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Health spending as a share of total government expenditure

What you should know about this indicator

Rationale

The share of domestic general government health expenditure as percentage of the total general government expenditure indicates the priority of the government to spend on health from own domestic public resources. It expresses this priority by comparing the size of current health expenditure from government domestic sources relative to the total size of government expenditure. Government domestic sources for health include government internal transfers and grants, government transfers and subsidies to voluntary schemes, as well as social health insurance contributions.

Definition

Domestic general government health expenditure expressed as a percentage of total expenditure of the general government

Method of measurement

(FS.1 Transfers from government domestic revenue allocated to health purposes + FS.3 Social insurance contributions) / General government expenditure (GGE)

Method of estimation

-

Health spending as a share of total government expenditure
Domestic general government health expenditure expressed as a percentage of total expenditure of the general government
Source
World Health Organization - Global Health Observatory (2024) – processed by
Last updated
January 3, 2024
Next expected update
May 2025
Date range
2000–2021
Unit
%

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

The GHO data repository is WHO's gateway to health-related statistics for its 194 Member States. It provides access to over 1000 indicators on priority health topics including mortality and burden of diseases, the Millennium Development Goals (child nutrition, child health, maternal and reproductive health, immunization, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, neglected diseases, water and sanitation), non communicable diseases and risk factors, epidemic-prone diseases, health systems, environmental health, violence and injuries, equity among others.

Retrieved on
January 3, 2024
Retrieved from
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by . To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
World Health Organization. 2024. Global Health Observatory data repository. . Accessed on 2024-01-03

How we process data at

All data and visualizations on rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across .

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Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by , please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Health spending as a share of total government expenditure”.  (2025). Data adapted from World Health Organization. Retrieved from /grapher/health-expenditure-government-expenditure [online resource]
How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

World Health Organization - Global Health Observatory (2024) – processed by

Full citation

World Health Organization - Global Health Observatory (2024) – processed by . “Health spending as a share of total government expenditure” [dataset]. World Health Organization, “Global Health Observatory” [original data]. Retrieved April 28, 2025 from /grapher/health-expenditure-government-expenditure