Press release 29/01/2020

ADVANCE SOCIAL PROTECTION ACCOUNT. 2018

Expenditure on social protection in the Basque country increased by 4.0% in 2018

In 2018, the functions of Old Age and Sickness/Health care represented 44.4% and 26.4% of total expenditure respectively

Expenditure on social protection in the Basque Country, in accordance with the European System of Integrated Social Protection Statistics (SEEPROS) methodology, reached 18,557 million euros in 2018, up 4.0% on the previous year, according to EUSTAT data. This growth was also one and a half points higher than that of 2017 (2.5%). In absolute terms, the increase was 722 million euros, compared to the 438 million euros in 2017.

The Social Protection Account calculates the expenditure and income of the social protection systems carried out in the Basque Country by any public or private body. It also details to which functions said expenditure was allocated and who carried it out.

In relation to GDP, expenditure on social protection in 2018 represented 24.2%, maintaining the 2017 percentage. In per capita values, expenditure stood at 8,496 euros, up 3.8% on 2017.

The value of social provisions was 18,296 million euros, once administrative expenses derived from the management and administration of protection systems were discounted from the total expenditure. There was a 4.1% increase on the total reached in 2017.

The functions with the highest expenditure were “Old Age" and "Sickness/Health care", which were also among those that experienced the highest growth

In the distribution of expenditure by functions, the functions with the highest expenditure were “Old Age” (including expenditure on residential services, home care, and economic provisions relating to dependence) and “Sickness/Health care”, which together accounted for 70.8% of expenditure on provisions. These were also the functions with the highest growth in 2018; “Old Age” increased by 5.7%, standing at 8,124 million euros and “Sickness/Health care” was up 4.6%, reaching 4,839 million euros. The “Housing” function registered the highest relative growth of (8.7%), although with a very small proportion of total expenditure, the least of all the functions, (0.9%).

On the other hand, the function that decreased the most was “Unemployment”, which went from accounting for 5.7% of expenditure on provisions in 2017, to 5.2% in 2018, that is, expenditure on Unemployment reduced by 4.5%, standing at 954 million euros. This downward trend has been occurring since 2014, and was reflected, as in previous years, in the decrease in unemployment benefits and the drop in the unemployment rate.

The remaining functions presented positive growth: the “Survivors” function increased to 1,764 million euros, up 3.6%; the “Disability” function rose by 2.9%, reaching 1,276 million euros; the “Family/Children” function (relating to childbirth and bringing up children, and caring for other family members) increased by 0.3% in 2018 and represented expenditure of 621 million euros; and expenditure on “Social exclusion” remained stable (0.0%), standing at 558 million euros.

With regard to the institutional units that spent money on social protection in 2017, the most recent year for which there is available definitive data, spending by the Social Security System and State Administrations accounted for 60.6% of the total; up 3.2% on 2016, which is an increase of 335 million euros.

Expenditure by the Basque Administrations accounted for 32.4%, reaching 5,773 million euros in 2017, 1.7% more than in 2016. The greatest amount corresponded to expenditure by the public health system, which reached 3,613 million euros in 2017. The remaining expenditure corresponded to Private Institutions, standing at 1,248 million euros, 7% of the total.

The international comparison with Europe (the most recent data published by Eurostat corresponding to 2017) provides some indicators, such as expenditure on social protection per inhabitant, measured in terms of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP); in the Basque Country it stood at 8,741, above the EU-28 average (8,388) and countries such as Spain (6,234), Ireland (7,153) and the United Kingdom (7,992). At the very top of the table are Luxembourg (14,901) and Denmark (11,737).

Another of the indicators is social protection expenditure as a percentage of GDP, which in the Basque Country stood at 24.2% in 2017, below the EU-28 average (27.9%) and above Spain (23.4%) and also above Luxembourg (21.9%), which in expenditure per capita was at the very top of the table.

For further information:

Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Basque Statistics Institute C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Press service: servicioprensa@eustat.es Tel: 945 01 75 62