Romania is among the countries with the highest social protection expenditures in the European Union in 2023, writes Agerpres.
Romania, among the countries with the highest expenditures on social protection/PHOTO: Shutterstock
Total social protection expenses in the European Union reached 4,583 billion euros in 2023. Compared to 2022, expenses increased by 6.1%, according to Eurostat data.
In 2023 compared to 2022, the largest increases in social protection expenditures were recorded in Slovakia (18.9% increase), Poland (18.4%), Hungary (15.2%), Bulgaria (14.6 %) and Romania (13.8%).
In other countries, there were more modest increases compared to 2022, in countries such as Denmark (2.3%), Italy (3.5%) and Estonia (3.8%).
As a percentage of GDP, social protection spending represented 26.8% of the European Union’s GDP in 2023, down 0.1 percentage points compared to 2022.
The share of expenditure in GDP varied among the member states from 31% in France and 31.2% in Finland, to just over 15% in Romania and Estonia, 13.2% in Malta and 12% in Ireland.
The share of social protection expenditure in GDP increased in 15 Member States, most strongly in Finland, Poland and Luxembourg, and decreased in 11 countries, most strongly in Slovenia, Portugal and Malta.
By categories of expenses, in the EU old-age and survivor’s pensions represented almost half (46.7%) of the total social protection expenses. This is followed by health expenses (29.9%) and expenses for families and children (8.6%).
In the case of Romania, old-age and survivor’s pensions represented 53.2% of the total social protection expenses, followed by health expenses (27.7%) and expenses for families and children (12.3%).
