Countries by Gross national expenditure (% of GDP)

Kiribati ranks first in gross national expenditure as a share of GDP at 195.0%, meaning its combined household consumption, government spending, and capital formation far exceeds its domestic output. At the other end, Macao SAR, China ranks 177th at just 57.7%. The 137-percentage-point gap reflects the difference between economies heavily reliant on external transfers or aid and those generating far more output than they spend domestically.

Economy category

Ranking 2024

Values shown in %.

Countries by Gross national expenditure (% of GDP)
Rank	Country	%
1	Kiribati	195.01
2	Timor-Leste	174.31
3	Somalia	167.90
4	Palau	158.17
5	Lesotho	155.67
6	Tonga	150.84
7	Lebanon	143.10
8	Marshall Islands	142.58
9	Cuba	139.92
10	Palestine	139.68
11	Yemen	138.57
12	Vanuatu	137.04
13	Kyrgyzstan	136.09
14	Afghanistan	134.58
15	Tajikistan	131.89
16	Central African Republic	130.63
17	Kosovo	130.29
18	Curaçao	128.78
19	French Polynesia	127.62
20	Solomon Islands	127.56
21	Namibia	126.34
22	Moldova	125.84
23	Gambia	125.73
24	Bhutan	124.96
25	Comoros	124.54
26	Nepal	124.18
27	Honduras	124.01
28	Montenegro	122.45
29	Samoa	121.61
30	Jordan	119.87
31	El Salvador	119.14
32	Ukraine	118.93
33	Senegal	118.76
34	Malawi	118.70
35	Seychelles	118.03
36	Nicaragua	117.60
37	Bosnia and Herzegovina	116.33
38	Guatemala	115.56
39	Haiti	115.45
40	Uzbekistan	115.20
41	Guinea-Bissau	115.11
42	Guinea	114.99
43	Philippines	114.34
44	Botswana	113.40
45	North Macedonia	112.97
46	New Caledonia	112.09
47	Togo	111.56
48	Cabo Verde	111.51
49	Mauritania	110.78
50	Greenland	110.29
51	Mozambique	109.99
52	Laos	108.67
53	Madagascar	108.45
54	Morocco	108.19
55	Rwanda	107.85
56	Georgia	107.83
57	Albania	106.88
58	Egypt	106.85
59	Pakistan	106.80
60	Bangladesh	106.74
61	Ethiopia	106.32
62	Tunisia	106.30
63	Dominican Republic	106.25
64	Sierra Leone	106.01
65	Romania	106.01
66	Kenya	105.56
67	Mexico	105.55
68	Greece	105.55
69	Zimbabwe	105.39
70	Mauritius	104.89
71	Colombia	104.83
72	Mali	104.77
73	United States	104.73
74	Croatia	104.63
75	Serbia	104.56
76	India	104.29
77	Bolivia	104.11
78	Bahamas	104.02
79	Burkina Faso	103.39
80	Cameroon	103.06
81	DR Congo	103.05
82	Benin	102.96
83	Iran	102.90
84	Armenia	102.81
85	Sri Lanka	102.62
86	Paraguay	102.43
87	New Zealand	102.06
88	Tanzania	101.85
89	Belarus	101.64
90	Latvia	101.59
91	Iceland	101.06
92	Japan	100.87
93	United Kingdom	100.80
94	Sudan	100.55
95	Mongolia	100.45
96	Algeria	100.43
97	Belgium	100.39
98	France	100.33
99	Slovakia	100.25
100	Canada	100.23
101	Maldives	100.05
102	Belize	100.02
103	Eswatini	99.97
104	Brazil	99.71
105	Finland	99.50
106	Türkiye	99.46
107	Puerto Rico	99.42
108	Côte d'Ivoire	99.21
109	Estonia	99.00
110	Ghana	98.84
111	Uganda	98.49
112	Portugal	98.15
113	Australia	97.90
114	South Africa	97.90
115	Italy	97.81
116	Cambodia	97.78
117	Israel	97.52
118	Bulgaria	97.49
119	Argentina	97.44
120	Austria	97.31
121	Sweden	97.26
122	China	97.17
123	Ecuador	96.65
124	Faroe Islands	96.64
125	Thailand	96.48
126	Saudi Arabia	96.46
127	Chile	96.41
128	Cyprus	96.36
129	Germany	96.22
130	Poland	96.00
131	South Korea	95.94
132	Hong Kong	95.92
133	Spain	95.84
134	Hungary	95.72
135	Niger	95.33
136	Panama	94.96
137	Uruguay	94.94
138	Lithuania	94.82
139	Malaysia	94.68
140	Indonesia	94.53
141	Peru	94.40
142	Costa Rica	94.27
143	Russia	94.22
144	Slovenia	93.82
145	Czechia	93.75
146	Vietnam	93.31
147	Venezuela	92.36
148	South Sudan	92.25
149	Azerbaijan	90.88
150	Aruba	90.65
151	Kazakhstan	90.28
152	Equatorial Guinea	90.21
153	Switzerland	89.78
154	Denmark	89.76
155	Netherlands	88.97
156	Djibouti	88.41
157	Chad	88.32
158	Angola	87.88
159	Republic of Congo	87.63
160	Iraq	86.89
161	Norway	86.38
162	Zambia	84.50
163	United Arab Emirates	83.73
164	Oman	82.71
165	Bahrain	82.47
166	Malta	81.20
167	Libya	81.06
168	Kuwait	80.62
169	Brunei	79.31
170	San Marino	69.00
171	Luxembourg	68.20
172	Bermuda	65.79
173	Singapore	64.28
174	Qatar	63.02
175	Gabon	62.89
176	Ireland	57.70
177	Macao	57.70

