Government spending on education, share of GDP
General government expenditure on education at all levels (current, capital and transfers), as a percentage of GDP. Includes spending funded by international transfers to government. UNESCO Institute for Statistics.
Government spending only: fees and other money paid by households and private bodies are left out, so countries where families pay a large share show lower values. For some countries UIS takes the figure from government budget documents, so a recent year can be revised when final accounts come in. Countries only; UIS publishes no World figure.
Key facts
- Government spending on education, share of GDP in the United States was 5.4% of GDP in 2021, according to UNESCO Institute for Statistics.
- Kiribati had the highest government spending on education, share of GDP of 163 countries in 2022, at 14.8% of GDP, and Nigeria the lowest, at 0.3% of GDP. Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics.
- Published for 203 places, with figures from 1970 to 2025.
Rankings
Countries by government spending on education, share of GDP, 2022
Places with data
Countries
- India
- China
- United States
- Indonesia
- Pakistan
- Nigeria
- Brazil
- Bangladesh
- Russia
- Ethiopia
- Japan
- Sint Maarten
- Cyprus
- Laos
- Cayman Islands
- Syria
Use this data in your AI agent
Invokely serves this figure to AI assistants through MCP and to code through a REST API, with the source and citation attached. Ask your assistant:
Which places have the highest government spending on education, share of GDP? Use official data and cite it.
rank_places {"indicator":"education_expenditure_gdp","level":"country"}
GET https://invokely.ai/api/v1/rank?indicator=education_expenditure_gdp&level=country