Social protection represented the most important area of ​​government spending in all the EU Member States in 2015.

Romania was among the countries with the lowest percentages of GDP allocated for this sector, namely 11.5%, according to data presented yesterday by the EU’s statistical office Eurostat.

The percentage of the GDP allocated for social protection expenditure in the EU varied from below 10% in Ireland (9.6%) to over a quarter in Finland (25.6%). Eight member states, namely Finland, France, Denmark, Austria, Italy, Sweden, Greece, and Belgium, allocated at least 20% of their GDPs to social protection expenses whereas Ireland, the Baltic States, Romania, Cyprus, Malta and the Czech Republic each spent below 13% of GDP for this sector.

The bulk of expenditure on social protection was made to the “old age” group in 2015, which includes pensions. The highest percentage for this type of expenditure was recorded in Greece (15.7%), Italy (13.8), France (13.6%), Finland (13.4%) and Austria (13.1%). The lowest one was seen in Ireland (2.4%), Cyprus and Lithuania (both 5.8%). In Romania, the expenditure on the “old age” group reached 8.5%.

Health expenditures accounted for the second most important sector of expenditure in the EU (7.2% of GDP). The share varied from over 8% of the total government spending in Denmark, France, the Netherlands and Austria to 2.6% in Cyprus, 3.8% in Latvia and 4.2% in Romania.

editor@romania-insider.com