# Government spending on education, share of government spending

General government expenditure on education as a percentage of total general government expenditure on all sectors. Calculated and published by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics.

## Key facts

- Government spending on education, share of government spending in the United States was 11.3% in 2021, according to UNESCO Institute for Statistics.
- Sierra Leone had the highest government spending on education, share of government spending of 156 countries in 2022, at 29.4%, and Somalia the lowest, at 2.8%. Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics.
- Published for 200 places, with figures from 1980 to 2025.
- Figures last updated on 2026-10-12.

- Indicator id: `education_expenditure_govt_share`
- Unit: %
- Note: A share of the government budget, not of GDP; for that see education_expenditure_gdp. UIS divides by total government spending from IMF figures or, for some countries, from government budget documents, so a recent year can be revised. Countries only; UIS publishes no World figure.
- Web page: https://invokely.ai/en/education-spending-government-share
- API: https://invokely.ai/api/v1/indicators/education_expenditure_govt_share

## Latest figures

| Place | Period | % | Source |
|---|---|---:|---|
| United States | 2021 | 11.3 | Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). Government expenditure on education, total, % of government expenditure (SE.XPD.TOTL.GB.ZS). Retrieved through World Bank World Development Indicators (data.worldbank.org). https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.XPD.TOTL.GB.ZS. Retrieved 2026-10-12. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. UIS does not endorse Invokely or this use of the data. |

## Rankings

- [Countries](https://invokely.ai/rankings/education-spending-government-share/countries.md) (200 places)
- [EU countries](https://invokely.ai/rankings/education-spending-government-share/eu-countries.md) (27 places)