Spain vs Sweden: Public and private social expenditure

Spain
25.87 Percentage of GDP
in 2024
Sweden
26.09 Percentage of GDP
in 2024
Spain rank
9th
Sweden rank
8th

Public and private social expenditure over time

  • Spain
  • Sweden
0102030198020022024

How they compare

Sweden currently reports 26.09 Percentage of GDP against 25.87 Percentage of GDP in Spain, a difference of 0.22 Percentage of GDP.

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

Spain ranks 9th and Sweden ranks 8th of 33 countries.

Across the 5 decades both report, Spain averaged higher in 1 and Sweden in 4.

Head to head by decade

Decade Spain Sweden Difference Ahead
1980s 16.57 Percentage of GDP 25.97 Percentage of GDP 9.4 Percentage of GDP Sweden
1990s 20.44 Percentage of GDP 30.28 Percentage of GDP 9.85 Percentage of GDP Sweden
2000s 20.19 Percentage of GDP 27.33 Percentage of GDP 7.13 Percentage of GDP Sweden
2010s 24.68 Percentage of GDP 27.23 Percentage of GDP 2.55 Percentage of GDP Sweden
2020s 27.36 Percentage of GDP 26.28 Percentage of GDP 1.08 Percentage of GDP Spain

Averages of every year both report within each decade.

Frequently asked questions

Which has higher public and private social expenditure, Spain or Sweden?
Sweden, at 26.09 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 Spain and Sweden?
0.22 Percentage of GDP, with Sweden ahead.
How many years of comparable data are there for Spain and Sweden?
45 years are reported by both, from 1980 to 2024.
How do Spain and Sweden rank globally for public and private social expenditure?
Spain ranks 9th 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.

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Spain vs Sweden: 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/spain/sweden/

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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.