Germany vs Sweden: Public and private social expenditure
Public and private social expenditure over time
- Germany
- Sweden
How they compare
Germany currently reports 27.85 Percentage of GDP against 26.09 Percentage of GDP in Sweden, a difference of 1.76 Percentage of GDP.
That makes Germany's figure about 1.1 times Sweden's.
The two have swapped places 1 time across 45 shared years of data; in 1980 it was Sweden ahead.
Germany ranks 5th and Sweden ranks 8th of 33 countries.
Across the 5 decades both report, Germany averaged higher in 1 and Sweden in 4.
Head to head by decade
| Decade | Germany | Sweden | Difference | Ahead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980s | 22.22 Percentage of GDP | 25.97 Percentage of GDP | 3.74 Percentage of GDP | Sweden |
| 1990s | 24.68 Percentage of GDP | 30.28 Percentage of GDP | 5.6 Percentage of GDP | Sweden |
| 2000s | 25.64 Percentage of GDP | 27.33 Percentage of GDP | 1.68 Percentage of GDP | Sweden |
| 2010s | 25.83 Percentage of GDP | 27.23 Percentage of GDP | 1.4 Percentage of GDP | Sweden |
| 2020s | 28.24 Percentage of GDP | 26.28 Percentage of GDP | 1.96 Percentage of GDP | Germany |
Averages of every year both report within each decade.
Frequently asked questions
- Which has higher public and private social expenditure, Germany or Sweden?
- Germany, at 27.85 Percentage of GDP against 26.09 Percentage of GDP in Sweden as of 2024.
- What is the difference in public and private social expenditure between Germany and Sweden?
- 1.76 Percentage of GDP, with Germany ahead.
- How many years of comparable data are there for Germany and Sweden?
- 45 years are reported by both, from 1980 to 2024.
- How do Germany and Sweden rank globally for public and private social expenditure?
- Germany ranks 5th and Sweden ranks 8th 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.