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Education · Spending

Government expenditure on education (% of GDP)

% of GDP · Annual · 203 of 218 countries (93 %) · 1970–2025
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World average (population-weighted)
3.3 %
across 121 countries, 2023
Latest observation
2025
Source updated
13 Jul 2026
CountryAtlas refreshed
11 Sep 2026
Snapshot 20260911T072322Z

World map

One value per country for the selected year. Hatched = no data.

1970–2025 · 121 countries
Education spending, 2023World map of Education spending (2023) for 121 countries, from 0.0 % to 16.4 %.Fiji: 4.2 %Tanzania: 3.3 %W. Sahara: —Canada: —United States: —Kazakhstan: 4.9 %Uzbekistan: 5.5 %Papua New Guinea: 0.8 %Indonesia: 1.3 %Argentina: 5.0 %Chile: —DR Congo: —Somalia: 0.0 %Kenya: 4.0 %Sudan: —Chad: 3.2 %Haiti: 1.0 %Dominican Republic: 3.8 %Russia: 4.2 %Bahamas: 2.7 %Falkland Is.: —Norway: —Greenland: —Fr. S. Antarctic Lands: —Timor-Leste: 5.2 %South Africa: 6.1 %Lesotho: 7.3 %Mexico: —Uruguay: 4.8 %Brazil: —Bolivia: 7.9 %Peru: 4.2 %Colombia: —Panama: 2.5 %Costa Rica: 5.3 %Nicaragua: 2.9 %Honduras: 4.5 %El Salvador: 3.2 %Guatemala: 3.1 %Belize: 4.2 %Venezuela: —Guyana: —Suriname: 2.9 %France: —Ecuador: 3.8 %Puerto Rico: 4.3 %Jamaica: 5.7 %Cuba: —Zimbabwe: 0.4 %Botswana: —Namibia: —Senegal: 6.2 %Mali: 4.2 %Mauritania: 4.7 %Benin: 3.2 %Niger: 4.1 %Nigeria: 0.3 %Cameroon: 2.8 %Togo: 4.1 %Ghana: —Côte d'Ivoire: 3.4 %Guinea: 1.7 %Guinea-Bissau: —Liberia: 2.3 %Sierra Leone: 2.6 %Burkina Faso: 5.3 %Central African Republic: 1.8 %Republic of the Congo: 3.3 %Gabon: 2.3 %Equatorial Guinea: —Zambia: 4.1 %Malawi: —Mozambique: —Eswatini: 5.0 %Angola: 2.5 %Burundi: —Israel: —Lebanon: 1.5 %Madagascar: 3.0 %Palestine: —Gambia: 2.8 %Tunisia: 6.7 %Algeria: 5.6 %Jordan: 3.5 %United Arab Emirates: —Qatar: —Kuwait: 5.0 %Iraq: —Oman: —Vanuatu: 7.6 %Cambodia: 2.2 %Thailand: 2.5 %Laos: 1.2 %Myanmar: —Vietnam: —North Korea: —South Korea: —Mongolia: 3.7 %India: —Bangladesh: 2.2 %Bhutan: 5.8 %Nepal: 4.0 %Pakistan: 1.9 %Afghanistan: —Tajikistan: 5.4 %Kyrgyzstan: 6.8 %Turkmenistan: 2.7 %Iran: 2.8 %Syria: —Armenia: 2.4 %Sweden: —Belarus: 4.9 %Ukraine: —Poland: —Austria: —Hungary: —Moldova: 6.6 %Romania: —Lithuania: —Latvia: —Estonia: —Germany: —Bulgaria: —Greece: —Türkiye: —Albania: 3.1 %Croatia: —Switzerland: —Luxembourg: —Belgium: —Netherlands: —Portugal: —Spain: —Ireland: —New Caledonia: —Solomon Islands: 8.3 %New Zealand: 5.2 %Australia: —Sri Lanka: 1.8 %China: 3.9 %Taiwan: —Italy: —Denmark: —United Kingdom: —Iceland: —Azerbaijan: 3.7 %Georgia: 3.7 %Philippines: 3.6 %Malaysia: 3.5 %Brunei: —Slovenia: —Finland: —Slovakia: —Czechia: —Eritrea: —Japan: —Paraguay: 3.4 %Yemen: —Saudi Arabia: 4.5 %N. Cyprus: —Cyprus: —Morocco: 6.0 %Egypt: —Libya: —Ethiopia: 2.9 %Djibouti: —Somaliland: —Uganda: —Rwanda: 4.9 %Bosnia and Herzegovina: 3.2 %North Macedonia: —Serbia: 3.4 %Montenegro: —Kosovo: —Trinidad and Tobago: 3.2 %South Sudan: —
Education spending, 2023
  • 0.0 % – 2.3 %
  • 2.3 % – 3.1 %
  • 3.1 % – 3.7 %
  • 3.7 % – 4.5 %
  • 4.5 % – 5.3 %
  • 5.3 % – 16.4 %
  • No data
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Trend

Aggregate across the countries of a group, year by year. Computed by CountryAtlas from country values — no published aggregate is used.

countries per year: 31–171
World · Education spending
Population-weighted mean
  • Population-weighted mean
  • Median
World · Education spending2 series from 1970 to 2024: Population-weighted mean, Median.1970198019902000201020200%1%2%3%4%5%

2 series from 1970 to 2024: Population-weighted mean, Median.

Highest and lowest

The five leaders and the five trailing countries, 2023.

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Highest 5

Lowest 5

Compare countries

Pick up to five countries. Defaults to the three largest economies with data.

ChinaRussiaIndonesia
  • China
  • Russia
  • Indonesia
Education spending3 series from 1971 to 2023: China, Russia, Indonesia.198019902000201020200%1%2%3%4%5%

3 series from 1971 to 2023: China, Russia, Indonesia.

Open the full comparison →

Definition

Definition
Unit
% of GDP (% GDP)
Frequency
Annual
Aggregation
none · No direction
Valid range
0 – 30

Sources & provenance

Every value on this page comes from one of these series, chosen per country by priority.

  1. Priority #1
    World BankWDISE.XPD.TOTL.GD.ZSpartial
    203 countries · 5,125 obs. · → 2025 · CC BY 4.0

    General government expenditure on education (current, capital, and transfers) is expressed as a percentage of GDP. It includes expenditure funded by transfers from international sources to government. General government usually refers to local, regional and central governments. Source: Data API, UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), uri: https://databrowser.uis.unesco.org/resources, note: The data are obtained through the UIS API. Detailed documentation is available at: https://api.uis.unesco.org/api/public/documentation/, publisher: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), date accessed: 2026-03-19, date published: 2026-02

    Open at source

Series-level selection: for each country the whole series comes from the highest-priority source that has any non-forecast value for it. If a lower-priority source is more than three years fresher, the freshest source wins instead. Non-chosen values are kept as alternatives, never discarded.

Countries without data

97 of 218 countries have no value for 2023.

Typical reasons: the source does not survey small territories or micro-states; the statistical office reports with a lag of one to three years; the series is only compiled for member countries of the source organisation (OECD, EU, Eurostat); or a value exists but failed validation and is quarantined rather than shown.

Downloads & API

Every observation for this indicator, all countries and years, with provenance columns.

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API example

One country, full history. Replace CAN by any ISO3 code or slug.

bash
curl -s "https://www.countryatlas.co/api/v1/series?country=CAN&indicator=education-expenditure-pct-gdp" | jq '.series[0] | {country: .country.name, unit, last: .stats.last, source: .provenance.source_name}'

API documentation →