Analysis

Gross national expenditure measures the total of household final consumption expenditure, general government final consumption expenditure, and gross capital formation, expressed as a percentage of GDP. A value above 100% indicates that an economy is spending more than it produces domestically, typically financed through imports, remittances, aid, or external borrowing. The dataset covers 177 countries using World Bank World Development Indicators (indicator code NE.DAB.TOTL.ZS), with data anchored to 2024. Of the 177 countries included, 173 (97.7%) have data from the last seven years, 100% of datapoints are classified as official-quality, and 156 of 177 countries (88.1%) have data from the latest reference year. The viability check identified 22 extreme outliers beyond 3 standard deviations, and the value range spans 57.7% to 195.0%, a spread of 238%.

The top of the ranking is dominated by small island states, conflict-affected economies, and territories with significant external financing. Kiribati leads at 195.0% (rank 1), followed by Timor-Leste at 174.3% (rank 2) and Somalia at 167.9% (rank 3). Palau ranks 4th at 158.2% and Lesotho 5th at 155.7%. Further down the top tier, Lebanon ranks 7th at 143.1%, West Bank and Gaza ranks 10th at 139.7%, and Yemen ranks 11th at 138.6%. These high values reflect economies where domestic production is structurally insufficient to cover internal demand, with the gap typically financed through aid flows, remittances, or external debt rather than domestic output.

The middle of the ranking clusters near 100%, where expenditure roughly equals domestic output. The United States ranks 73rd at 104.7%, France 98th at 100.3%, and Japan 92nd at 100.9%. Countries below 100% are net exporters of expenditure relative to output. Singapore ranks 173rd at 64.3%, Qatar 174th at 63.0%, and Ireland 176th at 57.7%, just above last-placed Macao SAR, China at 57.7% (rank 177). Norway ranks 161st at 86.4% and Kuwait 168th at 80.6%, reflecting resource-exporting economies where domestic production substantially exceeds internal spending. A notable anomaly is Ireland at rank 176 with 57.7%, placing it among the lowest-spending economies relative to GDP alongside Macao SAR.

This metric has notable limitations. Values above 100% do not necessarily indicate economic distress; they can reflect deliberate investment inflows or aid dependency that is not captured by the ratio alone. GDP itself can be distorted in economies with large multinational profit flows, which is particularly relevant for Ireland and Luxembourg (rank 171 at 68.2%), where GDP is inflated by corporate accounting practices, suppressing the expenditure-to-GDP ratio artificially. Reporting reliability varies across lower-income countries, and data for conflict-affected states such as Somalia (rank 3) and Yemen (rank 11) may carry higher uncertainty. The 22 extreme outliers flagged in the viability check warrant particular scrutiny, as structural features rather than measurement errors may explain some values.

Methodology

Data are drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code NE.DAB.TOTL.ZS, with a reference year of 2024. The metric is defined as follows: gross national expenditure is the sum of household final consumption expenditure, general government final consumption expenditure, and gross capital formation. This indicator is expressed as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is the total income earned through the production of goods and services in an economic territory during an accounting period. The ranking covers 177 countries, exceeding the 80-country coverage threshold. Of these, 173 countries (97.7%) have data from within the last seven years, and 156 of 177 (88.1%) have data from the latest reference year. All 177 datapoints (100%) are classified as official-quality data, above the 70% threshold. The viability check identified 22 extreme outliers at the 3-standard-deviation threshold. The value range spans 57.7% to 195.0%, a spread of 238%, and the average year-over-year change is 3.5%, well below the 50% volatility threshold. No microstates below 1 million population are included in this dataset.

Sources

World Bank