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Health · Africa ranking

Out-of-Pocket Health Spending by African country

70.9%Nigeria leads · 2023

Nigeria has the highest out-of-pocket share of health spending of any African country, at 70.9%, ahead of Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea.

Out-of-pocket expenditure as a share of current health expenditure (WHO). 54 of 54 countries, ranked · WHO GHO, 2023.

#1 vs #5417×Nigeria vs Rwanda
Median32.5%Angola
Lowest4.1%Rwanda

By region

regional average
West Africa47.5%
16 countries · led by Nigeria
North Africa42.3%
6 countries · led by Sudan
Central Africa40.3%
9 countries · led by Cameroon
East Africa29.6%
16 countries · led by Comoros
Southern Africa9.1%
7 countries · led by Lesotho

Full ranking

54 of 54 countries
#CountryOut-of-Pocket Health SpendingPeriod
1Nigeria
70.9%2023
2Cameroon
67.7%2023
3Equatorial Guinea
66%2023
4Togo
64.3%2023
5Liberia
63.2%2023
6Guinea-Bissau
61.6%2023
7Sudan
57.4%2023
8Egypt
57.2%2023
9Comoros
56.6%2023
10Sierra Leone
54.5%2023
11Guinea
54.4%2023
12Chad
51.7%2023
13Niger
51.5%2023
14Eritrea
48.4%2023
15Mali
47.2%2023
16Ethiopia
46.3%2023
17Mauritius
45.2%2023
18Central African Republic
45%2023
19Algeria
45%2023
20Senegal
44.3%2023
21Burkina Faso
43.8%2023
22Mauritania
43.8%2023
23Benin
42.4%2023
24Democratic Republic of the Congo
38%2023
25Tunisia
37.9%2023
26Morocco
37.3%2023
27Gambia
33.8%2023
28Angola
32.5%2023
29Uganda
32.2%2023
30Cote d'Ivoire
32%2023
31Somalia
30.8%2023
32Djibouti
28.8%2023
33Republic of the Congo
28%2023
34Seychelles
28%2023
35Tanzania
27.9%2023
36Madagascar
27.4%2023
37South Sudan
27.1%2023
38Ghana
26.7%2023
39Cabo Verde
25.7%2023
40Burundi
24.5%2023
41Kenya
24.2%2023
42Libya
19.2%2023
43Gabon
17.3%2023
44Sao Tome and Principe
16.7%2023
45Lesotho
13.2%2023
46Malawi
12%2023
47Eswatini
11%2023
48Zimbabwe
10.6%2023
49Mozambique
10.4%2023
50Zambia
10.3%2023
51Namibia
7.5%2023
52South Africa
6.7%2023
53Botswana
4.3%2023
54Rwanda
4.1%2023

Get this ranking via API

GET /v1/data

One call to /v1/data returns the latest Out-of-Pocket Health Spending figure for every country you pass — JSON, with source metadata on each observation.

curl "https://api.africa-api.com/v1/data?metric_key=health_oop_expenditure_pct_che&latest=true&country_codes=NG,KE,ZA,EG" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AFRICA_API_KEY"

Cite or republish this ranking

Data: Africa APIWHO GHO, 2023. Free to republish with a link to this page. Pull the live figures via the API above so your version never goes stale.

Embed this ranking

free · auto-updating

Drop this chart into your article or site — it stays live as the data updates. Paste the snippet anywhere HTML is allowed (a citation link is included).

<iframe src="https://africa-api.com/embed/out-of-pocket-health" width="100%" height="560" loading="lazy" style="border:1px solid #e3e3e3;border-radius:10px;max-width:640px" title="Out-of-Pocket Health Spending by African country — Africa API"></iframe>
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Frequently asked questions

Which African country has the highest out-of-pocket share of health spending?

Nigeria has the highest out-of-pocket share of health spending in Africa at 70.9% (2023), followed by Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea.

Which African country has the lowest out-of-pocket share of health spending?

Rwanda has the lowest out-of-pocket share of health spending of the 54 African countries with data, at 4.1% (2023).

How many African countries report Out-of-Pocket Health Spending data?

54 of 54 African countries have a Out-of-Pocket Health Spending figure in the Africa API, each from the latest year available for that country (which can differ between countries). Every value links to its full series with source and history.

How do I get this ranking via API?

Call GET /v1/data?metric_key=health_oop_expenditure_pct_che&latest=true with the country codes you need and a free Africa API key — the response returns the latest value per country as JSON.

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