Social governance

EU social benefits expenditure up 7% in 2024

Published

1 month ago

November 12, 2025

In 2024, the total expenditure on social protection benefits in the EU reached €4 925 billion according to early estimates, a 6.9% increase compared with 2023.

Data show that social protection benefits expenditure represented 27.3% of the EU’s GDP, indicating a 0.6 percentage points (pp) increase compared with the previous year.

Among EU countries, social protection benefits expenditure as a percentage of GDP was highest in Finland (32.5% of GDP), France (31.9%) and Austria (31.8%), while it was lowest in Ireland (12.4%), Malta (13.4%) and Hungary (16.6%).

Click to enlarge

Source dataset: spr_exp_func

Among social protection benefits, old age (€2,044 billion, 41.5% of the total) and sickness/health care (€1,463 billion, 29.7%) benefits represented the biggest expenditures. Other categories included disability, survivors, family/children, unemployment, housing and social exclusion not classified elsewhere.

In 2024, social protection benefits expenditure increased in all EU countries. The largest increases compared with 2023 were recorded in Estonia (+19.5%), Croatia (+17.8%) and Romania (+17.5%), while the smallest increases were registered in Greece (+3.2%), Sweden (+3.9%) and Italy and Denmark (each +4.3%).

Annual change in expenditure on social protection benefits, 2024 (%). Bar chart. Link to full dataset below.

Source dataset: spr_exp_func

This information comes from the early estimates on social protection expenditure published recently by Eurostat. They cover the main indicators of the European System of Integrated Social Protection Statistics (ESSPROS) and are provided by the reporting countries on a voluntary basis.