ATLAS · EDUCATION SPENDING

Education Spending by Country

The whole world, recoloured by education spending. Education Spending worldwide (world figure): 3.6% (2023). On the map below, paler countries sit at the low end and the deepest green at the high end. Tap any nation to open its full profile. Government spending on education as a share of GDP, most recent year available, World Bank / UNESCO.

HIGHEST

16.4%

LOWEST

0.0%

WORLD

3.6%

203 countries with a figure

Source: World Bank Open Data (CC-BY 4.0), 2025 · geometry: Natural Earth (public domain)

How the map is coloured

2.2%6.1%

No figure — the source has no value for this country (shown in words, never as zero).

The top 25

203 countries and territories have a education spending figure. Here are the highest:

#	Country	Education Spending
1	Kiribati	16.4%
2	American Samoa	14.7%
3	Tuvalu	12.8%
4	Micronesia, Fed. Sts.	11.6%
5	Namibia	9.1%
6	Algeria	9.0%
7	Cuba	8.4%
8	Solomon Islands	8.3%
9	Botswana	8.1%
10	Marshall Islands	7.7%
11	Vanuatu	7.6%
12	Mauritania	7.6%
13	Bolivia	7.5%
14	Sweden	7.3%
15	Iceland	7.3%
16	Venezuela, RB	6.9%
17	Kyrgyz Republic	6.8%
18	Tunisia	6.7%
19	Lesotho	6.6%
20	Moldova	6.6%
21	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	6.5%
22	Kuwait	6.4%
23	Finland	6.4%
24	Denmark	6.4%
25	Belgium	6.3%

Kiribati ranks 1st of 203.Every country’s full standing is on its profile.

Understand the number

ATLAS · FIELD GUIDE

Education Spending: What a Country's Share of GDP Does and Doesn't Tell You

Government education spending as a share of GDP shows how much of its economy a country puts into schools, colleges and universities — but it counts only public money, not what families pay, and a bigger share doesn't automatically mean better schooling. A plain-language guide to what the figure captures and how to read the world map of it.

THE WORLD, BY THE NUMBERS

Map another metric, or open a country’s full profile.

Back to the Atlas →