List of governments by development aid

The world's most charitable countries, for the purposes of this page, give the most money to help the needy of their societies and others through public (government) donations.

Official Development Assistance by country as a percentage of Gross National Income in 2009 (April 2010)

To provide an alternative perspective, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development also lists countries by the amount of money they give as a percentage of their gross national income. The list includes international giving through official channels that qualify as Official Development Assistance, and national charitable giving. This list is as follows:

1. Sweden – 1.45%
2. Norway – 1.06%
3. Luxembourg – 1.04%
4. Denmark – 0.88%
5. Netherlands – 0.82%
6. Belgium – 0.55%
7. Finland – 0.54%
8. Ireland – 0.54%
9. United Kingdom – 0.52%
10. France- 0.47%
11. Spain – 0.46%
12. Switzerland – 0.45%
13. Germany – 0.35%
14. Canada – 0.30%
15. Austria – 0.30%
16. Australia – 0.29%
17. New Zealand – 0.28%
18. Portugal – 0.23%
19. United States – 0.21%
20. Greece – 0.19%
21. Japan – 0.18%
22. Italy – 0.16%
23. South Korea – 0.10%

Official Development Assistance by country in absolute terms in 2009 (April 2010)

To qualify as official development assistance (ODA), a contribution must contain three elements:

1. Be undertaken by the official sector (that is, a government or government agency);
2. With promotion of economic development and welfare as the main objective;
3. At concessional financial terms (that is, with favorable loan terms.)

Thus, by definition, ODA does not include private donations.

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the countries giving the highest amounts of money (in absolute terms) are as follows:[1]

Note that the European Union is by far the largest contributer with $80,655 billion out of world $120 billion.

1. United States – $28.67 billion
2. France – $12.43 billion
3. Germany – $11.98 billion
4. United Kingdom – $11.50 billion
5. Japan – $9.48 billion
6. Spain – $6.57 billion
7. Netherlands – $6.43 billion
8. Sweden – $4.55 billion
9. Norway – $4.09 billion
10. Canada – $4.01 billion
11. Italy – $3.31 billion
12. Denmark – $2.81 billion
13. Australia – $2.76 billion
14. Belgium – $2.60 billion
15. Switzerland – $2.31 billion
16. Finland – $1.29 billion
17. Austria – $1.15 billion
18. Ireland – $1.00 billion
19. South Korea – $0.82 billion
20. Greece – $0.61 billion
21. Portugal – $0.51 billion
22. Luxembourg – $0.40 billion
23. New Zealand – $0.31 billion

Humanitarian donation in absolute terms from non-DAC countries in 2009 (report July 2010)

Global Humanitarian Assistance [2] have published a report in July 2010 ranking countries both inside and outside the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC), on the total amount of humanitarian aid channelled through United Nations (83.6%), elected governments (7.3%), NGOs (3.3%), and others (5.8%). The figures for non-DAC countries are below. These figures do not include humanitarian aid from within the donor country itself.

1. Saudi Arabia – 51.8 million
2. United Arab Emirates – 35.3 million
3. Kuwait – 34.2 million
4. Russia – 32.5 million
5. India – 14.6 million
6. South Korea – 13.2 million
7. Qatar – 12.9 million
8. Turkey – 4.8 million
9. Czech Republic – 4.3 million
10. Hong Kong – 4.0 million
11. Other countries – 16.5 million

Humanitarian donation by country as a percentage of GNI in 2008 (report July 2010)

The GHA July 2010 report lists an illustrative selection of countries (not a top 10) by the amount of money they give in year 2008 as a percentage of their gross national income. This list is as follows:

• Saudi Arabia – 0.15%
• Luxembourg – 0.13%
• Sweden – 0.12%
• Denmark – 0.09%
• Kuwait – 0.06%
• United Arab Emirates – 0.04%
• United States – 0.03%
• Germany – 0.02%
• Japan – 0.01%
• Portugal – 0.01%

See also

• List of countries by foreign aid received