10 Countries That Spend The Most on Foreign Aid

To find out how much generosity is there in the world, we researched about countries that spend the most on foreign aid. When it comes to international relationships between countries, foreign aid is by its definition “a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another”. Foreign aid has many functions. It can be given to a particular country as a sign of good relationships between the countries but for numerous other reasons as well. One of the most common functions of foreign aid is helping the countries who are still developing, recovering from war, and experiencing an epidemic or natural disasters. In 2014, the biggest foreign aid recipients were Afghanistan and Congo, with Africa being the largest foreign aid recipient among continents with 47.6 billion $ foreign aid received.

Two most common types of foreign aid include financial resources and goods, although a recent report from High Level Panel has shown that only 6% of the aid is given in the form of cash. The aid in goods can include food, medical tools and drugs, building material or some other goods needed by a certain country. Sending scientists and other highly trained personnel is considered aid as well. Those kinds of individuals have a task of helping the development of the country and educating the residents on new trends in certain branches. Countries who give this kind of foreign aid are usually among countries that spend the most on research and development.

Country’s government isn’t only one included in giving the foreign aid and helping other countries. A lot of non-government organizations and individuals are the donors of the foreign aid. In the same way, private organizations and non-government organizations in one country can be recipients of the foreign aid.

For our source, we used a report from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which was the only relevant data available and helpful for making our list of countries that spend the most on foreign aid. The report shows the amount of US dollars spent by each country on foreign aid directed towards developing countries in 2014.

10. Canada

Compared to 2013, Canada has cut the amount of foreign aid in 2014 from $4.9 billion to $4.2 billion. That figure is 0.24% of Canada’s Gross national income (GNI).

9. Australia

Australia spent 0.27% of its GNI on foreign aid in 2014. The figure is $4.2 billion, over a half of billion less than the country spent in 2013.

8. Norway

When it comes to the percentage of GNI spent on foreign aid, with 0.99% Norway is in top 3 countries in the world. Norway spent $5.02 billion on foreign aid in 2014.

7. Netherlands

With $5.57 billion spent on foreign aid in 2014, Netherlands, unlike previous countries among 10 countries that spend the most on foreign aid, spent $150 million more than in 2013.

6. Sweden

Sweden is the country that spends the most of its GNI on foreign aid, 1,1% of it,  which translates to about $6.22 billion. Sweden also increased the amount spent on foreign aid compared to 2013 when the figure was 5.87 billion.

5. Japan

Frequent foreign aid donor, Japan stands as a sole representative of Asia on our list. Although Japan spent $9.19 billion or 0.19% of GNI on foreign aid in 2014, that is substantially less compared to the year before. In 2013, the figure was $11.7 billion.

4. France

$10.3 billion spent on foreign aid by France presents 0.36% of country’s overall GNI. Like the most countries on the list, France also reduced the foreign aid by $1 billion.

3. Germany

Unlike France, Germany has made a big increase in the amount spent on foreign aid. In 2013, Germany spent $14 billion and now the amount is increased by $2.25 billion standing at 16.25 billion or 0.41% of GNI in 2015.

2. United Kingdom

The United Kingdom is the biggest Europe donor of foreign aid. In 2014 the country spent $19.39 billion on foreign aid, continuing with the trend of increasing its spending on foreign aid every year.

1. United States

U.S. has topped another list when it comes to spending. Among 10 countries that spend the most on foreign aid, U.S. spends the most money, almost twice more than the UK. In 2014, U.S. spent $32.73 billion, slightly increasing its expenditure on foreign aid. This amount surely won’t hurt them much, since it represents only about 0.19% of country’s GNI.