Finland · Public Social Spending: Total (% of GDP)

## What this measures

Public social spending on all public social spending: old age, survivors, incapacity, health, family, labour market programmes, unemployment, housing and other social policy, in Finland, as a percentage of gross domestic product, one value per year, dated December 31. Public means general government and social security funds; cash benefits and services in kind both count.

## Why it matters

Social spending is the largest part of most rich countries' budgets. How it splits between pensions, health, families and the jobless shows a country's priorities and where ageing will push its finances.

## How to read it

Percent of GDP, so it rises when spending grows faster than the economy and also when GDP falls (2009, 2020). Compare countries in the same year: the OECD publishes branch detail with a lag of two to three years, so the latest year differs from country to country.

## What it does not say

It leaves out private and mandatory private schemes (employer pensions, private health insurance) and tax breaks with a social purpose, which are large in the United States. Gross spending: taxes paid on benefits are not netted out.

## Source

OECD Social Expenditure Database (SOCX), dataflow DSD_SOCX_AGG@DF_SOCX_AGG, public expenditure, % of GDP: total public social expenditure (all programme types). OECD data may be reused for any purpose, including commercial, with credit: OECD (CC BY 4.0 terms). Palanor re-reads the full dataflow monthly, because the OECD revises back years.