The level of government expenditure on education varies between Member States : detailed COFOG data on education provided by all EU countries.
Date: 2013-04-26
Institutions: Eurostat
Subjects: EU Member State, education budget, education statistics, public expenditure

Economy and finance 

Author:  Laurent FREYSSON, Laura WAHRIG 

S t a t i s t i c s   i n   f o c u s  
12/2013 

The level of government expenditure on education 
varies between Member States 
Detailed COFOG data on education provided by all EU countries 
households, non-profit institutions serving households, 
In 2011, EU-27 total general government expenditure 
corporations and non-domestics units can be expected to 
amounted to 49.1 % of GDP. Based on the latest 
vary significantly across Member States and EFTA 
available expenditure data by economic function for 
countries. The figures reported for general government 
2011, 5.3% of GDP was devoted to expenditure on 
should thus not be interpreted as an indicator of total 
education. Of this, the highest shares were dedicated 
expenditure on education in a country. 
to ‘secondary education’ at 2.0 % of GDP and ‘pre-
primary and primary education’ at 1.7 % of GDP.  
As a ratio to GDP, the highest levels of government 
expenditure on education among the reporting countries 
In the framework of the European System of 
were found in Iceland (7.9 % of GDP), Denmark (7.8 % 
National Accounts (ESA95), Eurostat collects data on 
of GDP) and Cyprus (7.2 % of GDP). Among these 
general government expenditure by economic 
countries, Denmark has a generally high level of 
function according to the international Classification 
government expenditure, while in Cyprus and Iceland, 
of the Functions of Government (COFOG) – see 
the level is notably low. Education had the highest 
methodological note. This publication presents for 
weight in government expenditure in Estonia (16.9 % of 
the first time detailed COFOG data on education for 
total expenditure), followed by Iceland (16.7 % of total 
the EU-27, presenting data by level of education. 
expenditure). The lowest ratios of government 
This became possible due to progress in the 
expenditure on education to GDP were observed in 
availability and quality of voluntarily transmitted 
Bulgaria (3.6 % of GDP), Slovakia (4.0 % of GDP), 
COFOG level II data.  
Greece and Romania (both at 4.1 % of GDP). In 
EU-27 general government expenditure 
Germany and Italy government expenditure on 
on education at 5.3 % of GDP in 2011 
education was also below average. In Romania, the low 
Government expenditure on education amounted to 
ratio stands after a substantial increase in expenditure on 
around EUR 347 billion in 2011 in the EU-27, or 5.3 % 
education from 2010 to 2011. In 2010, it stood at 3.4 % 
of GDP. Government expenditure on education 
of GDP.  
compared to expenditure on education by private 
Figure 1: General government expenditure on education, % of GDP, 2011 

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

0

P
D
G

f
o
%

E
B

G
B

Z
C

K
D

E
D

E
E

E

I

L
E

7
2
-
U
E

7
1
-

A
E

)
0
1
0
2
(

S
E

R
F

T

I

Y
C

V
L

T
L

U
L

U
H

T
M

L
N

T
A

L
P

T
P

I

O S
R

I

K F
S

E
S

K
U

S

I

O
N

H
C

Pre-primary and primary education
Tertiary education
R&D Education

Secondary education
Education not definable by level
Education n.e.c.

Post-secondary non-tertiary education
Subsidiary services to education
Education (whole division)

Source: Eurostat (online data code: gov_a_exp)  

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Pre-primary, primary and secondary education have the largest share of expenditure 

‘Pre-primary and primary education’ corresponding 
to ISCED levels 0 and 1 and secondary education, 
corresponding to ISCED levels 2 and 3, make up the 
largest part of government expenditure on education 
in the EU-27 and in most reporting countries. In the 
EU-27 as a whole, these two COFOG groups together 
account for 69 % of expenditure in COFOG division 
‘education’.  
In 2011 in the EU-27, the share of ‘tertiary education’, 
corresponding to ISCED levels 5 and 6, in the division’s 

total expenditure stood at 12 %. ‘Tertiary education’ had 
a high weight in total government education expenditure 
in Poland and Finland (28 % of education expenditure) 
and Norway (26 %). ‘Post-secondary non-tertiary 
education’ accounted for only 2 % of total government 
expenditure on education in the EU-27; however, it had 
a relatively large share in government education 
expenditure in the United Kingdom (10 % of total 
government education expenditure). 

