only rarely identifiable in government budgets, they have been excluded from international indicators to facilitate international comparability.

The number of activities funded by government space budgets varies greatly across countries and can include all or some of the following:

• the manufacture and operation of space infrastructure

• the use of satellite data, signals and related equipment (navigation equipment, satellite phones, communication services, geospatial intelligence, etc.)

• associated research and development, both basic and applied

• exploitation of scientific knowledge generated by the above activities

• contributions to international space-related programmes.

The indicator uses revised budget estimates for 2025 and budget expenditure for previous years. It only includes resources met from national/federal government sources, excluding local/regional government budgets and the private sector. In cases where fiscal years do not correspond to calendar years, fiscal years starting in the period 1 January-30 June are converted to the first calendar year in the budget period, e.g. 2025 for fiscal year 2025/26, while those starting 1 July-31 December are attributed to the second year, e.g. 2026 for fiscal year 2025/26.

The space-related patent analysis is based on updated data from previous patent studies jointly developed and conducted by the European Patent Office, the European Space Agency and the European Space Policy Institute. The following technology categories are included, identified thanks to a combination of International Patent Classification codes and keywords: propulsion, spacecraft electrical power, space system control, life support, space debris and quantum in space. The studies and queries can be found on the European Patent Office’s space innovation platform.

The bibliometric analysis of space-related scientific publications draws on 254 journals and conference proceedings indexed in Elsevier’s Scopus database. The dataset covers 491 496 fractional counts of scientific papers published between 2009 and 2024. The journal selection is based on a combination of All Science Journal Classification codes and journal names (primarily including astrophysics, space science, aerospace engineering and remote sensing). Only journals with a SCImago Journal Rank indicator (a measure of journal prestige) are included in the analysis.

Space-related official development assistance indicators rely on projects in the Creditor Reporting System database of the OECD Development Co-Ordination Directorate. Projects were identified thanks to keywords and were tagged as “space-related” if they 1) use or support space science, space infrastructure and/or satellite data and signals; or 2) provide space-related administrative support or training. The analysis is based on 2 712 projects between 2010 and 2023 and their associated commitments.

The indicators in The Space Economy at a Glance are the result of a continuous process of methodological improvement aimed at improving the robustness and international comparability of the indicators. As a result, data across different editions of The Space Economy in Figures and The Space Economy at a Glance may not be comparable. To analyse time trends, it is preferable to use the data for different time periods from the latest edition of The Space Economy at a Glance. All comparisons over time presented in this report are based on annual revisions of historical data and the methodological improvements which have been implemented in this edition.

This report features data on the space economy from OECD countries and selected non-OECD economies (e.g. Brazil, India, Thailand) with space programmes and transparent reporting of budgets and activities. The following OECD countries provided budget data (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and United Kingdom), in addition to Thailand. Data for the remaining countries have been collected from both national and international budget sources, including financial data from the European Space Agency, Eumetsat and the European Union, which for many countries represent the bulk of government civilian space budgets.