Eurostat: Romania spent lowest amount of GDP on social protection of all EU member states in 2015

Among all EU member states, Romania spent the smallest percentage of GDP on social protection in 2015, according to data released on Friday by Eurostat and cited by Agerpres.

The average GDP spending on social protection across the European Union was 29 percent, while Romania only spent 14.6 percent in 2015, compared to 17.3 percent in 2010.

Countries like France, Denmark and Finland allocated over a third of their GDP for social protection.

In the EU, old age and survivors benefits had a share of 45 percent of the total social benefits in 2015 and  made up the major part of social protection benefits in nearly all Member States. The share of these types of benefits was the highest in Greece (65 percent), Italy and Portugal (58 percent), Romania and Cyprus (55 percent), while it was lowest in Ireland (33 percent), Luxembourg and Germany (39 percent), the UK (41 percent) and Belgium (42 percent).

Sickness/health care and disability benefits accounted for 37 percent of total social benefits on average in the EU in 2015. Among member states, the share of these benefits ranged from 26 percent in Cyprus and Greece to over 40 percent in Croatia, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Slovakia.

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In Romania, the GDP expenditure for sickness/healthcare and disability accounted for 34 percent of the total social protection benefits, close to the European average of 37.3 percent.

Unemployment benefits in Romania had a share of 0.7 percent, much lower than the EU average of 4,8 percent of total social protection expenditure. Housing and social exclusion benefits were also much lower in Romania than the EU average – 1.3 percent compared to 4.1 percent across member states.