Table 1: Total general government expenditure on education, % of GDP, 2011 

Pre-primary 
and primary 
education

Secondary 
education

Education

Post-
secondary non-
tertiary 
education

Tertiary 
education

Education not 
definable by 
level

Subsidiary 
services to 
education

1.69
1.53

5.34
5.02

EU-27
EA-17
BE
BG
CZ
DK
DE
EE
IE
EL
ES (groups 2010)
FR
IT
CY
LV
LT
LU
HU
MT
NL
AT
PL
PT
RO
SI
SK
FI
SE
UK
IS
NO
CH
Source: Eurostat (online data code: gov_a_exp)  

:
0.71
0.55
3.93
1.09
2.23
1.98
1.33
1.83
1.70
1.55
2.38
1.94
0.89
1.95
1.50
1.36
1.97
1.48
1.82
1.85
1.31
2.35
:
1.30
3.91
1.94
3.30
2.29
:

6.18
3.63
4.89
7.79
4.26
6.48
5.25
4.08
4.74
6.05
4.24
7.18
5.73
5.82
5.09
5.18
5.82
5.77
5.56
5.56
6.35
4.13
6.67
4.04
6.38
6.79
6.51
7.85
5.55
6.06

1.99
1.98

:
1.78
2.73
1.72
1.65
1.75
1.87
1.57
1.70
2.39
1.87
2.52
1.76
2.54
1.68
1.69
2.41
2.23
2.51
1.54
2.54
1.58
2.43
:
2.87
1.25
2.28
2.34
1.12
:

0.13
0.04

:
-
0.00
-
0.07
0.28
0.08
-
0.00
0.04
0.08
0.01
-
0.09
0.05
0.04
0.09
-
0.02
0.00
0.00
0.02
-
:
0.00
0.02
0.68
0.01
0.02
:

0.86
0.83

:
0.84
0.86
1.51
0.91
1.60
1.03
0.91
0.96
0.79
0.38
1.14
0.94
1.00
0.32
1.00
1.09
1.24
0.81
1.57
0.93
0.87
1.20
:
1.79
1.31
0.69
1.75
1.42
:

0.23
0.19

:
0.01
0.13
0.41
0.13
0.04
0.10
0.01
0.09
0.41
0.05
0.61
0.49
0.39
0.29
0.15
0.01
0.06
0.25
0.24
0.27
0.10
0.21
:
0.24
0.18
0.43
0.13
0.41
:

0.26
0.32

:
0.10
0.28
0.08
0.32
0.14
0.14
-
0.13
0.63
0.25
0.33
0.04
0.05
0.43
0.61
0.02
0.17
0.22
0.28
0.27
0.09
0.25
:
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.16
0.16
:

R&D Education
0.02
0.02

:
0.01
0.27
0.04
0.05
0.12
0.00
-
0.03
0.00
0.00
-
-
0.13
0.14
-
0.22
0.02
0.02
0.02
0.10
0.00
0.01
:
0.00
0.00
0.00
-
0.00
:

Education 
n.e.c.

0.16
0.11

:
0.16
0.07
0.12
0.05
0.32
0.05
0.27
0.18
0.10
0.06
0.18
0.57
0.72
0.21
0.20
0.61
0.07
0.24
0.08
0.39
0.16
0.23
:
0.16
0.08
0.45
0.16
0.12
:  

Government expenditure on education decreases from 2009 to 2011 

As a ratio to GDP, government expenditure on education 
followed a declining trend from 2002 until 2007 and 
then increased sharply from 2008 to 2009, mainly due to 
decreases in GDP at current prices. Active measures to 
consolidate government expenditure, such as pay 
cuts in a number of Member States and decreasing 
public investment contributed to a decrease of 0.2 
percentage points of government education 
expenditure in terms of GDP from 2009 to 2011. An 
absolute decrease in general government gross 
capital formation (GCF) is noted for education from 
2010 to 2011, in line with a total general decrease in 
government GCF. In absolute terms, education 
expenditure continued to grow, although the year-on-
year growth was lower from 2010 to 2011 than in 
previous years. In ten Member States, a decrease in 
absolute expenditure on education (in local currency 
terms) is observed between 2010 and 2011: Denmark, 

