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Government spending on primary education as share of GDP

See all data and research on:
Global Education

What you should know about this indicator

  • Governments allocate part of their national income to fund education — this indicator shows how much is spent specifically on primary education relative to the overall economy.
  • It captures the share of total general government spending on education that goes to primary education, including spending by local, regional, and central government authorities.
  • The indicator is calculated by dividing government spending on primary education by total spending on education across all levels, and multiplying by 100.
  • A higher percentage means that a greater share of education funding is being directed toward primary education, which may reflect a government’s priority for foundational learning.
  • The data comes from official sources reported to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, and is mapped to the International Standard Classification of Education (International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED)) to ensure global comparability.
  • This indicator is useful for understanding how governments prioritize different stages of education. It should be interpreted alongside data on enrolment and per-student costs, which can influence how funding is allocated.
  • There are some limitations. In some cases, spending by education level is estimated, and it may be difficult to separate primary from pre-primary or lower from upper secondary education.
  • The reference year usually reflects the end of the school year, which may span two calendar years depending on the country.
  • Despite these challenges, the share of education spending on primary education offers valuable insight into national priorities and the public investment made in the earliest years of formal learning.
Government spending on primary education as share of GDP
Government spending on , encompassing all levels and types of spending, as a percentage of GDP, including funds from international government transfers.
Source
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2025) – processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
May 1, 2025
Next expected update
May 2026
Date range
1970–2024
Unit
%

Related research and writing

A dark blue background with a lighter blue world map superimposed over it. Yellow text that says Financing Education by Our World in Data

Education Spending

Max Roser and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina

Explore charts that include this data

Government spending on education overall vs. primary education

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) is the official and trusted source of internationally-comparable data on education, science, culture and communication. As the official statistical agency of UNESCO, the UIS produces a wide range of state-of-the-art databases to fuel the policies and investments needed to transform lives and propel the world towards its development goals. The UIS provides free access to data for all UNESCO countries and regional groupings from 1970 to the most recent year available.

Retrieved on
May 1, 2025
Retrieved from
https://databrowser.uis.unesco.org/resources/bulk
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), Education, https://uis.unesco.org/bdds, 2025

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Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Government spending on primary education as share of GDP”, part of the following publication: Hannah Ritchie, Veronika Samborska, Natasha Ahuja, Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, and Max Roser (2023) - “Global Education”. Data adapted from UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/government-expenditure-on-primary-education-as-share-of-gdp [online resource]
How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2025) – processed by Our World in Data

Full citation

UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2025) – processed by Our World in Data. “Government spending on primary education as share of GDP” [dataset]. UNESCO Institute for Statistics, “UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) - Education” [original data]. Retrieved May 20, 2025 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/government-expenditure-on-primary-education-as-share-of-gdp