Dataset · World Bank Group

Public Sector Wage Bill

23 years, 2000–2022 · 168 countries

This is what a country spends on the pay of its public employees, measured against the size of its whole economy. It is one of the few direct measures of the machinery of the state rather than of how well that state is thought to work.

This site holds every year from 2000 to 2022, read from World Bank Group’s own data and stored exactly as published.

Open Public Sector Wage Bill, 2022 Download all 23 · CSV See it charted by country →

Public Sector Wage Bill · the file

Newest: Public Sector Wage Bill, 2022
Held: 23 years · 4,019 rows
Licence: CC BY 4.0

23years held
2000–2022years
4,019rows across every year
168countries in the newest186 across every year
1measure
CC BY 4.0licence

0123 years

Every year

Every year comes from World Bank Group’s 2026 release, recalculated on one method. Each opens the full table for that year; each downloads as a CSV.

2000bar height: countries covered, up to 1842022

Every year of Public Sector Wage Bill held on this site, newest first, with its download files.
Year	Countries	Change	Read	Download
Public Sector Wage Bill, 2022Newest	168	−8	September 11, 2026	CSV
Public Sector Wage Bill, 2021	176	−5	September 11, 2026	CSV
Public Sector Wage Bill, 2020	181	−3	September 11, 2026	CSV
Public Sector Wage Bill, 2019	184	±0	September 11, 2026	CSV
Public Sector Wage Bill, 2018	184	±0	September 11, 2026	CSV
Public Sector Wage Bill, 2017	184	+1	September 11, 2026	CSV
Public Sector Wage Bill, 2016	183	+1	September 11, 2026	CSV
Public Sector Wage Bill, 2015	182	+1 −1	September 11, 2026	CSV
Public Sector Wage Bill, 2014	182	±0	September 11, 2026	CSV
Public Sector Wage Bill, 2013	182	+2	September 11, 2026	CSV
Public Sector Wage Bill, 2012	180	+1	September 11, 2026	CSV
Public Sector Wage Bill, 2011	179	+2 −1	September 11, 2026	CSV

Show all 23 years

Year	Countries	Change	Read	Download
Public Sector Wage Bill, 2010	178	±0	September 11, 2026	CSV
Public Sector Wage Bill, 2009	178	+1	September 11, 2026	CSV
Public Sector Wage Bill, 2008	177	+5	September 11, 2026	CSV
Public Sector Wage Bill, 2007	172	±0	September 11, 2026	CSV
Public Sector Wage Bill, 2006	172	±0	September 11, 2026	CSV
Public Sector Wage Bill, 2005	172	+3 −1	September 11, 2026	CSV
Public Sector Wage Bill, 2004	170	+3	September 11, 2026	CSV
Public Sector Wage Bill, 2003	167	+4	September 11, 2026	CSV
Public Sector Wage Bill, 2002	163	+9	September 11, 2026	CSV
Public Sector Wage Bill, 2001	154	+3	September 11, 2026	CSV
Public Sector Wage Bill, 2000	151	—	September 11, 2026	CSV

Every year in one file, one row per country per year: public-wage-bill-all-editions-nations-inquiry.csv

023 columns

What’s in the file

Every column, what it holds, how it is stored and what its values look like — what a reader needs before opening the file.

Every column in the newest file of Public Sector Wage Bill: what it holds, how it is stored, and its range.
Column	What it holds	Stored as	Range, 2022	Distinct
Country`country`Name	The country’s name, as this file spells it.	Text	—	168
ISO Code`country_code`Identifier	The ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code, added by this site. Every table here joins on it.	Text · 3 letters	—	168
Public sector wage bill (% of GDP)`public_wage_bill`Headline	The headline figure: Public sector wage bill (% of GDP).	Number · up to 15 decimals	0.9773India42.6451Naurumiddle 7.9748	168

Profiled from the newest file. Range: the lowest and highest value, with the country holding it when only one does. Spread: countries in ten equal steps from lowest to highest. Neither end is better. The values describe a shape, not a score.

03186 countries across every year

Who is covered

How many countries each year holds, continent by continent, who joined and who left, and which places this site covers that the dataset never has.

