Countries by Gross savings (% of GNI)

Ranking 2024

Values shown in %.

Analysis

Gross savings measures the share of national income set aside rather than spent on consumption. As defined by the World Bank World Development Indicators (indicator NY.GNS.ICTR.GN.ZS), savings is an amount that represents the part of disposable income (adjusted for the change in pension entitlements) that is not spent on final consumption. Gross savings are calculated as gross national income less total consumption, plus net transfers. 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. Higher values indicate a greater share of income is retained rather than consumed. The dataset covers 169 countries, with 95.3% of entries drawn from the last seven years and 100% classified as official data. Ten extreme outliers were identified at the three-standard-deviation threshold, and the data spans a range of -18.53% to 59.51%, a spread of 421%.

The top of the ranking is concentrated among energy-exporting nations and high-income financial centers. Qatar ranks 1st at 59.51%, followed by Singapore at 48.10% (rank 2), Ireland at 46.40% (rank 3), and Brunei Darussalam at 46.18% (rank 4). Macao SAR, China ranks 5th at 46.13% and China ranks 6th at 43.13%. Gulf states appear repeatedly in the top tier: Kuwait ranks 12th at 40.83%, Algeria 13th at 40.18%, Bahrain 18th at 35.78%, and the United Arab Emirates 29th at 32.91%. Norway, with its sovereign wealth framework reflected in national accounts, ranks 14th at 39.05%. High savings rates in this group are consistent with large current-account surpluses captured in the national accounts.

Several counterintuitive placements appear in the middle and lower portions of the ranking. Ireland ranks 3rd at 46.40%, a striking position for a European economy more commonly associated with consumption. Burundi ranks 30th at 31.40%, placing it ahead of Germany (rank 57, 26.24%) and the United States (rank 118, 17.54%). Among large developed economies, Luxembourg ranks 108th at 19.15%, below Honduras (rank 107, 19.26%) and Ethiopia (rank 104, 19.70%). At the bottom, eight countries record negative savings rates: Malawi at -1.15% (rank 163), Afghanistan at -2.72% (rank 164), Yemen at -4.57% (rank 165), Seychelles at -5.19% (rank 166), Palau at -12.64% (rank 167), Lebanon at -12.86% (rank 168), and Timor-Leste at -18.53% (rank 169). Negative values indicate that total consumption exceeds gross national income.

Several data limitations affect interpretation of this metric. Only 74.0% of entries use data from the latest reference year (2024), meaning 25% of rankings reflect older observations that may not capture recent economic shifts. The indicator is expressed relative to GNI, so countries with very small or volatile GNI bases can show extreme swings that do not reflect underlying saving behavior. Net transfers, including remittances and foreign aid, are included in the calculation, which can inflate savings rates for aid-dependent economies such as Zambia (rank 16, 37.66%) or Samoa (rank 36, 30.41%) beyond what domestic income generation alone would suggest. The metric also does not distinguish between public and private savings, making it impossible to determine from this indicator alone whether high national savings reflect government surpluses, household behavior, or corporate retained earnings.

Methodology

Data source: World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code NY.GNS.ICTR.GN.ZS. The metric is expressed as a percentage of Gross National Income (GNI). Per the source definition, savings is an amount that represents the part of disposable income (adjusted for the change in pension entitlements) that is not spent on final consumption. Gross savings are calculated as gross national income less total consumption, plus net transfers. 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. The ranking covers 169 countries. Of these, 161 (95.3%) have data from within the last seven years, and 100% of data points are classified as official. The latest reference year (2024) has coverage for 125 of 169 countries (74.0%); the remainder use the most recent available year. Ten extreme outliers were identified using a three-standard-deviation threshold. The data range runs from -18.53% (Timor-Leste) to 59.51% (Qatar), a spread of approximately 421%. Average year-over-year change across the dataset is 29.1%, below the 50% volatility threshold. No microstates under one million population are included in this ranking.

Sources

• World Bank