Where U.S. Foreign Aid is Going

U.S. foreign aid was predominantly going to Afghanistan and the Middle East in 2019. According to numbers recently reported by U.S. Aid, the Central Asian country was by far the largest recipient with almost $5 billion paid out that year, down from almost $6 billion in 2018.

Also in decline were total aid payments. Since 2016, they have fallen from $52.5 billion that year to $47.2 billion in 2019. Roughly 30 percent of U.S. aid is classified as military aid provided by the Department of Defense and the U.S. Army, with the countries on top of the list typically receiving a much larger share of military aid.

Payments to Iraq were down from $3.7 billion in 2017 to less than $1 billion in 2019, while aid to U.S. allies Israel and Jordan increased slightly, as did aid to Yemen and to Colombia (for the local war on drugs).

Further down the top 10 list are many countries in Africa, which are also receiving some of the larger chunks of U.S. aid. The biggest recipients on the continent are Ethiopia, which received aid to the tune of $900 million and Nigeria, which received around $800 million.