All regions

Countries in each year of Public Sector Wage Bill, by continent.
	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
Africa	52	52	53	53	52	52	52	52	52	52	52	52
Americas	35	35	35	35	35	35	35	35	35	35	35	33
Asia	40	40	40	40	41	42	43	43	43	41	36	33
Europe	39	39	40	40	40	40	40	40	40	40	40	38
Oceania	13	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	13	13	12
All	179	180	182	182	182	183	184	184	184	181	176	168

The newest 12 of 23 years.

Who joined and who left

2022
− Bhutan− Canada− Honduras− Japan− Kiribati− Mongolia− San Marino− Ukraine
2021
− Afghanistan− Hong Kong− Lebanon− Macau− Uzbekistan
2020
− South Korea− Palau− Vietnam
2017
+ Bhutan
2016
+ Uzbekistan
2015
+ Vietnam− Libya
2013
+ North Macedonia+ Somalia
2012
+ Papua New Guinea

Not in this dataset · 38 places this site covers

World Bank Group gives no figure for these in any year held here. It is the publisher’s choice of scope, and each place’s profile shows what is measured.

04Provenance

Where it comes from

The path from the publisher to this page, and what was checked and changed on the way.

The site’s method

1 · Publisher
World Bank Group
worldbank.org
2 · Their file
Public Sector Wage Bill 2022
BI.WAG.TOTL.GD.ZS
3 · Read by this site
September 11, 2026
Imported by a script that parses each figure and writes it down unrounded.
4 · Stored as
23 files, one per year
Each downloads as a CSV, or every year together as public-wage-bill-all-editions-nations-inquiry.csv
5 · Used on
Its statistic page, and every profile it measures
/statistics/public-wage-bill

Precision

The headline is stored to 15 decimals, as published.

Rounded by this site

Never. Tables on screen may show fewer decimals; the files never do.

Changed by this site

Reshaped into one row per country: regional and income-group totals are left out, only the columns listed are kept, each row gets its ISO 3166 code, and some country names are brought to one spelling. No value is recalculated, rescaled or rounded.

The World Bank's Worldwide Bureaucracy Indicators, through its indicator API (BI.WAG.TOTL.GD.ZS).

05Reuse

Licence and credit

What the publisher’s licence lets you do, what it asks of you, and a credit line and citation ready to copy.

Every publisher’s terms

Licence · checked September 11, 2026

CC BY 4.0

Share and redistribute it
Adapt it and build on it
Use it commercially
Credit the publisher
Say what you changed

Share, adapt and use commercially. Credit the publisher and say if you changed anything.

A credit line

Source: World Bank Group, Public Sector Wage Bill, via Nations Inquiry.

Cite this dataset

World Bank Group. Public Sector Wage Bill, 2000–2022 [data set]. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/public-wage-bill

The publisher’s own citation: World Bank. Worldwide Bureaucracy Indicators. Washington, DC: World Bank Group.

Plain-language summary, not legal advice. The licence text is what binds.

06Where it is used

Around the site

Where these numbers appear on this site, and the datasets nearest to it.

Charted
Public Sector Wage Bill by country
Who is highest, the map, the spread, who rose and fell, and the records.
Subjects
- Money & Public Finance
- Governance & Institutions
Near neighbours
- Account Ownership at a Financial InstitutionWorld Bank Group · 5 held · 2011–2024
- Firms with a Bank Loan or Line of CreditWorld Bank Group · 1 held · 2025
- Net Official Development Assistance ReceivedOECD Development Assistance Committee · 58 held · 1966–2023

07Questions

Public Sector Wage Bill: questions and answers

What is the Public Sector Wage Bill?

Which years of the Public Sector Wage Bill can I download?

All 23, from 2000 to 2022, each as a CSV file, or every year together in one CSV.

Does World Bank Group rank countries on it?

No. World Bank Group publishes values only. The positions shown on this site are derived by ordering the published values, and are labelled as ours.

Can I use it commercially?

Yes, under CC BY 4.0, with credit to World Bank Group. The licence text is linked on this page.

Year

Countries

Change

Read

Download

Public Sector Wage Bill, 2022Newest

168

−8

September 11, 2026