In 2025, the total expenditure on social protection benefits in the EU reached €5,183 billion according to early estimates, a 4.9% increase compared with 2024, Eurostat said.
The data showed that social protection benefits expenditure represented 27.5% of the EU’s GDP, a decrease of 0.2 percentage points 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.
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