Iceland vs United States: Social expenditure aggregates
Social expenditure aggregates over time
- Iceland
- United States
How they compare
United States currently reports 19.81 Percentage of GDP against 19.21 Percentage of GDP in Iceland, a difference of 0.6 Percentage of GDP.
The two have swapped places 13 times across 35 shared years of data; in 1990 it was Iceland ahead.
Iceland ranks 22nd and United States ranks 20th of 33 countries.
Across the 4 decades both report, Iceland averaged higher in 2 and United States in 2.
Head to head by decade
| Decade | Iceland | United States | Difference | Ahead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 14.22 Percentage of GDP | 14.48 Percentage of GDP | 0.2687 Percentage of GDP | United States |
| 2000s | 15.9 Percentage of GDP | 15.71 Percentage of GDP | 0.1931 Percentage of GDP | Iceland |
| 2010s | 17.62 Percentage of GDP | 18.49 Percentage of GDP | 0.8708 Percentage of GDP | United States |
| 2020s | 20.63 Percentage of GDP | 20.61 Percentage of GDP | 0.025 Percentage of GDP | Iceland |
Averages of every year both report within each decade.
Frequently asked questions
- Which has higher social expenditure aggregates, Iceland or United States?
- United States, at 19.81 Percentage of GDP against 19.21 Percentage of GDP in Iceland as of 2024.
- What is the difference in social expenditure aggregates between Iceland and United States?
- 0.6 Percentage of GDP, with United States ahead.
- How many years of comparable data are there for Iceland and United States?
- 35 years are reported by both, from 1990 to 2024.
- How do Iceland and United States rank globally for social expenditure aggregates?
- Iceland ranks 22nd and United States 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.