Independent rankings built from public data — every figure traceable to the body that published it.
Report year 2019Data year 2019
Government expenditure on education (% of GDP)Higher is better — rank 1 leadsPublished by UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)
51 editions (1971–2023), 51 to 174 countries. What share of its economy a government spends on education. ⚠ A COMMITMENT MEASURE, NOT AN OUTCOME — it says what goes in, not what comes out, and the enrolment and completion rates on this site are where the results show up. ⚠ It is a share of GDP, so a poor country can rank above a rich one while spending far less per child in absolute terms; `education-spending-per-student` is the per-child view. Treating a higher share as better is the conventional reading and the one used here, but a very high figure sometimes reflects a small or shrinking economy rather than generosity. ⚠ Editions reporting fewer than 50 countries are not written — that drops UIS’s trailing stub year, which opens with a handful of early reporters, and any thin historical year. ⚠ UIS ranks nobody, so no rank is stored; the POSITION on the statistics page is derived here by ordering the score and labelled as ours.
Government Spending on Education 2019 — UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)
Cite as: UNESCO Institute for Statistics. UIS Data Browser. Montreal: UNESCO Institute for Statistics.
Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0
UIS release 20260507-91260335. Read from the UIS API at full precision, as published — nothing is rounded here. ⚠ Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, so anything derived from it carries the same ShareAlike obligation. UIS publishes no rank, so none is stored and none is derived here.
170 rows × 3 columns · imported from the publisher’s published data file on
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| Country | ISO Code | Government expenditure on education (% of GDP) |
|---|---|---|
| Kiribati | KIR | 14.5197 |
| Micronesia | FSM | 10.6932 |
| Marshall Islands | MHL | 9.8821 |
| Namibia | NAM | 9.3225 |
| Cuba | CUB | 9.0470 |
| Montserrat | MSR | 8.9992 |
| Botswana | BWA | 8.3990 |
| Bolivia | BOL | 8.0910 |
| Norway | NOR | 7.8646 |
| Sweden | SWE | 7.6631 |
| Iceland | ISL | 7.6013 |
| Denmark | DNK | 7.2759 |
| Suriname | SUR | 6.7786 |
| Costa Rica | CRI | 6.7381 |
| Kuwait | KWT | 6.7279 |
| Finland | FIN | 6.4530 |
| Belgium | BEL | 6.3238 |
| Uzbekistan | UZB | 6.2953 |
| Moldova | MDA | 6.2258 |
| Tunisia | TUN | 6.1737 |
| São Tomé and Príncipe | STP | 6.1057 |
| Israel | ISR | 6.0690 |
| Mozambique | MOZ | 5.9997 |
| Honduras | HND | 5.9820 |
| Belize | BLZ | 5.9638 |
| Brazil | BRA | 5.9635 |
| South Africa | ZAF | 5.9116 |
| Curaçao | CUW | 5.8116 |
| Nauru | NRU | 5.7183 |
| Eswatini | SWZ | 5.6991 |
| Chile | CHL | 5.6263 |
| Algeria | DZA | 5.5754 |
| Tajikistan | TJK | 5.4843 |
| Burkina Faso | BFA | 5.4562 |
| Ukraine | UKR | 5.4413 |
| Kenya | KEN | 5.3736 |
| France | FRA | 5.3664 |
| Burundi | BDI | 5.3467 |
| United Kingdom | GBR | 5.2612 |
| Austria | AUT | 5.2368 |
| New Zealand | NZL | 5.1741 |
| Estonia | EST | 5.1642 |
| Jamaica | JAM | 5.1636 |
| Cyprus | CYP | 5.1629 |
| Fiji | FJI | 5.1527 |
| Kyrgyzstan | KGZ | 5.0803 |
| Oman | OMN | 5.0636 |
| Netherlands | NLD | 5.0559 |
| Senegal | SEN | 5.0353 |
| Germany | DEU | 5.0276 |
| Switzerland | CHE | 5.0144 |
