According to latest Eurostat figures, five member states (Finland, France, Denmark, Italy and Austria) spent at least 20% of their GDP for social protection in 2018, while Ireland, Malta, Latvia, Romania, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic spent less than 12% of GDP for social protection.
In the case of Romania, the ratio was 11.6% in 2018, well below the average of 19.2% registered at the level of the EU.
The “expenditures for elderly” category of social protection expenditures, which includes pensions, accounted for 10.4% of GDP at EU level in 2018.
In all member states, this category represents the most important part of social protection spending but the weight varies between 13.6% of GDP in Finland and 3.2% of GDP in Ireland, Eurostat says.