Education Spending Board Screensaver
The Education Spending Board screensaver ranks countries by government expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP, live from the World Bank's open data API. It's free, needs an internet connection, and ESC exits.
How the Education Spending Board screensaver works
The saver calls the World Bank's key-less open data API for government education expenditure (SE.XPD.TOTL.GD.ZS) with mrnev=1, so each bar is that country's most recent published figure.
Region and income aggregates are filtered out using the World Bank's own country metadata, leaving only real countries.
Countries are ranked by spending share and each bar eases toward its real value, formatted to one decimal place.
It refreshes hourly; the underlying UNESCO-sourced figures update on the World Bank's own schedule.
A worked example
Small island states dominate the top — Kiribati spends over 16% of GDP on education, several times the global norm of 3–5% — while some large economies sit below 1%. Run it beside the Literacy Rate Board in Multi-view to watch inputs against outcomes.
Settings & tips
- Countries shown — how many ranked rows to display (10–25).
- The measure is general government spending on education as a share of GDP, so small-GDP states can rank far above rich ones in absolute spend.
- Data years differ by country — each is the most recent the World Bank has published.
Frequently asked questions
- Is this real data?
- Yes — real government education expenditure figures (UNESCO Institute for Statistics data) fetched live from the World Bank's official open data API.
- Is a key needed?
- No. The World Bank open data API is public, key-less and CORS-enabled, so the browser calls it directly.
- Does it work offline?
- No. It fetches live from the World Bank, so it needs an internet connection; offline it shows a short notice.
- Is it free?
- Yes — free, no download, in your browser.
- Why do tiny countries top the board?
- The indicator is spending relative to GDP. Island microstates with small economies and big public sectors — Kiribati, Tuvalu, Micronesia — outrank wealthy countries that spend far more in absolute dollars.