As space activities expand and become embedded in everyday economic and public-service functions, governments need better evidence to understand their benefits, risks and policy implications. The Space Economy at a Glance 2026 provides a compact and comparative assessment of recent developments across the space economy. Space systems support communications, positioning and timing, earth observation, weather monitoring, disaster response, transport, agriculture, finance, science, security and a growing range of commercial services. Drawing on OECD indicators and policy analysis, the report examines the public and private forces shaping this transformation, including government space budgets, civil space R&D, private finance, entrepreneurship, scientific and technological capabilities, market dynamics, satellite-enabled applications and emerging approaches to measuring the economic footprint of space activities. It shows how governments remain central to market creation and strategic capability-building, even as commercial actors increasingly operate and shape orbital activity. The report also highlights the policy challenges associated with expanding space use, including orbital congestion, debris, market concentration, supply-chain dependencies, access to essential data and signals, and the resilience of space infrastructure. The report supports governments in designing innovative, competitive, secure and responsible space ecosystems that deliver broad public value for economies and societies.
The Space Economy at a Glance 2026
Abstract
Executive summary
Once considered a niche domain, the space economy is now a growing industrial force supporting innovation, new services and public policy objectives. Global space-related revenues are estimated at USD 550-600 billion in 2025, depending on scope, approaching the size of the global semiconductor industry (value at about USD 620 billion in 2024).
Space is also a measurable component of national economies. Harmonised accounts show that in the United States the sector generated USD 142.5 billion in GDP in 2023, or 0.5% of the total, as well as USD 240.9 billion in gross output and 373 000 private-sector jobs. In Italy, the second country to develop such accounts, space activities generated 0.14% of GDP, EUR 8 billion in output and more than 23 000 jobs. The OECD support countries’ measurement strategies and developing comparable space accounts.
The largest economic value lies downstream, where satellite data and services are embedded in everyday economic activity. Space-based systems support more than half of the most critical infrastructures and services across OECD countries, including transport, energy, communications, and food supply. This dependence is economically significant and in some advanced economies, close to one fifth of GDP is supported by satellite-enabled services (i.e. estimated to support around 18% of UK GDP). Satellites also provide more than 90% of the observations assimilated into weather forecasting systems.
This is amplified by greater data availability and expanding connectivity. Around 70% of data from active earth observation missions is now openly available, enabling businesses of all sizes to develop applications in agriculture, transport, finance, infrastructure management and emergency response. Satellite broadband represented only 0.7% of OECD fixed broadband subscriptions in 2023 but low-earth orbit constellations are accelerating connectivity growth by improving latency, speed and coverage.
This role is underpinned by rapid expansion of space infrastructure. More than 14 000 operational satellites were in orbit by end-2025, rising to nearly 15 000 by mid-2026, following a doubling between 2020 and 2022; International Telecommunication Union filings and constellation projects point to a much larger pipeline of more than 2 million possible future satellites, though only a fraction is likely to be deployed. The Global Exploration Roadmap to 2050, developed with input from 27 space agencies, sets out the Moon as the near-term focus with dozens of planned missions, and Mars as a longer-term objective.
Space has become a truly global activity, but launch access remains concentrated. 109 countries had launched at least one satellite by 2025, as rideshare launches, CubeSats and commercial procurement reduced barriers to entry. Orbital launch activity in 2025 was still conducted by a few actors: 181 US launch attempts, 92 from China and 8 from Europe, even as around 220 small- and micro-launcher initiatives are tracked globally.
The space economy is increasingly commercially operated, but remains centred on a few key actors. Private operators accounted for 88% of satellites launched in 2025, up from 23% in 2010, and telecommunications for 82%; one operator alone accounted for around 60% of all active satellites. Growth does not yet translate evenly into profitability: some emerging manufacturers still invest more than 60% of revenues in R&D and capital expenditure.
Governments remain central market shapers, combining rising budgets with a growing toolkit for commercialisation. OECD civilian space budgets rose 15%, from USD 40.5 billion in 2022 to USD 46.4 billion in 2025, while the OECD STIP Compass Space Economy Policies portal identified 212 space-related policy initiatives and 289 policy instruments in 2026 across 45 countries, the European Space Agency and the European Union. The number of countries with space regulations in place has increased by 50% over the past decade. Public support is also more geographically diverse, with new agencies and commercialisation support emerging across Asia-Pacific, Africa, Latin-America and the Middle East.
Public demand is increasingly shaped by defence and security requirements, although comparisons remain difficult as many programmes are classified or dual-use. In 2025, military programmes accounted for 46.3% of government space spending in the United States, 25% in France and 14.8% in Japan; Japan's defence-space spending rose almost sevenfold between 2022 and 2025, and Germany announced plans to invest EUR 35 billion in space-related defence capabilities by 2030.
Private financing is broadening the capital base. Investment, including venture capital, is estimated to have reached USD 11-13 billion in 2025, its highest level since 2021. An OECD sample of 40 recently listed space companies raised more than USD 100 billion over the past decade through new share and bond issuance.
OECD space innovation remains robust, even as space science becomes more multipolar. Space-related scientific output has more than doubled since 2009, with participation in global research networks expanding from 80 countries in 2000 to 119 in 2024, with collaboration links nearly tripling. Technological development remains concentrated in leading OECD economies. The United States accounted for 34.2% of space-related patent applications over 2020-23, followed by the EU27, Japan and China. Space innovation is increasingly focused on AI-enabled analytics, quantum applications, debris mitigation, in-orbit systems and advanced power technologies. Spacecraft electrical power alone represented 46% of space-related patent applications in 2023.
Expansion is also creating resilience and sustainability risks, from orbital debris and traffic management to cyber threats, jamming and supply-chain vulnerabilities. Around 45 860 debris objects are regularly tracked in orbit, while more than 140 million smaller objects are too small to track but still potentially damaging. These risks are compounded by vulnerabilities in space-enabled services, such as GNSS interferences affecting European air transport rising more than 22-fold between 2021 and 2025, and by concentrated supply chains, as nearly half of 29 crucial space-related inputs depend on a single country for at least two-thirds of global production (titanium, gallium, germanium, and rare earth elements).
The policy challenge is evolving from supporting growth to governing scale and complexity. As space systems become embedded in critical infrastructure, governments will need to strengthen statistical measurement, promote competitive and resilient markets, improve traffic co-ordination and debris mitigation, address supply-chain dependencies, and keep space-enabled services secure and accessible.