Ireland, Greece, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Hungary, Portugal, 
Slovakia and the United Kingdom. 
Figure 2: EU-27 general government 
expenditure on education, 2002-2011 

6

P
D
G

f
o
%

5.5

5

700

600

500

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

education % of GDP

education billion EUR

Source: Eurostat (online data code: gov_a_exp) 

R
U
E
n
o

i
l
l
i

b

2 

12/2013 — Statistics in focus  

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Compensation of employees is the most important component of education 
expenditure  

In the EU-27, ‘compensation of employees’ accounted 
for the largest share of education expenditure in most 
COFOG groups related to education (55% of education 
expenditure). In the COFOG group ‘subsidiary services 
to education’, which includes for instance school 
transport and meals, ‘intermediate consumption’ 

accounted for a large part of expenditure. Apart from 
‘compensation of employees’, ‘intermediate 
consumption’ and ‘capital investments’ (for instance 
school buildings) are important expenditure 
components.  

Figure 3: General government expenditure on education by transaction, billion EUR, EU-27, 2011 

Pre-primary and primary education

Secondary education

Post-secondary non-tertiary education

Tertiary education

Education not definable by level

Subsidiary services to education

R&D Education

Education n.e.c

0

200

400

600

800

intermediate consumption

compensation of employees

interest

subsidies

social benefits

other current expenditure

capital transfers

capital investments

Source: Eurostat (online data code: gov_a_exp) 

METHODOLOGICAL NOTES 
This box gives some background information on the data 
sources as well as on the methodological concepts and 
technical terms and codes used. More exhaustive 
information and additional data can be found on Eurostat's 
website in the section dedicated to government finance 
statistics as well as on the Statistics Explained page 
dedicated to government finance statistics.  
Reporting of data to Eurostat  
Annual government finance statistics (GFS) data are 
collected by Eurostat on the basis of the European System 
of Accounts (ESA95) transmission programme. Member 
States are requested to transmit, among other tables, table 
1100, 'Expenditure of general government by function' 
twelve months after the end of the reference period. Table 
1100 provides information about expenditure of the general 
government sector divided into main COFOG functions and 
ESA95 categories. The transmission of the COFOG I level 
breakdown (divisions) is compulsory for the years 1995 
onwards, whereas information on the COFOG II level 
(COFOG groups) is provided on a voluntary basis. The 
main reference years used in this publication are 2011 as 
the latest year available and 2002 as the first year for which 
complete data on expenditure by function are available at 
EU-27 level. 
Provisional data 
Data for BG, EL, HU, IS and SE (2011 only) is provisional. 

Country notes 
DK: Due to the structure of the Danish education system, 
the primary education is not divided into two levels. 
Therefore, the COFOG education data on primary 
education, 09.1 is composed of COFOG 9.1 primary 
education and 9.21 Lower-secondary education. COFOG 
group 09.2 is composed of COFOG 9.22 Upper-secondary 
education only. 
Definition of general government and its sub-sectors  
The data relate to the general government sector of the 
economy, as defined in ESA95, paragraph 2.68: 'All 
institutional units which are other non-market producers 
[institutional units whose sales do not cover more than the 
50 % of the production costs, see ESA95 paragraph 3.26] 
whose output is intended for individual and collective 
consumption, and mainly financed by compulsory payments 
made by units belonging to other sectors, and/or all 
institutional units principally engaged in the redistribution 
of national income and wealth’.  
Classification of functional expenditure of government  
The Classification of the Functions of Government 
(COFOG classifies government expenditure into ten main 
categories (divisions known as the 'COFOG I level' 
breakdown): general public services; defence; public order 
and safety; economic affairs; environmental protection; 
housing and community affairs; health; recreation, culture 
and religion; education; social protection. These divisions 
are further broken down into 'groups' (COFOG II level). 

