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Total government expenditure per capita

Total expenditures across all levels of government. Includes intermediate consumption, compensation of employees, subsidies, property income, social benefits,and capital transfers and investments. This data is adjusted for differences in living costs between countries but not for inflation.

Data

Total government expenditure per capita

OECD
See all data and research on:
Government Spending

What you should know about this indicator

  • General government expenditure includes goods and services consumed in a production process within the territory, compensation of employees, subsidies, property income, social benefits, capital transfers and investments, and other current expenditures.
  • General government consists of central, state and local governments and social security funds.

General government expenditures data are from the OECD National Accounts Statistics (database), which are based on the System of National Accounts (SNA), a set of internationally agreed concepts, definitions, classifications and rules for national accounting. the 2008 SNA framework has been implemented by all OECD countries. In SNA terminology, general government consists of central, state and local governments and social security funds. Expenditures encompass intermediate consumption, compensation of employees, subsidies, property income (including interest spending), social benefits, other current expenditures (mainly current transfers) and capital expenditures (capital transfers and investments). Gross domestic product (GDP) is the standard measure of the value of the goods and services produced by a country during a period. Government expenditures per capita were calculated by converting total government expenditures to USD using the OECD/ Eurostat purchasing power parities (PPP) for GDP and dividing by population of the country. PPP is the number of units of country B’s currency needed to buy the same quantity of goods and services in country A.

Total government expenditure per capita
OECD
The total amount of money the general government spends per capita. This data is adjusted for differences in living costs between countries but not for inflation.
Source
OECD (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
March 26, 2025
Next expected update
March 2026
Date range
2007–2023
Unit
current international-$

Related research and writing

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

Government Spending

Esteban Ortiz-Ospina and Max Roser

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

This dataset represents a selection of indicators as presented in the 2023 edition of the Government at a Glance publication related to the public finance under the System of National Accounts (SNA). Government at a Glance provides a dashboard of indicators assembled to help decision makers and the public analyse and benchmark governments across OECD members and partner countries. This eighth edition provides internationally comparative data on a range of public governance, tools and practices to help identify both strengths and weaknesses in democratic governance. The Structure and indicators section of the Government at a Glance publication, describes its framework and the structure by chapters, as well as the changes compared to the previous 2021 edition. The 2023 edition presents a new structure around these three broad categories:

  1. Trust and satisfaction with public services (trust in public institutions, satisfaction with public services);
  2. Achieving results with good governance practices (governance of the policy cycle, regulatory governance, budgeting practices, managing public procurement, infrastructure planning and delivery, digital government and open government data);
  3. What resources public institutions use and how are they managed (public finance, public employment, managing human resources).

Further information on Government at a Glance 2023 edition via a dedicated web platform, which includes a Government at a Glance Data dashboard (for a selection of indicators in an interactive format) as well as Country fact sheets (key data by country), can be found at: Government at a Glance website.

Retrieved on
March 26, 2025
Retrieved from
https://data-explorer.oecd.org/
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.
OECD (2025). Public finance main indicators - Government at a glance, Yearly updates. OECD Data Explorer, https://data-explorer.oecd.org/.

This dataset represents a selection of indicators as presented in the 2023 edition of the Government at a Glance publication related to the public procurement spending as estimated under the System of National Accounts (SNA). Government at a Glance provides a dashboard of indicators assembled to help decision makers and the public analyse and benchmark governments across OECD members and partner countries. This eighth edition provides internationally comparative data on a range of public governance, tools and practices to help identify both strengths and weaknesses in democratic governance. The Structure and indicators section of the Government at a Glance publication, describes its framework and the structure by chapters, as well as the changes compared to the previous 2021 edition. The 2023 edition presents a new structure around these three broad categories:

  1. Trust and satisfaction with public services (trust in public institutions, satisfaction with public services);
  2. Achieving results with good governance practices (governance of the policy cycle, regulatory governance, budgeting practices, managing public procurement, infrastructure planning and delivery, digital government and open government data);
  3. What resources public institutions use and how are they managed (public finance, public employment, managing human resources).

Further information on Government at a Glance 2023 edition via a dedicated web platform, which includes a Government at a Glance Data dashboard (for a selection of indicators in an interactive format) as well as Country fact sheets (key data by country), can be found at: Government at a Glance website.

Retrieved on
March 27, 2025
Retrieved from
https://data-explorer.oecd.org/
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.
OECD (2025). Size of public procurement - Government at a glance indicators, Yearly updates. OECD Data Explorer, https://data-explorer.oecd.org/.

This dataset represents a selection of indicators as presented in the 2023 edition of the Government at a Glance publication related to government revenue and expenditure disaggregation by economic transactions under the System of National Accounts (SNA). Government at a Glance provides a dashboard of indicators assembled to help decision makers and the public analyse and benchmark governments across OECD members and partner countries. This eighth edition provides internationally comparative data on a range of public governance, tools and practices to help identify both strengths and weaknesses in democratic governance. The Structure and indicators section of the Government at a Glance publication, describes its framework and the structure by chapters, as well as the changes compared to the previous 2021 edition. The 2023 edition presents a new structure around these three broad categories:

  1. Trust and satisfaction with public services (trust in public institutions, satisfaction with public services);
  2. Achieving results with good governance practices (governance of the policy cycle, regulatory governance, budgeting practices, managing public procurement, infrastructure planning and delivery, digital government and open government data);
  3. What resources public institutions use and how are they managed (public finance, public employment, managing human resources).

Further information on Government at a Glance 2023 edition via a dedicated web platform, which includes a Government at a Glance Data dashboard (for a selection of indicators in an interactive format) as well as Country fact sheets (key data by country), can be found at: Government at a Glance website.

Retrieved on
March 27, 2025
Retrieved from
https://data-explorer.oecd.org/
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.
OECD (2025). Size of public procurement - Public finance by economic transaction - Government at a glance indicators, Yearly updates. OECD Data Explorer, https://data-explorer.oecd.org/.

How we process data at Our World in Data

All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.

Read about our data pipeline

Reuse this work

  • All data produced by third-party providers and made available by Our World in Data are subject to the license terms from the original providers. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always cite them appropriately (see below). This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.
  • All data, visualizations, and code produced by Our World in Data are completely open access under the Creative Commons BY license. You have the permission to use, distribute, and reproduce these in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited.

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: Total government expenditure per capita”, part of the following publication: Esteban Ortiz-Ospina and Max Roser (2016) - “Government Spending”. Data adapted from OECD. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/total-gov-expenditure-percapita-oecd [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:

OECD (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

OECD (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data. “Total government expenditure per capita – OECD” [dataset]. OECD, “Public finance main indicators - Government at a glance, Yearly updates”; OECD, “Size of public procurement - Government at a glance indicators, Yearly updates”; OECD, “Public finance by economic transaction - Government at a glance indicators, Yearly updates” [original data]. Retrieved April 2, 2025 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/total-gov-expenditure-percapita-oecd

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