Health financing

Our health financing work examines health spending from governments, individuals, private insurance, and development assistance for health (DAH), answering critical questions about where resources for health are coming from and where they are going to inform policymakers. 

79% of global spending on health care is in high-income countries, despite containing only 16% of the world’s population.
60% of the total global health spending came from governments, but this amount varies dramatically by income group and across countries.
$37.8 billion was provided as development assistance for COVID in low- and middle-income countries in 2020 and 2021.
$1,827 is the expected global health spending per person by 2050. This is 43.4% larger than in 2023.

Interactive data visuals

Interactive Data Visual

Financing Global Health

Explore patterns of global health financing flows from 1990 to 2050.

Datasets in our catalog

Visit the Global Health Data Exchange (GHDx) to download our estimates of health spending for most of the world’s countries over the last two decades, and forecasts of future spending through 2050.

Scientific Publication

Global investments in pandemic preparedness and COVID-19

Cover of The Lancet journal

Publications

Scientific Publication

Global investments in pandemic preparedness and COVID-19: tracking development assistance and domestic spending on health between 1990 and 2026

We aimed to provide a comparative assessment of global health spending at the onset of the pandemic; characterise the amount of development assistance for pandemic preparedness and response disbursed in the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic; and examine expectations for future health spending and put into context the expected need for investment in pandemic preparedness.

Infographics

Infographic

FGH 2021: Tuberculosis

Disease spending profile for tuberculosis, updated for the latest edition of the Financing Global Health report.

Infographic

FGH 2021: Other infectious diseases

Disease spending profile for other infectious diseases, updated for the latest edition of the Financing Global Health report.

Infographic

FGH 2021: Non-communicable diseases

Disease spending profile for non-communicable diseases, updated for the latest edition of the Financing Global Health report.

Infographic

FGH 2021: Malaria

Disease spending profile for malaria, updated for the latest edition of the Financing Global Health report.

Infographic

FGH 2021: HIV/AIDS

Disease spending profile for HIV/AIDS, updated for the latest edition of the Financing Global Health report.

Infographic

FGH 2021: COVID-19

Disease spending profile for COVID-19, updated for the latest edition of the Financing Global Health report.

Infographic

Dramatic differences in health care spending

The gap between the US states that spend the most and least on health is wide, and varied growth rates mean that the gap between those who spend the most and the least is only increasing. More than 45% of the differences in health spending can be explained by income and regional prices, but much of the variation remains unexplained.

Videos

Video

United States Health Spending by Race & Ethnicity (2021)

Dr. Joseph L. Dieleman describes main points and health policy recommendations while reviewing key research figure from the study “US Health Care Spending by Race and Ethnicity, 2002-2016," published August 17, 2021 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Video

Tutorials: Financing Global Health

Learn how to explore trends in health spending worldwide with our 2019 Financing Global Health visualization tool.

Video

Household malaria spending, 2000–2016

An animation to accompany the study titled, "Tracking spending on malaria by source in 106 countries, 2000–16: an economic modelling study."

Video

Development assistance for HIV/AIDS, 2015

An animation to accompany the study titled, "Spending on health and HIV/AIDS: domestic health spending and development assistance in 188 countries, 1995–2015."

Video

US health care spending

IHME Professor Dr. Joseph Dieleman discusses findings from a new study published in JAMA, "Factors Associated With Increases in US Health Care Spending, 1996-2013."

Video

Financing Global Health 2014 report launch

The policy report Financing Global Health 2014: Shifts in Funding as the MDG Era Closes launched at an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Related

Health topic

COVID-19