The level of government expenditure on education varies between Member States

In 2011, EU-27 total general government expenditure amounted to 49.1% of GDP. Based on the latest available expenditure data by economic function for 2011, 5.3% of GDP was devoted to expenditure on education. Of this, the highest shares were dedicated to ‘secondary education’ at 2.0% of GDP and ‘pre-primary and primary education’ at 1.7% of GDP.

In the framework of the European System of National Accounts (ESA95), Eurostat collects data on general government expenditure by economic function according to the international Classification of the Functions of Government (COFOG). This publication presents detailed COFOG data on education for the EU-27, presenting data by level of education.