<p>I have been looking for statistics on tax revenue to GDP ratio of different countries. I've found it on World Bank website.</p>
<p><a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/GC.TAX.TOTL.GD.ZS?view=chart" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/GC.TAX.TOTL.GD.ZS?view=chart</a></p>
<p>which claims that it is 11.5% for Germany (2018) for example.
Then I have seen this page from OECD website</p>
<p><a href="https://www.oecd.org/tax/revenue-statistics-germany.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.oecd.org/tax/revenue-statistics-germany.pdf</a></p>
<p>which claims that it is 38.5% for Germany (2018).
How come there's such a huge difference between these two sources? Is there something I'm getting wrong here? How can there be 27% difference, OECD number is more than 3 times world bank number! Can anyone enlighten me please?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-05T20:51:37.617Z
11.5% is implausibly low and so may be measuring something else.  The [German government](https://www.bundesfinanzministerium.de/Content/EN/Standardartikel/Topics/Taxation/Articles/2019-08-22-taxation-international.html) says "In 2017, Germany’s tax ratio – i.e. the ratio of taxes and social security contributions to gross domestic product (GDP) – stood at 37.5%."  It may be a "social security" issue (though excluding that the figure would be 23.3%), or something else
Henry
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-06T16:03:52.927Z
The only thing that makes sense is that the 11% figure is the federal (central) government, while the 38% is “general government” - all levels of government. For apples-to-apples comparisons, you want general government, since different countries have different splits. You would need to dig and find the series definition; I could not find it on the web page linked to.
Brian Romanchuk
<gdp><statistics><public-economics><taxation><data>
World Bank and OECD statistics unmatch tax revenue as % of GDP
ultimatewizard
# World Bank and OECD statistics unmatch tax revenue as % of GDP

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-12-05)

I have been looking for statistics on tax revenue to GDP ratio of different countries. I've found it on World Bank website.

<https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/GC.TAX.TOTL.GD.ZS?view=chart>

which claims that it is 11.5% for Germany (2018) for example.
Then I have seen this page from OECD website

<https://www.oecd.org/tax/revenue-statistics-germany.pdf>

which claims that it is 38.5% for Germany (2018).
How come there's such a huge difference between these two sources? Is there something I'm getting wrong here? How can there be 27% difference, OECD number is more than 3 times world bank number! Can anyone enlighten me please?

**Tags:** gdp, statistics, public-economics, taxation, data

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: 11.5% is implausibly low and so may be measuring something else.  The [German government](https://www.bundesfinanzministerium.de/Content/EN/Standardartikel/Topics/Taxation/Articles/2019-08-22-taxation-international.html) says "In 2017, Germany’s tax ratio – i.e. the ratio of taxes and social security contributions to gross domestic product (GDP) – stood at 37.5%."  It may be a "social security" issue (though excluding that the figure would be 23.3%), or something else  
> **username_2**: The only thing that makes sense is that the 11% figure is the federal (central) government, while the 38% is “general government” - all levels of government. For apples-to-apples comparisons, you want general government, since different countries have different splits. You would need to dig and find the series definition; I could not find it on the web page linked to.  

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## 0 answers

