UK / Foreign aid
Foreign Aid
UK Official Development Assistance in pounds, as a share of government spending, and where the largest country-specific bilateral flows go.
£14.1bnUK ODA in 2024
1.15%Share of total government spending in 2024
£15.3bnNominal peak, 2023
£269.7mUkraine, the largest country-specific bilateral recipient in 2024
Section 1
Foreign aid in pounds
UK Official Development Assistance rose from £186.0m in 1970 to £14.08bn in 2024. The nominal high-water mark was £15.34bn in 2023.
UK ODA, current pounds, 1970-2024
ODA spend
Section 2
Foreign aid as a share of government spending
On this measure, aid accounted for 1.15% of total government spending in 2024. The highest point in this series was 1.82% in 2019.
ODA as % of total government spending, 1970-2024
Share of government spending
Why the 2020 dip matters: aid stayed high at £14.48bn in 2020, but its share of spending still fell to 1.40% because total government expenditure jumped above £1.03tn during the pandemic.This uses calendar-year ODA from the FCDO and calendar-year total government expenditure from the ONS, both in current-price pounds.
Section 3
Who gets the most foreign aid?
In 2024, Ukraine, Afghanistan and Ethiopia were the three largest country-specific bilateral recipients of UK aid.
Important scope note: this ranking is only for country-specific bilateral ODA. It excludes multilateral contributions and aid that is not assigned to one recipient country, so it should not be read as a ranking of all UK aid flows.
Top country-specific bilateral recipients in 2024
Showing the top 15 of 115 recipients. Together they account for 67.6% of the country-specific bilateral table.
1
Ukraine£269.7m
+£19.8m vs 2023Unchanged vs 2023
2
Afghanistan£192.1m
+£77.2m vs 2023Up 1 place vs 2023
3
Ethiopia£181.8m
+£8.4m vs 2023Down 1 place vs 2023
4
Syria£158.0m
+£48.6m vs 2023Unchanged vs 2023
5
Somalia£143.4m
+£45.9m vs 2023Up 2 places vs 2023
6
Yemen£142.0m
+£41.4m vs 2023Down 1 place vs 2023
7
Sudan£141.1m
+£89.7m vs 2023Up 5 places vs 2023
8
West Bank & Gaza Strip£137.9m
+£95.6m vs 2023Up 6 places vs 2023
9
Nigeria£137.5m
+£37.8m vs 2023Down 3 places vs 2023
10
South Sudan£132.1m
+£74.3m vs 2023Up 1 place vs 2023
11
Pakistan£114.0m
+£45.3m vs 2023Down 3 places vs 2023
12
Democratic Republic of the Congo£101.6m
+£61.4m vs 2023Up 4 places vs 2023
13
Kenya£73.9m
+£25.5m vs 2023Unchanged vs 2023
14
Lebanon£69.6m
+£45.0m vs 2023Up 15 places vs 2023
15
Jordan£66.9m
+£38.9m vs 2023Up 12 places vs 2023
Sources