  Statistics in focus — 12/2013 

3 

 
 
 
 
Further information is available in the Eurostat 'Manual on 
sources and methods for the compilation of COFOG 
Statistics'. 
COFOG level II data 
COFOG level II data is published only in agreement with 
the country concerned. The development of COFOG level 
II data is not completed in many Member States and data 
needs to be looked at with this in consideration.  
For BE and SK, COFOG group data is available but not 
published. For ES, COFOG group data is available for 
2011, but not published pending the availability of more 
final data. 
Satellite accounts 
Administrative expenditure data is additionally collected in 
so-called satellite accounts. For education, the relevant 
collection is UOE (UNESCO-UIS/OECD/EUROSTAT data 
collection). In general, the amount of expenditure recorded 
in satellite accounts is expected to exceed the expenditure 
recorded under the respective COFOG division, as the 
COFOG classification focusses on recording expenditure by 
primary function. The comparability of UOE with COFOG 
data is explored in the COFOG manual.  
Definition of general government expenditure  
Government expenditure is defined in Commission 
Regulation 1500/2000 which uses as reference a list of 
ESA95 categories:  
Government expenditure comprises the following 
categories:  
P.2, 'intermediate consumption': the purchase of goods 
and services by government; 
P.5, 'gross capital formation' consists of: (a) gross fixed 
capital formation (P.51); (b) changes in inventories (P.52); 
(c) acquisitions less disposals of valuables (P.53); where  

P.51, 'gross fixed capital formation': consists of 
acquisitions, less disposals, of fixed assets during a 
given period plus certain additions to the value of 
non-produced assets realised by the productive 
activity of producer or institutional units. Fixed assets 
are tangible or intangible assets produced as outputs 
from processes of production that are themselves 
used repeatedly, or continuously, in processes of 
production for more than one year; 
D.1, 'compensation of employees': the wages of 

government employees plus non-wage costs such as social 
contributions; 
D.29, 'other taxes on production, payable', 
D.3, 'subsidies, payable', 
D.4, 'property income, payable', consists of : (a) 'interest, 
payable (D.41) and (b) 'other property income, payable 
(D.42+D.43+D.44+D.45), where  

D.41, 'interest': excludes settlements under swaps and 
forward rate arrangements, as these are treated as 
financial transactions in the ESA 95; 

D.5, 'current taxes on income, wealth, etc, payable'; 
D.62, social payments: cover social benefits and pensions 
paid in cash; 
D.6311, D.63121, D.63131, 'Social transfers in kind 
related to expenditure on products supplied to households 
via market producers'; 
D.7, 'other current transfers, payable'; 
D.8, 'adjustment for the change in net equity of 
households in pension fund reserves' 
D.9, 'capital transfers payable' 
K.2, 'acquisitions less disposals of non-financial non-
produced assets': public investment spending. Non-
financial non-produced assets consist of land and other 
tangible non-produced assets that may be used in the 
production of goods and services, and intangible non-
produced assets. 
Gross Domestic Product 
Throughout this publication, nominal GDP, i.e. GDP at 
current prices is used. 
ISCED 
International Standard Classification of Education 
Time of recording & symbol 
In the ESA95 system, recording is in principle on an 
accrual basis, that is, when ‘economic value is created, 
transformed or extinguished, or when claims and 
obligations arise, are transformed or are cancelled.'  
":" not available 
More data and information  
For country-specific notes, e.g. on missing data, please refer 
to the metadata published on Eurobase. The authors can be 
contacted at ESTAT-ESA95-GOV@ec.europa.eu. 

Further information 
Eurostat Website: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat 
Data on ‘Government finance statistics’ 
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/government_finance_statistics/data/database 
Further information about ‘Government finance statistics’ 
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/government_finance_statistics/introduction 

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Manuscript completed on: 26.04.2013 
Data extracted on: 13.03.2013 
ISSN 1977-0316 
Catalogue number: KS-SF-13-012-EN-N 
© European Union, 2013