Government & Public Finances

Government debt and budget balance: Canada and OECD peers

What governments owe and whether they run surpluses or deficits shapes their ability to act on important issues, such as health care and infrastructure. These charts compare Canada’s general government finances with 16 OECD peers. The most recent year or two are estimates rather than final figures.

Where Canada stands

A scorecard of where Canada ranks among the peer group’s 17 economies on each measure (latest available year). Dots are ordered by rank, so further right is more favourable for Canada (lower-is-better measures are flipped accordingly). Canada is maroon, key comparators in colour; hover a dot for its value and rank.

Government gross debt

General government gross financial liabilities as a percentage of GDP: the broad measure of what all levels of government owe. This figure is higher than the “net” debt often cited in Canadian budgets, which subtracts financial assets the government holds.

Latest government debt: ranked

Use the dropdown to switch between two measures. Gross debt is the broad measure of what all levels of government owe. Net debt subtracts the financial assets governments hold, such as public-pension reserves. Canada’s net debt is lower than its gross figure. (Norway is omitted from the net measure: its sovereign wealth fund puts net debt at roughly −340% of GDP, far off this scale.)

Government budget balance

General government net lending as a percentage of GDP. Positive values are surpluses; negative values are deficits. The dotted line marks a balanced budget (zero).

Latest government budget balance: ranked

Government revenue

Total general government revenue across all levels of government, expressed as a share of GDP. This shows how much revenue governments collect relative to the size of the economy.

Latest government revenue: ranked

Tax structure: where the money comes from

Two countries can collect the same total amount in taxes while relying on different sources. This chart divides each country’s tax revenue among taxes on income and profits, social security contributions (mandatory payments toward pensions, unemployment insurance, and similar public benefits — such as CPP/QPP and EI in Canada), taxes on goods and services (including sales taxes, VAT, and excise taxes), property taxes, payroll taxes, and other taxes.

All are measured as a share of GDP, so the full length of each bar represents the country’s total tax revenue. Canada sits in the middle of the peer group overall, but its tax mix is distinctive: it relies relatively heavily on income and property taxes and less on social security contributions and consumption taxes. Many continental European countries rely more heavily on social security contributions and consumption taxes.

Government interest costs

Net interest paid by government as a share of GDP. This is the cost of servicing public debt. Money that goes to paying interest on debt is not available for other government spending and services.

Latest government interest costs: ranked

A few countries show a negative figure: they earn more interest on their financial assets (such as public pension reserves) than they pay on their debt, so net interest is income rather than a cost.

Defence spending

Military expenditure as a share of GDP is the standard metric for defence spending comparisons. NATO members have agreed to a guideline of spending at least 2% of GDP on defence (shown as a dashed line). Israel is omitted here because it is an outlier in spending and is not a NATO member.

Latest defence spending: ranked

Foreign aid (official development assistance)

Official development assistance (ODA) is government support intended to promote economic development and welfare in developing countries. This chart compares ODA reported by members of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC), measured as a share of gross national income (GNI). The dashed line marks the UN target of 0.7% of GNI. In 2023, Canada’s ODA was equivalent to 0.38% of GNI, below the median among the countries shown. Under OECD rules, certain costs of supporting refugees during their first year in a donor country may be reported as ODA; these costs affected several countries’ totals in 2022 and 2023.

Latest foreign aid: ranked

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