The United States provided approximately $35 billion in economic aid to over 140 countries* in fiscal year 2014. In the map below the relative size of each country is proportionate to the aid received from the United States and the color of each country indicates GDP per capita.
How was this aid distributed?
Clearly, not all aid is distributed equally. The question is: Who received the largest slice of the pie from the U.S.? From the map above, the answer is clear: Israel.
Of the $35 billion of total economic aid distributed, almost a quarter of funds went to five countries. Below are the top 5 recipients of economic aid in 2014.
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Israel: $3.1 billion
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Egypt: $1.5 billion
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Afghanistan: $1.1 billion
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Jordan: $1.0 billion
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Pakistan: $933 million
At first glance, one may wonder why Israel would receive roughly 9% of U.S. economic aid. It is important to note that foreign aid has a variety of uses depending on the current political, economic, and social climate. According to the U.S. State Government 2013-2015 Foreign Assistance report, all $3.1 billion of Israel’s funding was used for military financing. In Egypt, $1.3 billion of $1.5 billion received was used for military-related activities as well. On the other hand, the majority of funds received by Afghanistan, Jordan, and Pakistan were used for economic development purposes. Of the $35 billion referenced in the report, $8.4 billion (24%) was used towards global health programs, $5.9 billion (17%) was used for foreign military financing, $4.6 billion (13%) was used for economic support, and $2.5 billion (7%) was used for development assistance. Below is a breakout of aid received by geographic region in fiscal year 2014.
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Africa: 20%
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East Asia and Pacific: 2%
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Europe and Eurasia: 2%
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Near East: 20%
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South and Central Asia: 7%
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Western Hemisphere: 4%
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General Aid: 45%
With 142 countries receiving aid out of the 188 countries listed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2014, approximately 76% of the world received some form of economic assistance from the U.S., the majority located within Africa and the Near East. Depending on future geopolitical events, this allocation is subject to change; however, according to the federal government’s 2015 estimates, the approximate $33 billion requests in aid follow a similar geographic allocation. Nonetheless, in the past three years, the economic support from the U.S. will have impacted a large majority of the world’s population, totaling $103 billion in economic support across various programs.
The U.S. Spends $35B Helping Out The World. Where Does All this #Money Go? pic.twitter.com/IUQPkSeVcy https://t.co/va3Cp56aiN via @howmuch_net
— How Much (@howmuch_net) October 28, 2015
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Sources: Table 1
* For visualization purposes the map above reflects only 77 countries that received approximately $17 billion of the $35 billion in global aid. We chose top 40 by aid received and then manually selected different countries to illustrate geographic diversity.