Countries With the Highest Government Consumption

Every country with a figure for government consumption, ranked from highest to lowest. The top three are Timor-Leste (60.6%), Kiribati (59%) and Marshall Islands (54.5%). The middle country of the 184 has 16.4%.

What this measures

General government final consumption expenditure (% of GDP). Source: World Bank. For this measure, no agreed better direction.

What government buys directly, as a share of the economy: wages, defence, and the running of schools and hospitals. It is the widely reported half of government size. Payments such as pensions and benefits are handed out, not spent on goods and services, so they are not in here. That understates government in the countries with the largest welfare systems. Government expense covers those, but for fewer countries. Compared with income per person, this answers the question the per-person dollar figure cannot. Rich countries spend far more per person because they have far more per person. Whether their governments are a larger share of what there is needs a share of GDP, not an amount per person. No "better" direction is set: a bigger or smaller government is a political question, not a better or worse one.

The full ranking

Each country’s latest figure, from 2010–2025. The year beside each value says when it was measured.

More on government consumption

• Countries With the Lowest Government Consumption
• Government consumption by country: trend over time and what it goes with

Related rankings

• Countries With the Highest Public Social Spending
• Countries With the Highest Family Benefits Spending
• Countries With the Highest Old-age Spending
• Countries With the Highest Aid Given
• Countries With the Highest Government Spending per Capita
• Countries With the Highest Corporate Tax Rates
• Countries With the Highest HDI
• Countries With the Highest Inequality-adjusted HDI

A ranking describes countries, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All country rankings.