Canada vs OECD: Social expenditure aggregates
Social expenditure aggregates over time
- Canada
- OECD
How they compare
OECD currently reports 21.23 Percentage of GDP against 19.33 Percentage of GDP in Canada, a difference of 1.9 Percentage of GDP.
That makes OECD's figure about 1.1 times Canada's.
The two have swapped places 4 times across 43 shared years of data; in 1980 it was OECD ahead.
Canada ranks 21st and OECD ranks 18th of 33 countries.
Across the 5 decades both report, Canada averaged higher in 3 and OECD in 2.
Head to head by decade
| Decade | Canada | OECD | Difference | Ahead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980s | 15.74 Percentage of GDP | 15.43 Percentage of GDP | 0.3138 Percentage of GDP | Canada |
| 1990s | 18.72 Percentage of GDP | 17.86 Percentage of GDP | 0.862 Percentage of GDP | Canada |
| 2000s | 17.08 Percentage of GDP | 18.29 Percentage of GDP | 1.2 Percentage of GDP | OECD |
| 2010s | 18.63 Percentage of GDP | 20.2 Percentage of GDP | 1.57 Percentage of GDP | OECD |
| 2020s | 22.36 Percentage of GDP | 21.97 Percentage of GDP | 0.39 Percentage of GDP | Canada |
Averages of every year both report within each decade.
Frequently asked questions
- Which has higher social expenditure aggregates, Canada or OECD?
- OECD, at 21.23 Percentage of GDP against 19.33 Percentage of GDP in Canada as of 2024.
- What is the difference in social expenditure aggregates between Canada and OECD?
- 1.9 Percentage of GDP, with OECD ahead.
- How many years of comparable data are there for Canada and OECD?
- 43 years are reported by both, from 1980 to 2022.
- How do Canada and OECD rank globally for social expenditure aggregates?
- Canada ranks 21st and OECD ranks 18th of 33 countries.
- Where does this data come from?
- Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, published as Social expenditure aggregates. 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.