In the developing countries as a whole, per capita government expenditure on health increased 3.2% in real terms between 1980 and 1985. This modest rise in average expenditure obscures the fact that in sub-Saharan Africa, the Mediterranean and the western hemisphere, per capita expenditure on health actually fell. The fall varied from 4.1% in sub-Saharan Africa to 5.5% in the western hemisphere and 22.8% in the two Mediterranean countries of Yugoslavia and Malta.