Brussels – According to Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office, total expenditure on social protection benefits in the EU reached €5.183 billion in 2025, representing a 4.9 per cent increase compared with 2024. Social protection (or social security) refers to the set of public or private policies, regulations, and programmes designed to prevent, reduce, or eliminate poverty and vulnerability throughout people’s lives. The data show that expenditure on such benefits in the EU accounted for 27.5 per cent of EU GDP, a decrease of 0.2 percentage points compared with the previous year.
Among EU countries, expenditure – as a percentage of GDP – was highest in Austria (32.4 per cent of GDP), in Finland (32.2 per cent), and in France (32.1 per cent), while it was lowest in Ireland (11.7 per cent), Malta (13.8 per cent), and Hungary (16.7 per cent). Italy stood at 28.48 per cent. Looking at the individual types of benefits, old-age benefits (€2,152 billion, equivalent to 41.5 per cent of total GDP) and those relating to sickness and healthcare (€1,556 billion, equivalent to 30 per cent of EU GDP) accounted for the largest expenditure items. Other categories included disability benefits, survivors’ benefits, family and child benefits, unemployment benefits, housing benefits, and others. In 2025, expenditure on social protection benefits, expressed in euros, increased in all EU countries. The largest increases compared with 2024 were seen in Croatia (+15.4 per cent), Bulgaria (+12.1 per cent), and Lithuania (+11.6 per cent); the smallest increases were in Greece (+0.6 per cent), Romania (+0.7 per cent), and Finland (+1.3 per cent), while Italy ranked in the middle with an increase of 3.2 per cent.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