| Morocco | MAR | 5.0033 |
| Belarus | BLR | 4.9795 |
| United States | USA | 4.9575 |
| Slovenia | SVN | 4.9348 |
| Dominica | DMA | 4.8872 |
| Tonga | TON | 4.8617 |
| Malta | MLT | 4.7994 |
| Canada | CAN | 4.7729 |
| Argentina | ARG | 4.7717 |
| Sierra Leone | SLE | 4.6518 |
| Uruguay | URY | 4.6283 |
| Portugal | PRT | 4.6275 |
| Poland | POL | 4.6274 |
| Nicaragua | NIC | 4.5999 |
| Latvia | LVA | 4.5868 |
| Samoa | WSM | 4.5840 |
| Mauritius | MUS | 4.5420 |
| Colombia | COL | 4.5107 |
| Bhutan | BTN | 4.5098 |
| Ethiopia | ETH | 4.4809 |
| Czechia | CZE | 4.4674 |
| Türkiye | TUR | 4.4478 |
| Aruba | ABW | 4.4350 |
| Zambia | ZMB | 4.4182 |
| South Korea | KOR | 4.4181 |
| Slovakia | SVK | 4.2678 |
| Ecuador | ECU | 4.2458 |
| Bulgaria | BGR | 4.2143 |
| Spain | ESP | 4.2026 |
| Togo | TGO | 4.2016 |
| Hungary | HUN | 4.2014 |
| Timor-Leste | TLS | 4.1797 |
| Cabo Verde | CPV | 4.1653 |
| Malaysia | MYS | 4.1578 |
| Maldives | MDV | 4.1236 |
| Italy | ITA | 4.0784 |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | BIH | 4.0445 |
| Dominican Republic | DOM | 4.0428 |
| Croatia | HRV | 3.9456 |
| Lithuania | LTU | 3.9416 |
| India | IND | 3.8973 |
| Nepal | NPL | 3.8921 |
| Albania | ALB | 3.8702 |
| United Arab Emirates | ARE | 3.8602 |
| Georgia | GEO | 3.8299 |
| Peru | PER | 3.8224 |
| Hong Kong | HKG | 3.8102 |
| Luxembourg | LUX | 3.7371 |
| Barbados | BRB | 3.7223 |
| Russia | RUS | 3.6956 |
| Tanzania | TZA | 3.5968 |
| Seychelles | SYC | 3.5589 |
| Romania | ROU | 3.5576 |
| Trinidad and Tobago | TTO | 3.5539 |
| Greece | GRC | 3.5506 |
| Niger | NER | 3.5336 |
| Cook Islands | COK | 3.5043 |
| Paraguay | PRY | 3.4898 |
| Serbia | SRB | 3.4587 |
| Côte d’Ivoire | CIV | 3.4131 |
| Philippines | PHL | 3.4075 |
| El Salvador | SLV | 3.3871 |
| San Marino | SMR | 3.3797 |
| Antigua and Barbuda | ATG | 3.3573 |
| Puerto Rico | PRI | 3.3279 |
| Panama | PAN | 3.2812 |
| Saint Lucia | LCA | 3.2727 |
| Republic of the Congo | COG | 3.2472 |
| Iran | IRN | 3.2401 |
| Rwanda | RWA | 3.2382 |
| Ireland | IRL | 3.2298 |
| Guatemala | GTM | 3.1930 |
| Azerbaijan | AZE | 3.1765 |
| Japan | JPN | 3.1553 |
| Ghana | GHA | 3.1531 |
| Andorra | AND | 3.1506 |
| Turkmenistan | TKM | 3.1205 |
| Vietnam | VNM | 3.0850 |
| Macau | MAC | 3.0654 |
| Cameroon | CMR | 3.0474 |
| Thailand | THA | 3.0222 |
| Madagascar | MDG | 3.0134 |
| Mali | MLI | 3.0000 |
| Jordan | JOR | 2.9885 |
| Gabon | GAB | 2.8743 |
| Kazakhstan | KAZ | 2.8570 |
| Anguilla | AIA | 2.8129 |
| Gambia | GMB | 2.8081 |
| Qatar | QAT | 2.8038 |
| Benin | BEN | 2.7320 |
| Saint Kitts and Nevis | KNA | 2.7289 |
| Singapore | SGP | 2.7278 |
| Bahamas | BHS | 2.6257 |
| Lebanon | LBN | 2.5196 |
| British Virgin Islands | VGB | 2.5010 |
| Chad | TCD | 2.3725 |
| Uganda | UGA | 2.3083 |
| Pakistan | PAK | 2.2149 |
| Liberia | LBR | 2.1651 |
| Armenia | ARM | 2.1598 |
| Cambodia | KHM | 2.1335 |
| Laos | LAO | 2.1220 |
| Turks and Caicos Islands | TCA | 2.1217 |
| Bahrain | BHR | 2.1115 |
| Angola | AGO | 2.0731 |
| Myanmar | MMR | 1.9998 |
| Bermuda | BMU | 1.9268 |
| Guinea | GIN | 1.8581 |
| Mauritania | MRT | 1.8232 |
| Vanuatu | VUT | 1.7741 |
| Central African Republic | CAF | 1.7679 |
| Monaco | MCO | 1.1590 |
| Cayman Islands | CYM | 1.1367 |
| Bangladesh | BGD | 1.1309 |
| Haiti | HTI | 1.0841 |
| Indonesia | IDN | 0.9644 |
| Papua New Guinea | PNG | 0.7618 |
| Nigeria | NGA | 0.3585 |
| Somalia | SOM | 0.0000 |