10 Countries That Spend the Most on Infrastructure

The amount of money spent on infrastructure, especially by these 10 countries that spend the most on infrastructure, is the best indicator of how dedicated countries are to their economies well-being.

Besides having a major benefit to the community, infrastructure has always been contributing to the country’s economy. Infrastructure investments, if done properly and with a plan, can provide substantial incomes. Advanced and successful infrastructure system can enhance economic growth of a particular country on many levels. The costs of production of goods and their transportation are cut substantially with many other indirect positive factors. One of the examples for infrastructure’s positive influence on the economy is China. China’s fast economic growth in the last decades followed their large investments in infrastructure

It’s easy to see why investing in infrastructure is important and always pays off. Of course, we must take into consideration that all countries don’t have the same opportunities and can’t allocate the amount of money they would like. Also, some countries have enough resources, but their governments don’t take infrastructure as serious as they should. On the other hands, Christmas is always taken seriously, which can be seen from our 10 countries that spend the most on Christmas.

To determine how much money is spent and which 10 countries that spend the most on infrastructure, we used a report from OECD that shows the amount of infrastructure investments in roads, rails, air-related infrastructure, inland waterways and sea related infrastructure by each country in 2013. Since one of the major infrastructure spenders China is not a member of OECD, we have found another source for China’s investments. Other investment data found were incomplete or unavailable. We summed up all the investments and converted values in Euros to US dollars.

10. India

We all know India is one of the countries with rapid growth of the economy and there are estimations that India will be the third economic force in the world by 2050. That kind of growth has allowed the country to initiate investments in the infrastructure made by the private sector, giving them numerous exemptions.

Investment in infrastructure: 13 billion $

9. Canada

They don’t need roads, right? They can use skis and snowmobiles. Well luckily, Canadians don’t think like that or, at least, they didn’t before. Although they invested around 3% of the country’s GDP in infrastructure around the 1950s and 1960s, through the years, the figure started dropping rapidly. The change, of course, happened around 2008 when Canada started paying more and more attention to the infrastructure.

Investment in infrastructure: 15.79 billion $

8. United Kingdom

U.K. has been always known as a country that invests a lot of money in infrastructure, and for a long time, the country had one of the most advanced and extensive infrastructure systems in the world. The things slightly changed through, since there weren’t enough investments in the infrastructure to maintain that kind of condition. Now there are efforts to repair the damage and once again make a U.K. an example for other countries.

Investment in infrastructure: 16.4 billion $

7. Germany

Responsible and organized Germans are probably most proud because of their Autobahn. The fact that there are no speed limits for vehicles on them just shows you how Germany is certain in the quality of their infrastructure. After unification, there was a challenge for the country to improve the poor infrastructure in Eastern Germany, but Germans rolled their sleeves and created one of the world’s most developed infrastructure systems.

Investment in infrastructure: 20.2 billion $

6. Russia

Being the largest country in the world by land area, Russia always had problems with developing an efficient infrastructure system in the whole country. That’s why there are metropolitan centers with advanced and extensive infrastructure systems on one side, and a great amount of country parts that have a barely functioning infrastructure system. Russia is trying to invest a bigger chunk of its budget into infrastructure, but with oil prices setting a record low it will be a hard task.

Investment in infrastructure: 21.7 billion $

5. Australia

For some of you, Australia’s high spot on our 10 countries that spend the most on infrastructure list may be surprising since there is widespread thought that Australia is mostly a wasteland. There is a small amount of truth in that, but Australia is trying to make some great improvements in infrastructure system. The best indicator for that is that Australia is among the countries with highest investments in the road related infrastructure.

Investment in infrastructure: 23.69 billion $

4. France

Almost the half of all infrastructure investments in France is reserved for the rails. If we only look at that part of investments in infrastructure, France is at the top with more than 11 billion $ of investments. Thanks to the overall large investments in the past, made by the government, France now has one of the most sophisticated infrastructures in the whole world.

Investment in infrastructure: 25.6 billion $

3. Japan

Being one of the leaders in technology, it is only natural for Japan to have the most advanced infrastructure system. The majority of the investments in infrastructure in the past years are targeted for regular maintaining of the existing infrastructure system. One of the main focuses of investments are roads and in 2010, the investments in that part of infrastructure system were around 37 billion $.

Investment in infrastructure: 53.6 billion $

2. United States

The glorious US and A is a most expected on all the lists when it comes to spending money, but she didn’t make it to the very top. Jokes aside, the amount of money invested in infrastructure system made by U.S. are incredible. In almost every part of infrastructure investments, U.S. comes well ahead of others. Infrastructure is open for both government and private sector investments while the country’s railway system is privately owned. When it comes to roads, more than 90% of all major cities and towns in the country are linked with expressways.

Investment in infrastructure: 93.2 billion $

1. China

China’s inclusion on our 10 countries that spend the most on infrastructure list isn’t a surprise to anyone familiar with the country’s economy model. As mentioned in the intro, China has used her infrastructure investments to fuel up the country’s economic growth and it proved as a smart move since on average, China’s GDP has been increasing by 10% in the last decade. Due to population growth and increased urbanization, China’s government had to invest heavily into their infrastructure system. The example that could give you a proper picture is that China’s “highways expand from 1  million kilometers in 1990 to 4.3 million kilometers in 2013”. Way to go China.

Investment in infrastructure: 157 billion $