How much foreign aid does the US provide to El Salvador?
Updates published monthly
About $167.9 million in aid was promised for fiscal year (FY) 2023, the most recent fully-reported year. Another $110.2 million has been reported for FY 2025 and $221.2 million for FY 2024.
$168M
of foreign aid was committed to El Salvador (FY 2023).
99.8%
of foreign aid was for economic purposes (FY 2023)
The United States gives foreign assistance to provide humanitarian aid and support peace, security, and economic development around the world. According to foreignassistance.gov, investing in global security and stability serves US national security interests by creating strategic and economic connections with other countries.
The more than 20 government agencies that fund or conduct foreign assistance activities report their aid to the Foreign Assistance and Data Reporting Team at foreignassistance.gov, which is jointly staffed by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Department of State. Due to data collection and reporting lags from the agencies providing aid, it can take up to two years for data to be considered “fully reported.” And even once they are, these numbers continue to change.
El Salvador is considered a lower-middle income country, according to the World Bank classification system. There are 46 lower-middle income countries that received aid, getting 71.8% of US foreign aid provided to individual countries in FY 2023. El Salvador ranked #21 among the lower-middle income countries in terms of aid received, between #20 Tunisia ($169.5 million) and #22 Cameroon ($166 million).
In FY 2023, $167.9 million in foreign aid was committed to El Salvador.
Obligations by fiscal year, inflation-adjusted dollars
Foreign aid can be either military or non-military in nature. According to foreignassistance.gov, military aid is “... foreign assistance for government armed forces for purposes such as internal security, legitimate self–defense, or to permit their participation in regional or United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations.” Non-military assistance is any other aid, broadly described by “economic assistance.”
In FY 2023, 99.8% of foreign aid was for economic purposes, and the remaining 0.18% was for military purposes.
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What is aid to El Salvador spent on?
Aid starts in Congress and flows to US government agencies, which are responsible for obligating and disbursing funds and managing the implementing partners that conduct aid activities in the receiving country. An assistance activity “... can be a project, program, cash transfer, delivery of goods, training course, technical assistance, research project, debt relief operation, or a contribution to an international organization.”
Implementing partners can be based in the US or not, and are divided into eight categories:
- Businesses
- Church and faith-based groups
- Governments (either foreign governments or US government agencies like the Peace Corps or the Department of Defense)
- Multilateral organizations (international institutions whose members are country governments, like the World Food Programme of the United Nations)
- Networks (a global or regional organization that brings together public, private, and civil society groups with similar goals to facilitate knowledge sharing)
- Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or not-for-profit organizations
- Public and private partnerships (collaborations between the public sector and a private partner to deliver public services, often infrastructure)
- Universities and research institutes
57% of US aid to El Salvador in FY 2023 went to US-based implementing partners.
The top category of aid delivery partner was US-based businesses, accounting for $53.5 million, or 31.9% of all aid. US-based businesses, foreign and international NGOs, and multilateral organizations were the top three types of implementing partner in terms of funds received, together accounting for 63.1% of total aid.
In FY 2023, funding for US aid to El Salvador was appropriated by Congress to six agencies.
| 1. | U.S. Agency for International Development | $129.6M |
| 2. | Department of State | $36M |
| 3. | Inter-American Foundation | $2.03M |
| 4. | Department of Agriculture | $186,100 |
| 5. | Department of the Interior | $181,500 |
| 6. | Department of Justice | $81,100 |
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Methodology
USAFacts standardizes data, in areas such as time and demographics, to make it easier to understand and compare.
The analysis was generated with the help of AI and reviewed by USAFacts for accuracy.
