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This is a list of countries by spending on social welfare. Countries with the highest levels of spending are more likely to be considered welfare states.

As a percentage of GDP

These tables are lists of social welfare spending as a percentage of GDP compiled by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ("OECD") into the OECD Social Expenditure Database which "includes reliable and internationally comparable statistics on public and mandatory and voluntary private social expenditure at programme level."

Public social spending

	Country	2019	2016	2010	2005	2000
1	France	31.2	31.5	30.7	28.7	27.5
2	Belgium	28.9	29.0	28.3	25.3	23.5
3	Finland	28.7	30.8	27.4	23.9	22.6
4	Italy	28.2	28.9	27.6	24.1	22.6
5	Denmark	28.0	28.7	28.9	25.2	23.8
6	Austria	26.6	27.8	27.6	25.9	25.5
7	Sweden	26.1	27.1	26.3	27.4	26.8
8	Germany	25.1	25.3	25.9	26.3	25.4
9	Norway	25.0	25.1	21.9	20.7	20.4
10	Spain	23.7	24.6	25.8	20.4	19.5
11	Greece	23.5	27.0	23.8	20.4	18.4
12	Portugal	22.6	24.1	24.5	22.3	18.5
13	Luxembourg	22.4	21.8	22.9	22.4	18.6
14	Japan	21.9
15	Slovenia	21.2	22.8	23.4	21.4	22.4
16	Poland	21.1	20.2	20.6	20.9	20.2
17	United Kingdom	20.6	21.5	22.8	19.4	17.7
18	Hungary	19.4	20.6	23.0	21.9	20.1
19	New Zealand	18.9
20	Czech Republic	18.7	19.4	19.8	18.1	18.0
21	United States	18.7	19.3	19.3	15.6	14.3
22	Estonia	18.4	17.4	18.3	13.0	13.8
23	Australia	17.8	19.1	16.7	16.7	18.2
24	Canada	17.3
25	Slovakia	17.0	18.6	18.1	15.8	17.6
26	Netherlands	16.7	22.0	22.1	20.5	18.4
27	Latvia	16.2	14.5	18.7	12.2	14.8
28	Lithuania	16.2
29	Israel	16.0	16.1	16.0	16.3	17.0
30	Switzerland	16.0	19.7	18.4	18.4	16.3
31	Iceland	16.0	15.2	17.0	15.9	14.6
32	Ireland	14.4	16.1	22.4	14.9	12.6
33	Turkey	12.5
34	India	12.08	11.6	10.03	7.6
35	South Korea	11.1	10.4	8.3	6.1	4.5
36	Chile	10.9

Total net social spending

Total net social spending in terms of percent of GDP, takes into account public and private social expenditure, and also includes the effect of direct taxes (income tax and social security contributions), indirect taxation of consumption on cash benefits, as well as tax breaks for social purposes.

	Country	2015
1	France	31.7
2	United States	30
3	Belgium	26.7
4	Netherlands	26.3
5	Denmark	25.4
6	Italy	25.4
7	Finland	25.3
8	Germany	24.8
9	Sweden	24.5
10	United Kingdom	24.5
11	Austria	24.3
12	Switzerland	23.7
13	Australia	23.5
14	Japan	23.5
15	Portugal	23
16	Spain	22.9
17	Greece	22.4
18	Norway	22
19	Canada	20.9
20	OECD Average	20.9
21	Slovenia	20.1
22	Poland	20.2
23	Czech Republic	18.6
24	Luxembourg	18.2
25	Iceland	18.2
26	Hungary	18.1
27	New Zealand	17.6
28	Slovak Republic	17.4
29	Israel	16.5
30	Ireland	16.1
31	Estonia	14.9
32	Latvia	13.7
33	Chile	13.3
34	South Korea	13
35	Turkey	11.2
36	Mexico	7.7

Per capita

This table lists social spending per head 2015, 2010, and 2005, in constant 2010 prices adjusted for purchasing power parity, in US dollars.

	Country	2015	2010	2005
1	Luxembourg	19,427.60	19,806.90	18,877.00
2	Norway	14,711.20	12,780.70	12,138.60
3	Denmark	12,895.20	12,308.10	10,985.60
4	Austria	11,926.20	11,592.20	10,398.20
5	Belgium	11,917.40	11,338.90	9,798.50
6	France	11,796.10	11,180.00	10,248.40
7	Sweden	11,664.10	10,929.30	10,920.60
8	Finland	11,514.60	10,601.60	9,125.20
9	Germany	10,598.70	10,347.00	9,731.60
10	United States	9,734.40	9,317.30	7,574.00
11	Italy	9,456.90	9,417.10	8,765.80
12	Ireland	9,397.80	10,638.70	7,293.50
13	Switzerland	8,649.30	7,968.90	7,791.20
14	Australia	8,328.10	6,997.00	6,713.50
15	United Kingdom	8,292.30	8,045.40	6,740.80
16	Japan	8,214.10	7,512.30	6,071.90
17	Netherlands	8,069.10	7,922.20	8,612.30
18	Spain	7,832.10	7,902.20	6,599.00
19	Canada	7,456.20	7,028.20	6,439.00
	OECD - Average	7,071.10	7,203.40	6,289.20
20	New Zealand	6,612.50	6,416.60	5,448.00
21	Iceland	6,589.20	6,514.00	6,273.80
22	Portugal	6,418.80	6,689.80	5,947.80
23	Slovenia	6,364.50	6,495.20	5,593.00
24	Greece	6,027.60	7,001.90	5,762.20
25	Czech Republic	5,799.70	5,439.70	4,541.20
26	Hungary	5,031.10	4,965.40	4,721.00
27	Slovakia	5,005.80	4,465.70	3,129.70
28	Israel	4,852.40	4,452.30	3,905.40
29	Estonia	4,639.20	3,948.40	2,801.50
30	Lithuania	4,084.30	3,899.70	2,418.90
31	South Korea	3,493.30	2,495.80	1,563.20
32	Latvia	3,481.50	3,427.30	2,068.00
33	Turkey	2,656.90	2,131.80	1,582.40
34	Chile	2,243.10	1,894.20	1,405.60
35	Mexico	1,280.00	1,124.10	656.40
n/a	Poland	n/a	4,292.70	3,454.90

See also

• List of countries by tax rates
• List of countries by tax revenue to GDP ratio
• Welfare state

References

1. ^ OECD. "Social Expenditure Database (SOCX)". Retrieved 15 February 2020.
2. "Social Expenditure - Aggregated data". OECD Stat. OECD.

• Lists of countries by economic indicator