What Country Spends The Most On Education [2026 Data]

The United States spent $1.353 trillion on education in 2024, more than any other country by a wide margin. But raw totals only tell part of the story. Luxembourg leads the world in per-student spending at $27,678, and Kiribati allocates 14.2% of its GDP to education — nearly triple the global average. This article breaks down the latest data from the OECD, UNESCO, and the World Bank across all three measures.

Education Spending Statistics (Top 5)

• The U.S. spent $1.353 trillion on education in 2024, the highest total of any country.
• Luxembourg spent $27,678 per primary-to-secondary student in 2022, topping all OECD nations.
• Kiribati directed 14.2% of its GDP toward education in 2021, the highest share globally.
• High-income countries spend roughly 207 times more per child than low-income ones ($11,413 vs. $55).
• Education’s share of OECD government budgets dropped from 10.9% in 2015 to 10.1% in 2022.

What Country Spends the Most on Education in Total Dollars?

Measured by absolute government expenditure, the two largest economies dominate. The U.S. figure covers federal, state, and local spending combined. When private spending is included, total U.S. education expenditure exceeds $1.84 trillion. China’s 2023 figure of $906 billion marked a 5.3% year-on-year increase, with higher education growing fastest at 7.6%.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis; China Ministry of Education; Eurostat

Germany and France lead within the EU, though their totals are a fraction of the U.S. and Chinese figures, reflecting both smaller populations and different funding structures. Raw dollar totals are a blunt instrument — a country with a massive GDP will always spend more in aggregate.

Which Country Spends the Most on Education Per Student?

Per-student figures adjust for population size and show how much funding reaches individual learners. The OECD’s Education at a Glance 2025 report, using 2022 data, provides the most current comparable figures.

Primary to Post-Secondary Non-Tertiary Spending (2022)

Source: OECD Education at a Glance 2025

Luxembourg’s position at the top is partly a product of its extraordinarily high GDP per capita. Norway combines strong GDP with one of the highest education-to-GDP ratios in the OECD, creating a double effect on per-student numbers.

Tertiary Level Spending Per Student (2022)

At the university level, Luxembourg spends $54,384 per student — more than triple the OECD average of $15,102. This outlier is driven by high salaries, generous research funding, and a small student population. The Nordic countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark) appear repeatedly in the top tier because they pair high public funding with tuition-free or near-free university systems, where annual fees in public institutions are below $500.

Education Spending as a Percentage of GDP by Country

GDP share measures effort — what proportion of a nation’s total output goes toward education. Small or low-income countries often rank highest here because even modest absolute spending translates to a large GDP share.

Source: World Bank; UNESCO Institute for Statistics

The top of this list is dominated by Pacific Island states and Sub-Saharan African nations. Kiribati has a GDP of roughly $250 million, so its 14.2% allocation amounts to about $35 million. Sweden is the first large economy on the list. The OECD average sits at 4.9%, and the global average is lower at 3.8%.

Education Spending Among Major OECD Economies

Among wealthier nations, Iceland leads at 7.1% of GDP, followed by Finland and Israel at 6.5% each. The United States allocates 5.4%, roughly in line with France. Countries like Japan and Spain fall closer to the OECD average.

Is Education Spending Losing Ground in Government Budgets?

One of the clearest trends from the OECD’s 2025 data: education’s share of total government budgets fell from 10.9% in 2015 to 10.1% in 2022 across OECD countries — a 6.9% relative decline. Absolute spending grew by 13.1% over that period, but health, social protection, and debt servicing grew faster.

Costa Rica and Latvia experienced the sharpest drops, with education’s budget share declining by over 30% during that window.

How Wide Is the Gap Between Rich and Poor Countries in Education Spending?

The World Bank’s Education Finance Watch 2024 lays out the disparity clearly.

Source: World Bank & UNESCO Education Finance Watch 2024

Low-income countries have increased education spending faster than wealthier nations since 2010 in percentage terms. But the absolute gap is still massive. Some low and lower-middle-income nations now allocate nearly the same per capita resources to debt servicing as they do to education.

Does Spending More on Education Produce Better Results?

Not automatically. Estonia and Poland consistently achieve strong PISA scores while spending well below the OECD per-student average. Washington, D.C. spent $37,835 per pupil in fiscal year 2020–21 and still scored below national averages on student assessments. Adult literacy across most OECD countries — including the United States — either stagnated or declined between 2012 and 2023.

The data suggests that how money is spent matters as much as how much is spent. Countries that grant more spending autonomy to local governments and invest in teacher quality tend to see better returns per dollar, according to evidence from Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, and Uganda cited in the Education Finance Watch 2024. Understanding how different language populations access education adds another layer of complexity to this picture.

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