Canada vs United States of America: Social expenditure aggregates
Social expenditure aggregates over time
- Canada
- United States of America
How they compare
United States of America currently reports 19.81 Percentage of GDP against 19.33 Percentage of GDP in Canada, a difference of 0.48 Percentage of GDP.
The two have swapped places 2 times across 43 shared years of data; in 1980 it was Canada ahead.
Canada ranks 21st and United States of America ranks 20th of 33 countries.
Canada has averaged higher in every one of the 5 decades both report.
Head to head by decade
| Decade | Canada | United States of America | Difference | Ahead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980s | 15.74 Percentage of GDP | 13.04 Percentage of GDP | 2.7 Percentage of GDP | Canada |
| 1990s | 18.72 Percentage of GDP | 14.48 Percentage of GDP | 4.24 Percentage of GDP | Canada |
| 2000s | 17.08 Percentage of GDP | 15.71 Percentage of GDP | 1.37 Percentage of GDP | Canada |
| 2010s | 18.63 Percentage of GDP | 18.49 Percentage of GDP | 0.1383 Percentage of GDP | Canada |
| 2020s | 22.36 Percentage of GDP | 21.43 Percentage of GDP | 0.9357 Percentage of GDP | Canada |
Averages of every year both report within each decade.
Frequently asked questions
- Which has higher social expenditure aggregates, Canada or United States of America?
- United States of America, at 19.81 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 United States of America?
- 0.48 Percentage of GDP, with United States of America ahead.
- How many years of comparable data are there for Canada and United States of America?
- 43 years are reported by both, from 1980 to 2022.
- How do Canada and United States of America rank globally for social expenditure aggregates?
- Canada ranks 21st and United States of America ranks 20th 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.