The United States was the world’s largest foreign aid donor in 2024, giving $63.3 billion in official development assistance, followed by Germany at $32.4 billion, the United Kingdom at $18.0 billion, Japan at $16.8 billion, and France at $15.4 billion.1OECD. International Aid Falls in 2024 for First Time in Six Years, Says OECD Foreign aid amounts by country vary sharply depending on whether you measure raw dollars, share of national income, or aid received rather than given. Total assistance from all providers to developing countries reached $255.4 billion in 2024, down 4.5% from 2023.
The Top Donor Countries in 2024
Five countries supplied more than two-thirds of all aid reported to the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee. The United States alone accounted for roughly 30% of the DAC total.
- United States: $63.3 billion
- Germany: $32.4 billion
- United Kingdom: $18.0 billion
- Japan: $16.8 billion
- France: $15.4 billion
Each of these donors focuses on different priorities. Japan concentrates on infrastructure and economic resilience in Southeast Asia. France directs much of its funding toward climate initiatives and education in Francophone Africa. Germany’s second-place ranking reflects a sustained expansion of its aid budget over the past decade. The United Kingdom kept its third-place position in 2024 despite recent cuts.
China is a large but harder-to-measure player. Because it does not report to the DAC, its aid total is estimated rather than officially tracked. Academic estimates place Chinese foreign aid somewhere between $5 billion and $8 billion a year, which would put it roughly between sixth and thirteenth globally depending on methodology. China’s Belt and Road financing involves much larger sums, but those flows are mostly commercial loans and do not count as official development assistance.
Aid as a Share of National Income
Dollar totals hide how generously countries actually give relative to their size. The United Nations target is 0.7% of gross national income. In 2024, only four countries met it:1OECD. International Aid Falls in 2024 for First Time in Six Years, Says OECD
- Norway: 1.02%
- Luxembourg: 1.00%
- Sweden: 0.79%
- Denmark: 0.71%
The United States, despite giving the most in absolute terms, spends well under 0.3% of its GNI on aid. The United Kingdom passed legislation in 2015 committing to the 0.7% level and met that target from 2013 through 2020. The pandemic prompted a cut to 0.5%, and in February 2025 the UK government announced a further reduction to 0.3% of GNI by 2027 to fund higher defense spending.2UK Government. Statistics on International Development – Provisional UK ODA Spend 2024 The government said it will restore 0.7% when fiscal conditions allow, without setting a timeline.
Top Recipients of U.S. Foreign Aid
In fiscal year 2024, the ten largest recipients of American foreign assistance were:
- Israel: $6.82 billion
- Ukraine: $6.51 billion
- Jordan: $1.74 billion
- Ethiopia: $1.31 billion
- Democratic Republic of the Congo: $1.26 billion
- Somalia: $963 million
- Nigeria: $879 million
- South Sudan: $842 million
- Kenya: $832 million
- Mozambique: $764 million
The annual disbursement figure understates Ukraine’s total. Congress appropriated $188 billion in Ukraine-related spending across five supplemental acts between fiscal years 2022 and 2024, though not all of it went directly to Ukraine. The Kiel Institute for the World Economy estimated direct U.S. support to Ukraine at about $127 billion as of late 2025.3Ukraine Oversight. Funding That made Ukraine the largest recipient of American aid since the Marshall Plan.
Israel, Jordan, and Egypt
The largest recurring recipients get their funding through multi-year memorandums of understanding. Israel’s aid is set by a ten-year MOU signed in 2016 covering fiscal years 2019 through 2028, which provides $3.3 billion annually in Foreign Military Financing plus $500 million for missile defense.4ForeignAssistance.gov. U.S. Foreign Assistance by Country – Israel The fiscal year 2024 total ran well above that baseline because Congress passed a supplemental that added $3.5 billion in Foreign Military Financing and $4.4 billion to replenish war reserve stockpiles, among other items.
Jordan’s aid is anchored by a seven-year MOU signed in 2022, committing $1.45 billion per year in bilateral assistance from fiscal year 2023 through 2029 for economic stability and border security.5United States Department of State. Joint Statement on the Signing of the Bilateral MOU Between the United States and Jordan Egypt receives roughly $1.3 billion a year in Foreign Military Financing, a figure that has held steady for decades and is tied to the Camp David accords.
Sub-Saharan African Recipients
The African countries on the list receive aid primarily for health and humanitarian purposes rather than security cooperation. Ethiopia’s $1.31 billion in fiscal year 2024 was weighted heavily toward emergency food assistance and food security programs.6ForeignAssistance.gov. U.S. Foreign Assistance by Country – Ethiopia Nigeria’s funding centers on HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. Somalia, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo receive large sums driven by ongoing humanitarian crises.
Much of this money flows through infectious disease programs. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria invests roughly $5 billion a year worldwide, and the United States has historically been its largest contributor.7The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Home American bilateral programs like PEPFAR have added tens of billions more.
What Changed in 2025
Any figures for U.S. foreign aid going forward will look very different from the 2024 totals above. On Inauguration Day 2025, the President signed an executive order imposing a 90-day pause on all new obligations and disbursements of development assistance, pending a review of every program for “programmatic efficiency and consistency with United States foreign policy.”8The White House. Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid The Secretary of State could waive the pause for specific programs.
The changes went well beyond a pause. Administration statements indicated that roughly 85% of USAID programming was ultimately cut. The agency’s staff was reduced from over 10,000 employees to 15 legally required positions, effectively eliminating it as an independent operating entity. The State Department’s own grantmaking capacity was reduced by an estimated half. The Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor saw an estimated 80% staff reduction.
The fiscal year 2026 budget request cut funding for multilateral organizations by an estimated 83%, proposing allocations for only 7 of the 46 international organizations the United States has traditionally funded. Memorandums of understanding like those with Israel and Jordan carry legal weight and are funded through separate appropriations, so they are not automatically affected by executive branch restructuring of development aid. Whether Congress will continue funding those commitments at historical levels is a separate question, and the effect on health and humanitarian recipients in Africa is still unfolding.
Where to Find Current Figures
Two sources publish the underlying numbers on a rolling basis. ForeignAssistance.gov is the central U.S. platform for country-by-country disbursement data, budgetary figures, and program evaluations.9ForeignAssistance.gov. About For comparable donor-country statistics, the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee standardizes how member countries report their aid, which is what makes cross-country comparisons possible in the first place.10OECD. ODA Trends and Statistics