Foto: LSM / LSM

While in Finland and France, the level of expenditure on social protection was equivalent to around one third of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), in Latvia it represented less than one fifth (18.8%) of GDP.

There were considerable variations between EU Member States with respect to their levels of expenditure on social protection benefits relative to GDP.

In 2024, this ratio peaked at 32.5% in Finland, followed by France (32.0%), Austria (31.9%) and Germany (30.0%). A...