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Government Spending by Country

Percentage of GDP made up by expenses like government social benefits, wages, grants and much more.

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7 Responses to “Government Spending by Country”

  1. [...] out this graphic of government spending by country, as a percentage of [...]

  2. Greg says:

    Where id you get that figure for Madagascar?
    Government spending at its peak in 2008 was under 20%

  3. John Zucker says:

    Where are the sources? And what year is being measured?

    I do not understand where the evidence has been obtained for government spending as a proportion of GDP in the case of Madascar, for example.

    See for example the data presented by Earth Trends, based on World Bank measurements. ttp://earthtrends.wri.org/searchable_db/index.php?step=countries&cID%5B%5D=112&allcountries=checkbox&theme=5&variable_ID=242&action=select_years

    These data are credited to http://go.worldbank.org/U0FSM7AQ40. The figure for 2006 for government spending as a percentage of GDP is 8.8%.

    Could someone please let us know where the Smarter Planet | Tumblr data are derived from?

  4. Amy says:

    Does this include military? If not, is the VA included because it’s health care or excluded because it’s military?

  5. [...] graphic on Government Spending by Country also highlights the importance of quoting sources. It is will worth asking students to read the [...]

  6. JeffF says:

    I don’t think this graphic is correctly including spending at all levels of government.

    I think 21% for the US is, as the graphic actually says in its little caption for the US, federal government spending only. I think total US government spending is more like 35% (sources say it is more like 40% this year due to the financial crisis which both raised spending and decreased GDP). While for other countries total spending appears to be used (many countries don’t have as much of a federal/state/local distinction). Around 40% is pretty accurate for most European countries and Canada (while this graphic shows Canada spending less than the US).

    I think this graphic is apples to oranges, and invalid.

    I looked into this some time ago and pretty much all wealthy countries are between 35% and 45%. Many poorer countries are lower (eg Mexico is around 20%, one of the lower rates south of the US). This graphic is showing wealthy countries ranging from 14% to 40% because it isn’t using total spending for some countries.

  7. Greg says:

    You have the wrong number for the US. It should also include state and local government spending, which it doesn’t. The correct total is more like 35%.

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