GBTT

Spend Britain's budget like another country.

Pick a country. See UK public spending split its way, in pounds per person, and what that country's law makes people pay outside the state budget.

Pick a country

Public spending, % of GDP

UK spending at that share

Gap against UK revenue

If UK revenue stayed at of GDP

Where the money goes

Pounds per person a year at UK size (2024 GDP and population). Spending by function, 2024.

CategoryUKCountryDifference

What the table leaves out

Spending tables count only what the state pays. Some countries require people to buy health insurance or pay into a pension. That money is compulsory, but it is not in the table above.

Health, % of GDP, 2023

Mandatory private pensions, % of GDP, 2021

Where OECD publishes no series, the tool says "not published". That is not the same as zero.

What this does not claim

Not that compulsory insurance is better or worse. Only that it is spending, and the tables leave it out.

Not a total. Spending by function is 2024, health financing 2023 and pensions 2021. Each figure shows its year, and the tool never adds them into one number.

Not a like-for-like health comparison in every case. Which countries' spending tables already include social insurance funds is not settled for all of them. Switzerland's government health figure differs by 0.4 points of GDP between the two OECD datasets.

Not every country. Canada is left out because its category figures leave out capital spending. Australia's figures cover the year to June 2024, and its categories add to more than its total.

Sources

  1. OECD, Government at a Glance: general government expenditure by function (COFOG), DSD_GOV_COFOG@DF_GOV_COFOG_YU, and totals, DSD_GOV@DF_GOV_PF_YU, 2024. Debt interest (COFOG 01.7) from OECD National Accounts Table 11, DSD_NASEC10@DF_TABLE11; United States from BEA NIPA Table 3.1.
  2. OECD, System of Health Accounts, DSD_SHA@DF_SHA, 2023: government schemes (HF.1.1), compulsory social insurance (HF.1.2.1), compulsory private insurance (HF.1.2.2).
  3. OECD, Social Expenditure Database, DSD_SOCX_AGG@DF_SOCX_AGG, 2021: mandatory private old-age spending (ES20, TP01).
  4. ONS: UK GDP 2024, series YBHA, £2,890,254m; UK population mid-2024, 69,281,400.

All retrieved 15 September 2026.