Australia vs Iceland: Public and private social expenditure
Public and private social expenditure over time
- Australia
- Iceland
How they compare
Iceland currently reports 19.21 Percentage of GDP against 17.07 Percentage of GDP in Australia, a difference of 2.14 Percentage of GDP.
That makes Iceland's figure about 1.1 times Australia's.
The two have swapped places 6 times across 33 shared years of data; in 1990 it was Iceland ahead.
Australia ranks 25th and Iceland ranks 22nd of 33 countries.
Across the 4 decades both report, Australia averaged higher in 2 and Iceland in 2.
Head to head by decade
| Decade | Australia | Iceland | Difference | Ahead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 15.88 Percentage of GDP | 14.22 Percentage of GDP | 1.66 Percentage of GDP | Australia |
| 2000s | 16.97 Percentage of GDP | 15.9 Percentage of GDP | 1.06 Percentage of GDP | Australia |
| 2010s | 17.58 Percentage of GDP | 17.62 Percentage of GDP | 0.042 Percentage of GDP | Iceland |
| 2020s | 19.25 Percentage of GDP | 21.77 Percentage of GDP | 2.52 Percentage of GDP | Iceland |
Averages of every year both report within each decade.
Frequently asked questions
- Which has higher public and private social expenditure, Australia or Iceland?
- Iceland, at 19.21 Percentage of GDP against 17.07 Percentage of GDP in Australia as of 2024.
- What is the difference in public and private social expenditure between Australia and Iceland?
- 2.14 Percentage of GDP, with Iceland ahead.
- How many years of comparable data are there for Australia and Iceland?
- 33 years are reported by both, from 1990 to 2022.
- How do Australia and Iceland rank globally for public and private social expenditure?
- Australia ranks 25th and Iceland ranks 22nd of 33 countries.
- Where does this data come from?
- Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, published as Public and private social expenditure. Statizoid refreshes it automatically from the source and publishes the full history for both places.
Individual pages
About this data
The OECD Social Expenditure Database (SOCX) has been developed in order to serve a growing need for indicators of social policy. It includes reliable and internationally comparable statistics on public and mandatory and voluntary private social expenditure at programme level. SOCX provides a unique tool for monitoring trends in aggregate social expenditure and analysing changes in its composition. It covers 38 OECD countries and some accession countries for the period 1980-2021/23 and estimates for aggregates for 2022-24. A Social Expenditure Update can be found under www.oecd.org/en/data/datasets/social-expenditure-database-socx.htm. The main social policy areas are as follows: Old age, Survivors, Incapacity-related benefits, Health, Family, Active labor market programmes, Unemployment, Housing, and Other social policy areas. This version also includes estimates of net total social spending for 2021 for 38 OECD countries. SOCX aggregated data as well as sources and methodology are described in The OECD SOCX Manual – 2019 edition- A guide to the OECD Social Expenditure Database.