Norway vs Spain: Social spending as share of GDP
Norway
0.5%
in 2021
Spain
0.4%
in 2021
Norway rank
20th
Spain rank
23rd
Social spending as share of GDP over time
- Norway
- Spain
How they compare
Norway currently reports 0.5% against 0.4% in Spain, a difference of 0.1%.
That makes Norway's figure about 1.3 times Spain's.
Across all 36 years both countries report, Norway has been ahead every year.
Norway ranks 20th and Spain ranks 23rd of 42 countries.
Norway has averaged higher in every one of the 5 decades both report.
Head to head by decade
| Decade | Norway | Spain | Difference | Ahead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980s | 0.7% | 0.0% | 0.7% | Norway |
| 1990s | 0.8% | 0.1% | 0.7% | Norway |
| 2000s | 0.6% | 0.2% | 0.4% | Norway |
| 2010s | 0.7% | 0.2% | 0.5% | Norway |
| 2020s | 0.6% | 0.3% | 0.2% | Norway |
Averages of every year both report within each decade.
Frequently asked questions
- Which has higher social spending as share of gdp, Norway or Spain?
- Norway, at 0.5% against 0.4% in Spain as of 2021.
- What is the difference in social spending as share of gdp between Norway and Spain?
- 0.1%, with Norway ahead.
- How many years of comparable data are there for Norway and Spain?
- 36 years are reported by both, from 1980 to 2021.
- How do Norway and Spain rank globally for social spending as share of gdp?
- Norway ranks 20th and Spain ranks 23rd of 42 countries.
- Where does this data come from?
- OECD (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data, published as Social spending as share of GDP. Statizoid refreshes it automatically from the source and publishes the full history for both places.
Individual pages
About this data
Public social expenditure divided by gross domestic product, expressed as a percentage. Includes both in-cash and in-kind benefits in other social policy programs.