Sierra Leone - Government expenditure on education, total (% of government expenditure)

Government expenditure on education, total (% of government expenditure) in Sierra Leone was 34.33 as of 2020. Its highest value over the past 20 years was 35.01 in 2019, while its lowest value was 12.41 in 2011.

Definition: General government expenditure on education (current, capital, and transfers) is expressed as a percentage of total general government expenditure on all sectors (including health, education, social services, etc.). It includes expenditure funded by transfers from international sources to government. General government usually refers to local, regional and central governments.

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (http://uis.unesco.org/)

See also:

Year Value
2000 20.73
2001 17.97
2002 17.70
2003 17.32
2004 17.15
2005 15.51
2007 19.75
2008 14.93
2009 15.90
2010 12.80
2011 12.41
2012 14.13
2013 15.20
2014 15.09
2016 12.47
2017 19.89
2018 32.73
2019 35.01
2020 34.33

Development Relevance: The share of government expenditure devoted to education allows an assessment of the priority a government assigns to education relative to other public investments, as well as a government's commitment to investing in human capital development. Countries with younger populations may spend more on education in relation to other sector such as health or social security, and vice-versa.

Limitations and Exceptions: Data on government expenditure on education may refer to spending by the ministry of education only (excluding spending on educational activities by other ministries). In addition, definitions and methods of data on total general government expenditure may differ across countries.

Other Notes: Data retrieved via API in March 2019. For detailed information on the observation level (e.g. National Estimation, UIS Estimation, or Category not applicable), please visit UIS.Stat (http://data.uis.unesco.org/).

Statistical Concept and Methodology: Expenditure on education, total (% of government expenditure) is calculated by dividing total government expenditure on education by the total government expenditure on all sectors and multiplying by 100. Aggregate data are based on World Bank estimates. Data on education are collected by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics from official responses to its annual education survey. All the data are mapped to the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) to ensure the comparability of education programs at the international level. The current version was formally adopted by UNESCO Member States in 2011. Data on total general government expenditure were previously collected from countries through the annual questionnaire, but are from the International Monetary Fund's World Economic Outlook database since January 2014. Therefore, current data cannot be compared with data in earlier editions. The reference years reflect the school year for which the data are presented. In some countries the school year spans two calendar years (for example, from September 2010 to June 2011); in these cases the reference year refers to the year in which the school year ended (2011 in the example).

Aggregation method: Median

Periodicity: Annual

Classification

Topic: Education Indicators

Sub-Topic: Inputs