Taxes Collected Relative to GDP Size in Every Major Economy 💸

What We’re Showing

A chart ranking major economies by their tax-to-GDP ratios, as sourced from OECD Revenue Statistics 2023.

What is the Tax-to-GDP Ratio?

The tax-to-GDP ratio is a financial snapshot that shows how much a government collects in taxes compared to the total value of all goods and services produced in a country (GDP). It's like measuring how much money a household spends on rent compared to its total income. A higher ratio generally means the government collects a larger portion of the economy's output through taxes.

Key Takeaways

• European countries have some of the highest tax revenues, relative to their economies, in the world
• A higher tax-to-GDP ratio indicates more government revenue to fund public services and social security measures
• Some countries, like Saudi Arabia, have a lower ratio simply because they do not need to fund government expenditure through taxation
• The World Bank says that a threshold of 15% is critical for economic growth and poverty reduction