The 2022the social protection expenditure on illness and health care formed on average at EU to its 8.1% European GDPaccording to its data Eurostat which were released today.

Social protection spending in the EU decreased by 0.4 percentage points in 2022 (8.1% of GDP) compared to 2021 (8.5% of GDP)

Among the 24 EU countries for which estimates are available for 2022 (there are no figures for Greece), social protection and health care expenditure, measured as a percentage of GDP, was highest in France (10%), Germany ( 9.7%), Slovenia (8.6%), Austria (8.5%) and Belgium (7.8%). The lowest rate was recorded in Bulgaria (4.2%), Ireland (4.6%), Hungary, Lithuania (4.7%) and Estonia (4.8%).

Almost all EU countries recorded a decrease in social protection spending on sickness and healthcare between 2021 and 2022. The largest was recorded in Bulgaria (-1.1 percentage points) followed by Hungary (-0.9 p.p.), Lithuania and Ireland (both -0.8 p.m.). The only EU countries to report an increase were Luxembourg (+0.3 p.p.) and Slovenia (+0.1 p.p.). Cyprus maintained its spending at the 2021 level.