Public and private social expenditure in Germany
Germany: Public and private social expenditure was 27.85 Percentage of GDP in 2024. ▲ Rising
Public and private social expenditure in Germany, 1980–2024
Source: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Measured in Percentage of GDP.
Analysis
Germany recorded 27.85 Percentage of GDP for public and private social expenditure in 2024.
The figure is up 2.1% on the previous year and up 9.5% over ten years.
Over the whole period, public and private social expenditure in Germany peaked at 29.47 Percentage of GDP in 2020 and was at its lowest, 21.35 Percentage of GDP, in 1990.
Germany ranks 5th of 33 countries on this measure, in the top quarter.
The long-run direction has been consistently rising across the 45 years of available data.
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980s | 22.22 Percentage of GDP | 21.64 Percentage of GDP | 22.71 Percentage of GDP | 10 |
| 1990s | 24.68 Percentage of GDP | 21.35 Percentage of GDP | 26.22 Percentage of GDP | 10 |
| 2000s | 25.64 Percentage of GDP | 24.04 Percentage of GDP | 27.43 Percentage of GDP | 10 |
| 2010s | 25.83 Percentage of GDP | 25.29 Percentage of GDP | 26.68 Percentage of GDP | 10 |
| 2020s | 28.24 Percentage of GDP | 27.29 Percentage of GDP | 29.47 Percentage of GDP | 5 |
Countries ranked near Germany
More social development data for Germany
- Refugees under the mandate of the UNHCR by country or territory of asy 2.66 million (2025)
- Refugees under the mandate of the UNHCR by country or territory of ori 327 (2025)
- Political rights rating fh 1 (2025)
- Democracy lexical 1 (2025)
- Political rights rating fh, annual growth rate 0 % change on previous year (2025)
- Political rights rating fh, gaps filled 1 (2025)
- Refugees under the mandate of the UNHCR by country or territory of 0 units per person (2025)
- Refugees under the mandate of the UNHCR by country or territory of 327 (2025)
- Refugees under the mandate of the UNHCR by country or territory of 0.0318 units per person (2025)
- Refugees under the mandate of the UNHCR by country or territory of 0 units per US$ of GDP (2025)
Frequently asked questions
- What is public and private social expenditure in Germany?
- Public and private social expenditure in Germany was 27.85 Percentage of GDP in 2024, according to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
- What is the highest public and private social expenditure recorded in Germany?
- The highest recorded value was 29.47 Percentage of GDP in 2020.
- What is the lowest public and private social expenditure recorded in Germany?
- The lowest recorded value was 21.35 Percentage of GDP in 1990.
- How does Germany rank for public and private social expenditure?
- Germany ranks 5th out of 33 countries with data for 2024.
- Is public and private social expenditure rising or falling in Germany?
- Over the last ten years it is up 9.5%. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.
- Where does this Germany data come from?
- The figures come from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, published as part of Public and private social expenditure. Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.
Download this data
CSV · JSON — 45 observations, free to reuse under OECD Terms and Conditions (attribution required).
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.