Italy vs Spain: Public and private social expenditure

Italy
27.57 Percentage of GDP
in 2024
Spain
25.87 Percentage of GDP
in 2024
Italy rank
6th
Spain rank
9th

Public and private social expenditure over time

  • Italy
  • Spain
0102030198020022024

How they compare

Italy currently reports 27.57 Percentage of GDP against 25.87 Percentage of GDP in Spain, a difference of 1.7 Percentage of GDP.

That makes Italy's figure about 1.1 times Spain's.

The two have swapped places 2 times across 45 shared years of data; in 1980 it was Italy ahead.

Italy ranks 6th and Spain ranks 9th of 33 countries.

Italy has averaged higher in every one of the 5 decades both report.

Head to head by decade

Decade Italy Spain Difference Ahead
1980s 19.53 Percentage of GDP 16.57 Percentage of GDP 2.97 Percentage of GDP Italy
1990s 21.66 Percentage of GDP 20.44 Percentage of GDP 1.22 Percentage of GDP Italy
2000s 23.92 Percentage of GDP 20.19 Percentage of GDP 3.73 Percentage of GDP Italy
2010s 27.46 Percentage of GDP 24.68 Percentage of GDP 2.79 Percentage of GDP Italy
2020s 29.13 Percentage of GDP 27.36 Percentage of GDP 1.77 Percentage of GDP Italy

Averages of every year both report within each decade.

Frequently asked questions

Which has higher public and private social expenditure, Italy or Spain?
Italy, at 27.57 Percentage of GDP against 25.87 Percentage of GDP in Spain as of 2024.
What is the difference in public and private social expenditure between Italy and Spain?
1.7 Percentage of GDP, with Italy ahead.
How many years of comparable data are there for Italy and Spain?
45 years are reported by both, from 1980 to 2024.
How do Italy and Spain rank globally for public and private social expenditure?
Italy ranks 6th and Spain ranks 9th 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.

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Italy vs Spain: Public and private social expenditure. Statizoid, drawing on Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Retrieved 21 August 2026, from https://social-development.statizoid.com/compare/public-and-private-social-expenditure/italy/spain/

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About this data

Indicator
Public and private social expenditure
Unit
Percentage of GDP
Source
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Licence
OECD Terms and Conditions (attribution required)
Coverage
43 places, 1,559 data points, 1980–2024
Last refreshed

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.