General government expenditure in 2011 – Focus on the functions ‘social protection’ and ‘health’

This publication analyses trends in the structure of general government expenditure by socio-economic function (according to the Classification of the Functions of Government - COFOG) and puts a special focus on health and social protection expenditure.

In 2011, EU-27 general government expenditure amounted to 49.1% of GDP. Based on the latest available expenditure data by economic function for 2011, more than half was devoted to the functions ‘social protection’ and ‘health’, which accounted for 19.6% and 7.3% respectively of GDP (slightly down compared with 19.9% and 7.5% respectively in 2010). The other functions also comprising a large share of government expenditure are ‘general public services’ (6.6% of GDP), ‘education’ (5.3% of GDP) and ‘economic affairs’ (4.0% of GDP).