BRUSSELS, 6th November, 2026 (WAM) -- In 2025, the total expenditure on social protection benefits in the EU reached €5 183 billion, a 4.9% increase compared with 2024.
Data published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, show that social protection benefits expenditure represented 27.5% of the EU’s GDP, indicating a 0.2 percentage points (pp) decrease compared with the previous year.
Among EU countries, social protection benefits expenditure as a percentage of GDP was highest in Austria (32.4% of GDP), Finland (32.2%), and France (32.1%), while it was lowest in Ireland (11.7%), Malta (13.8%) and Hungary (16.7%).
Within social protection benefits, old age (€2 152 billion, 41.5% of the total) and sickness/health care (€1 556 billion, 30.0%) benefits represented the biggest expenditures. Other categories included disability, survivors, family/children, unemployment, housing and social exclusion not classified elsewhere.
In 2025, social protection benefits expenditure in euro terms increased in all EU countries. The largest increases compared with 2024 were in Croatia (+15.4%), Bulgaria (+12.1%) and Lithuania (+11.6%), while the smallest increases were in Greece (+0.6%), Romania (+0.7%) and Finland (+1.3%).