Global Health Spending Board Screensaver
The Global Health Spending Board screensaver ranks real health expenditure by country. It is free, runs in your browser, and ESC exits.
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Press ESC to leave fullscreen. Settings are saved in your browser only.
How the Global Health Spending Board screensaver works
The saver reads real expenditure data from the WHO's own GHO API.
Countries are ranked by their real latest reported share of GDP.
The pipeline refreshes on the WHO's own periodic release schedule.
No key is required for this key-less public endpoint.
What current health expenditure measures
The figure ranked here is current health expenditure as a share of GDP, compiled by the World Health Organization in its Global Health Observatory and Global Health Expenditure Database. WHO defines it as current health expenditure divided by gross domestic product, with expenditure coded under the System of Health Accounts 2011, a framework produced jointly by the OECD, WHO and the European Commission. That framework counts spending on health functions and leaves out capital investment such as new hospital buildings.
A share of GDP lets very different economies sit on one scale, but it can behave in surprising ways. In a small economy even a modest absolute health budget can be a large percentage, and the ratio says nothing about spending per person or about how much comes from public, private or external sources. The ranking compares shares, not totals.
Each country is shown at its own latest reported year, so rows are not strictly from the same date, and countries revise their accounts. A bigger share does not by itself mean better health, a better system, or more care per person; it says how much of national income passes through health spending, however that is financed.
A worked example
A real country's most recent reported health-spending share of GDP is ranked against the real others.
Settings & tips
- Values and years are real, unedited WHO Global Health Observatory data.
- Accent recolours the bars and header text.
- The GHO is the WHO's own real global health-statistics repository.
Frequently asked questions
- Is this real health data?
- Yes — real expenditure figures from the WHO's own GHO API.
- Is a key needed?
- No. The GHO OData API is fully key-less.
- Is this the same as life expectancy?
- No — a real distinct WHO indicator, spending as a share of GDP.
- Is it free?
- Yes — free, no download, in your browser.
- Why can small countries rank high?
- The ranking compares shares of GDP. In a small economy, even a modest absolute health budget can make up a large percentage.
- Does this include capital spending on buildings?
- No. Current health expenditure under the System of Health Accounts excludes capital investment such as new hospital buildings.
- Why are the years different between countries?
- Each country reports on its own schedule, and the saver uses the most recent value available for each one, so comparisons are best made with that in mind.