Factsheet
This factsheet analyses several major trends in the United Kingdom’s allocation of official development assistance (ODA) between 2018 and 2022. UK ODA has steadily declined since 2019, in part due to the government's temporary self-imposed reduction in aid spending from 0.7% to 0.5% of gross national income (GNI) following the pandemic.
Alongside this reduction, certain areas of aid have experienced substantial increases in recent years, while several others have declined. 2022 saw a large increase in refugee costs, driven both by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as the high costs of hosting asylum seekers in temporary accommodation. The government’s inclusion of these costs under the reduced aid budget (0.51% of GNI in 2022) implies that less finance was subsequently available for world’s poorest countries. However, the most recent FCDO report – along with forecasts that UK GNI will increase steadily in coming years – suggest that the cuts to the UK aid budget in recent years are largely behind us. This factsheet thus reviews the extent of the cuts between 2019 and 2022, using the UK’s recent data release to delve deeper into the impacts by country and sector.