Countries by Adjusted savings: education expenditure (% of GNI)
Micronesia, Fed. Sts. ranks first globally in adjusted savings: education expenditure at 23.63% of GNI, more than double the second-ranked Cuba at 13.01%. At the other end, French Polynesia records just 0.50%, placing 200th among 200 countries. The 23-percentage-point gap across the ranking reflects the wide variation in how much national income different countries direct toward education operating expenditures.
Ranking 2021
Values shown in %.
Analysis
This metric measures current operating expenditures on education as a share of Gross National Income. According to the World Bank source note, 'Education expenditure refers to the current operating expenditures in education, including wages and salaries and excluding capital investments in buildings and equipment. This indicator is expressed as a percentage of Gross National Income (GNI) which is the total income earned by all residents within an economic territory during an accounting period. It is equal to gross domestic product plus earnings from residents abroad.' Because capital investments in buildings and equipment are excluded, the figure captures recurrent spending only. Data come from the World Bank World Development Indicators (indicator NY.ADJ.AEDU.GN.ZS), covering 200 countries for the 2021 reference year. Of these, 199 out of 200 countries (99.5%) report data from the last 7 years, and 100% of datapoints are classified as official-quality. The viability checks identified 35 extreme outliers using a 3-standard-deviation threshold, and the range spans 0.50% to 23.63%, a spread of over 4,600%.
The top of the ranking is heavily concentrated among small island economies and territories. Micronesia, Fed. Sts. (rank 1) posts 23.63%, far ahead of Cuba (rank 2) at 13.01% and Marshall Islands (rank 3) at 12.74%. American Samoa (rank 4) records 11.76% and Solomon Islands (rank 5) at 9.94%. Among larger economies with high values, Botswana ranks 6th at 9.48%, Namibia 8th at 8.92%, and New Zealand 12th at 7.37%. Saudi Arabia ranks 13th at 7.19%, while Iceland and Sweden follow at ranks 14 and 16 with 7.17% and 7.08% respectively. Several Nordic countries cluster in the upper third, with Norway at rank 20 (6.75%) and Denmark at rank 28 (6.24%).
The middle of the ranking includes many large and diverse economies. The United States places 79th at 4.43%, Germany 72nd at 4.53%, and France 59th at 4.80%. Japan ranks considerably lower at 158th with 2.65%, while China places 180th at 1.79%. Notable counterintuitive placements include Singapore at rank 154 with just 2.76%, despite its widely reported overall education system outcomes. Nigeria, Africa's largest economy by GDP, ranks 198th at just 0.85%. Bangladesh ranks 192nd at 1.35% and Pakistan 177th at 2.03%. Two countries share an identical reported value: Mauritania and Tonga both record 2.93% and share rank 143.
Several limitations apply to this metric. Because it covers only current operating expenditures, countries that invest heavily in school construction or equipment will appear lower than their total education commitment might suggest. The exclusion of capital spending can particularly affect fast-growing or infrastructure-building economies. Reporting methods for government expenditure vary across national statistical systems, which can introduce inconsistencies. Territories and dependencies such as American Samoa (rank 4), Virgin Islands U.S. (rank 7), Puerto Rico (rank 9), and Guam (rank 10) appear in the dataset but their GNI bases and expenditure classifications may differ structurally from sovereign nations. The 35 extreme outliers flagged in the viability checks, including Micronesia at 23.63%, suggest that some values may reflect unusual fiscal or territorial conditions rather than straightforward cross-country comparisons. Finally, expressing education spending as a share of GNI means that a country's rank reflects both spending levels and the size of its economy, not education spending in absolute terms.
Methodology
Data are drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code NY.ADJ.AEDU.GN.ZS, for the reference year 2021. The metric is defined in the source note as follows: 'Education expenditure refers to the current operating expenditures in education, including wages and salaries and excluding capital investments in buildings and equipment. This indicator is expressed as a percentage of Gross National Income (GNI) which is the total income earned by all residents within an economic territory during an accounting period. It is equal to gross domestic product plus earnings from residents abroad.' The unit is percent of GNI and higher values indicate greater relative education spending. The ranking covers 200 countries. Of these, 199 out of 200 (99.5%) have data from the last 7 years, and 199 out of 200 (99.5%) report data specifically for 2021. All 200 datapoints are classified as official quality, meeting the 70% threshold. Viability checks flagged 35 extreme outliers using a 3-standard-deviation threshold. The data range is 0.50% to 23.63%, representing a spread of approximately 4,627%. Average year-over-year change across the dataset is 2.9%, well within the 50% volatility threshold, indicating generally stable time-series behavior. No microstates under 1 million population were identified among the 200 countries included.