The aim of the paper was to present the changes taking place in relation to public expenditure on agriculture, the share of agriculture in creating GDP, and the level of orientation of national economies on agriculture using the Agricultural Orientation Index from a global, SDG regions’ and European countries’ perspective. The data source was the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The adopted research period covered the years 2003-2017. The research results showed that national governments spent less than 2% of their total expenditure on agriculture. Taking into account an SDG regional groupings’ perspective, Central and Southern Asia and Eastern and SouthEastern Asia were two regions allocating the largest part of central government expenditure to the agricultural sector. Among SDG regions, the highest AOI levels were represented by Europe and Northern America. European countries spending relatively the most on agriculture were Belarus, Switzerland and the Republic of Moldova. However, the most agri-oriented countries in Europe were Switzerland, Luxemburg and Finland. Agriculture did not belong to the priority list for national central governments in allocating budgets towards this sector, worldwide. The study should be considered comparative and a challenge for future research.