- Eurostat has created a visualization tool to show and compare government spending in the European Union.
- Users can see what percentage of a country’s GDP is being spent on areas like health and education.
- How governments spend their money attracts extra scrutiny in times of crisis.
When you pay taxes, where does it go? And how is it split between health, education and other areas?
To help answer questions like these, Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, has created an interactive visualization tool.
It allows users to see and compare 'Government expenditure by function' in their country and others as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product – the total value of products and services produced in a country.
Government spending by numbers
For example, what proportion of spending is on health, education, defence or environmental protection? Other spending areas include social protection, economic affairs, general public services and recreation, culture and religion.
Clicking through each of these headline functions creates a more detailed picture. Social protection, for example, shows the spending breakdown for component parts of this budget, such as old age, sickness and disability, unemployment and housing.
Comparing spending by country
Country data can be compared with other EU countries or the EU as a whole. The EU has 27 member states, including France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Romania and Sweden.
Government spending can also be compared with countries in the European Free Trade Association, which consists of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
Why government spending matters
Government spending can have a huge impact on economies, especially in a crisis. For example, to fight COVID-19, governments massively increased their spending in areas such as healthcare and employment support.
France, for example, committed more than $110 billion (€100 billion) to COVID-19 support programmes. In the United States, the government committed more than $5 trillion – about a quarter of the country’s GDP – to pandemic support programmes, according to Moody’s Analytics.
Now governments are reviewing their spending again to respond to soaring inflation and the impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Germany, for example, has pledged to increase defence spending by $110 billion (€100 billion). This is equivalent to around 2% of the country’s GDP.
What is the World Economic Forum doing to help the manufacturing industry rebound from COVID-19?
The COVID-19 global pandemic continues to disrupt manufacturing and supply chains, with severe consequences for society, businesses, consumers and the global economy.
As the effects of coronavirus unfold, companies are asking what short-term actions they need to take to ensure business continuity and protect their employees. How should they be preparing for the rebound and increasing their manufacturing and supply systems’ resilience?
The World Economic Forum, in collaboration with Kearney, brought together senior-level executives from various industry sectors to identify the best response to the COVID-19 crisis. Their recommendations have been published in a new white paper: How to rebound stronger from COVID-19: Resilience in manufacturing and supply systems.
Read the full white paper, and more information in our Impact Story.
Companies are invited to join the Forum’s Platform for Shaping the Future of Advanced Manufacturing and Production. Through the Platform’s work, companies can join with other leaders to help find solutions that support the reconfiguration of global value chains post-COVID-19.
