Top Countries by Foreign Aid Received (ODA)

This bar chart shows the accumulated net official development assistance (ODA) from governments and multilateral organizations, by receiving country and world from 1960 to 2022. Data are adjusted for inflation and expressed in constant 2022 US$.

Official Development Assistance (ODA) is financial aid provided by governments and international organizations, aimed at promoting economic development and welfare in developing countries. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) established ODA criteria to help standardize and track such aid flows globally, ensuring they target sustainable development and poverty reduction.

Key Characteristics of ODA
Purpose: The primary goal of ODA is to improve social and economic welfare in recipient countries. This can cover a wide range of areas, such as education, healthcare, infrastructure, governance, and environmental protection.
Grant or Concessional Loans: ODA is often in the form of grants (which do not need to be repaid) or concessional loans (which have favorable terms, such as low-interest rates and long repayment periods).
Source: Only aid given by governments or international organizations (such as the World Bank or the United Nations) qualifies as ODA. Private aid or investment does not count, though these can still have developmental impacts.

A negative number for a country's net official development assistance (ODA) in a given year, it generally indicates net outflows rather than inflows of aid. This can happen for several reasons: Debt repayments exceed new aid. Reclassification of country status. Data adjustments or revisions.

Data does not include military aid, except for the cost of using armed forces to deliver humanitarian aid. It also excludes most peacekeeping expenditures, except for those closely related to development. Nuclear energy is included only if it is for civilian purposes, and cultural programs are eligible only if they build the cultural capacities of recipient countries.

Source: OECD (2024)

Data visualization created with flourish.studio https://flourish.studio