Govt. Education spending - sources and methods

The data is provided by UNESCO's Institute for Statistics, which publishes statistics on education, science, technology, culture and communication for all countries in the world. UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

The data reflects public education expenditure, not private investment. Governments of the world invested the equivalent of PPP$ 2.46 trillion in education in 2004 (or 1.97 trillion if converted into U.S. dollars on the basis of market exchange rates). This figure represents 4.4% of global GDP in PPP$. PPPs (purchasing power parities) are rates of currency conversion which eliminate differences in price levels among countries. This means that a given sum of money, when converted into U.S. dollars at PPP rates, will buy the same basket of goods and services in all countries.

Governments in North America and Western Europe invested the highest shares of national resources in education: 5.6% of GDP. The region is followed by the Arab States (4.9%) and sub-Saharan Africa (4.5%). The regions of Latin America and the Caribbean as well as Central and Eastern Europe are close to the world average, with 4.4% and 4.2% respectively. By far the lowest level of public spending is found in Central Asia and in East Asia and the Pacific – both of which report only 2.8% of GDP. However, the figure for East Asia and the Pacific should be interpreted with caution as the average is based on an estimate for China for 1999.

Worldometers uses figures in US dollars and adjusts the data to reflect the latest world GDP growth rates and global education spending statistics.

References and useful links: