Expenditure on social protection amounted to €130 bn or 34.4% of GDP in 2020

Press release: 12.572-163/21

Vienna,2021-07-22 - According to preliminary results by Statistics Austria, social expenditurein Austria totalled €130 bn in 2020. This represents 34.4% of the gross domestic product (GDP). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the increase in social expenditure (+11.4%) has been much higher than recorded so far whereas the economic growth went dramatically down (-5.1%).

'In the Corona year 2020, for the first time, expenditure amounting to more than one third of Austria's GDP flowed into social protection: At 34.4%, the social expenditure-to-GDP ratio was 5.1 percentage points higher than in 2019 and thus reached a historic peak. By comparison: At the peak of the economic and financial crisis in 2009, the ratio was 29.6%,' says Statistics Austria Director General Tobias Thomas.

For more detailed information please refer to the German version.