Who is the largest recipient of foreign aid from the US

1. Israel: the long‑running, cumulative top recipient

Across the long arc of U.S. foreign assistance, Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of American aid — a position reflected in Congressional Research Service reporting that emphasizes Israel’s dominant share of longstanding Foreign Military Financing and decades of bipartisan support ^[1]; news overviews and policy reporting reiterate that Israel has been the top recipient since World War II and remains central to U.S. security assistance calculations ^[4]. This cumulative framing captures steady, legally authorized military and economic assistance streams that are distinct from emergency or shorter‑term aid surges.

2. Ukraine: the biggest recipient during recent surge years

When the question is framed by particular fiscal years or disbursement categories, Ukraine rises to the top: sources tracking FY2022 disbursements show Ukraine as the largest recipient with roughly $11.2 billion disbursed that year, and USAID and visualizations of FY2024 USAID disbursements list Ukraine as the largest beneficiary of USAID programming ^{[2] [3]}. Those spikes reflect large, emergency‑style appropriations tied to conflict response rather than steady-state, multidecade assistance.

3. Why different answers coexist — categories, timing and agency

U.S. “foreign aid” is not a single pool: the Congressional Research Service identifies multiple categories — economic, humanitarian, multilateral, bilateral development and military assistance — and numerous agencies (State, Defense, USAID and others) manage disbursements, so top recipients can change depending on which buckets are counted ^[5]. The U.S. government’s ForeignAssistance.gov is the central source for granular, by‑country disbursement data and shows how totals shift by fiscal year and program type ^{[6] [7]}. Thus, a year defined by emergency security assistance will elevate a conflict‑affected recipient; a long historical tally elevates enduring partners with large security relationships.

4. Recent political context and its effect on who tops the list

Shifts in U.S. policy and congressional appropriations alter rankings: large supplemental congressional packages for Ukraine in 2022–2024 produced enormous, concentrated disbursements, while longstanding appropriations and Foreign Military Financing keep Israel at the top of cumulative totals ^{[3] [4]}. Reporting on policy changes and debates — including executive branch reorganizations and proposed programmatic shifts — signals that future top recipients could change if administrations or Congress reprioritize funding or restructure agencies ^{[8] [9]}.

5. How to interpret “largest recipient” responsibly

Answering who is “largest” requires specifying the metric: cumulative historical receipts (Israel, per CRS reporting) versus single‑year disbursements or specific agency flows (Ukraine in FY2022 and in certain USAID tallies) ^{[1] [2] [3]}. Public dashboards such as ForeignAssistance.gov offer the raw disbursement data needed to pin down a definitive label for a chosen period or category ^{[6] [7]}. Absent that explicit framing, headlines that say “largest recipient” can unintentionally conflate temporary emergency aid with long‑term assistance relationships.

6. Bottom line

If the question is cumulative over the post‑World War II era and across categories, Israel is the largest U.S. foreign‑aid recipient ^[1]; if the question is about recent fiscal‑year disbursements or USAID program money, Ukraine has been the top recipient in key recent years (FY2022 and USAID tallies in 2024) ^{[2] [3]}. The authoritative federal portal for checking the current, by‑country figures is ForeignAssistance.gov, which lets researchers resolve the metric‑choice that determines the correct answer ^{[6] [7]}.