On average in the EU25, social protection expenditure¹ accounted for 27.7% of GDP in 2002, compared to 27.3% in 2001. Average social protection expenditure as a percentage of GDP continued to mask major disparities between Member States in 2002. The proportion was highest in Sweden (32.5%), France (30.6%), Germany (30.5%) and Denmark (30.0%), while Estonia and Latvia (both 14.3% in 2001), Lithuania (15.2% in 2001) and Ireland² (16.0%) recorded the lowest ratios.

These differences reflect differences in living standards, but are also indicative of the diversity of national social protection systems and of the demographic, economic, social and institutional structures specific to each country.

This information comes from a report³ published by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, on social protection in the EU.

Over the period 1998-2002, per capita social protection expenditure increased in real terms in all 19 Member States for which data are available. Ireland (+8.7% per annum on average), Greece (+6.4%), Portugal (+6.1%), the Czech Republic (+5.2%) and Luxembourg (+5.1%) registered the highest growth rates, and Slovakia (+0.6%), Malta (+0.7%) and Finland (+0.8%) the lowest.

On average in the EU25, pensions accounted for 48% of social benefits in 2001. Pensions⁴ are the major part of social protection benefits in all Member States except Ireland². The share of pensions as a percentage of social benefits was highest in Poland (65% in 2001), Latvia (62% in 2002) and Italy (60% in 2002).

As a percentage of GDP, in 2002 pensions were highest in Italy (14.9%), Austria (14.6%), Germany (13.4%) and France (13.2%), and lowest in Ireland² (3.6%), Estonia (6.3% in 2001), Lithuania (7.1%) and Slovakia (7.5%). The EU25 average was 12.5% in 2001.

Social protection expenditure, 2002

: Data not available
* 2001 data

1. Social protection expenditure and receipts are calculated in line with the methodology of the 1996 version of the ESSPROS (European System of integrated Social PROtection Statistics) Manual. Expenditure includes social benefits, administration costs and other expenditure linked to social protection schemes.
2. The data for Ireland on (funded) occupational pensions for private-sector employees are not available.
3. Eurostat, Statistics in Focus, Population and social conditions, 14/2005 "Social Protection in the European Union", available free of charge in pdf format on the Eurostat web site.
4. Eurostat, Statistics in Focus, Population and social conditions, 11/2005 "Pensions in Europe 2002: expenditure and beneficiaries", available free of charge in pdf format on the Eurostat web site. The "pensions" aggregate is defined as the sum of the following social benefits:

• Disability pension (disability function)
• Early-retirement benefit due to reduced capacity to work (disability function)
• Old-age pension (old-age function)
• Anticipated old-age pension (old-age function)
• Partial pension (old-age function)
• Survivors' pension (survivors’ function)
• Early-retirement benefit for labour market reasons (unemployment function)