Economy > Economic aid > Donor: Group totals

A poll in 2000 by the <a href=http://www.pipa.org/index.html>Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA)</a> and similar polls in earlier years found that most Americans vastly overestimate their country’s foreign aid spending. The median estimate of the percentage of the federal budget that goes to foreign aid was 20 percent, while the average estimate was 24 percent. The actual figure is a little less than 1 percent. <p>In an October 1997 poll, 63 percent of people surveyed believed more was spent on foreign aid than on Medicare, while 27 percent though Medicare spending was greater. That year, Medicare funding was about 10 times as much as foreign aid. <p>Respondents to the 2000 PIPA poll also overestimated U.S. aid as a percentage of all foreign aid. The median estimate was that American aid accounted for 33 percent of all aid. The actual figure for 1999 was 16 percent.