Countries With the Lowest Government Spending per Capita

Every country with a figure for government spending per capita, ranked from lowest to highest. The top three are Indonesia ($3,279), Mexico ($7,585) and Chile ($9,208). The middle country of the 43 has $24,719.

What this measures

General government expenditure per capita, in current international dollars. Source: OECD. For this measure, no agreed better direction.

All levels of government, in current dollars adjusted for what money buys in each country (purchasing power). So it grows over time with inflation as well as differing across countries. Where it is used for adjusting, it is measured in percentage terms (on a log scale), like income. Compared with national income, this measure answers a question nobody is asking. It is money per person set against money per person. So it moves with GDP per capita at about +0.86. Its development loading, which shows how much a measure just reflects how developed a country is, is +0.92. Rich countries spend far more per person because they have far more per person, and almost all of that figure comes from dividing by people. To ask whether government is a larger part of what a country has, you need a share of GDP, not an amount per head. Three measures here do that: government consumption, government expense and tax revenue. Against income those run +0.12, +0.29 and +0.32. That is a much smaller answer, and the real one.

This measure mostly follows how rich a country is, so this ranking is close to a ranking by national income. Each country’s page also ranks it against countries with similar incomes, which is often the fairer comparison.

The full ranking

Each country’s latest figure, from 2020–2024. The year beside each value says when it was measured.

More on government spending per capita

• Countries With the Highest Government Spending per Capita
• Government spending per capita by country: trend over time and what it goes with

Related rankings

• Countries With the Lowest Public Social Spending
• Countries With the Lowest Family Benefits Spending
• Countries With the Lowest Old-age Spending
• Countries With the Lowest Aid Given
• Countries With the Lowest Corporate Tax Rates
• Countries With the Lowest HDI
• Countries With the Lowest Inequality-adjusted HDI
• Countries With the Lowest GDP per Capita (PPP)

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