Statistics in Focus: Population and social conditions. Public expenditure on education in the EU in 1997. 2000.8

Abstract

Education is an important investment for the Member States of the European Union (EU). Investment in education is influenced by factors such as the level of economic development, the percentage of young people in the population and the duration of the various cycles of study. On the whole, the percentage of national wealth devoted to education reflects the importance which governments attach to education. Public resources allocated to the funding of all levels of education - not including private sources - represented on average 5.0% of the Union's GDP in 1997. Public expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP tends to remain stable within individual countries over time. Nevertheless, the government's contribution to education may vary greatly from one country to another, ranging from 3.2% in Greece to 8.0% in Denmark. The distribution of education budgets by level of education was more consistent, with primary and higher education accounting for approximately 1.0% on average of GDP, while secondary education accounts for 2.5%