Public expenditure on old-age and survivors cash benefits in % GDP in Greece

Greece: Public expenditure on old-age and survivors cash benefits in % GDP was 16.18 Percentage of GDP in 2021. ▲ Rising

Latest (2021)
16.18 Percentage of GDP
Change on year
down 9.5%
World rank
1st
of 33 countries
All-time high
17.87 Percentage of GDP
in 2020
All-time low
5.24 Percentage of GDP
in 1980
Years of data
42
1980–2021

Public expenditure on old-age and survivors cash benefits in % GDP in Greece, 1980–2021

51015201980200020211980: 5.2 Percentage of GDP1981: 5.8 Percentage of GDP1982: 7.4 Percentage of GDP1983: 7.4 Percentage of GDP1984: 8 Percentage of GDP1985: 8.4 Percentage of GDP1986: 8.5 Percentage of GDP1987: 8.8 Percentage of GDP1988: 8.6 Percentage of GDP1989: 9 Percentage of GDP1990: 9.6 Percentage of GDP1991: 9 Percentage of GDP1992: 9 Percentage of GDP1993: 9.3 Percentage of GDP1994: 9.2 Percentage of GDP1995: 9.3 Percentage of GDP1996: 9.8 Percentage of GDP1997: 9.9 Percentage of GDP1998: 10.5 Percentage of GDP1999: 10.7 Percentage of GDP2000: 10.5 Percentage of GDP2001: 10.9 Percentage of GDP2002: 10.8 Percentage of GDP2003: 10.6 Percentage of GDP2004: 10.8 Percentage of GDP2005: 11.6 Percentage of GDP2006: 11.5 Percentage of GDP2007: 11.8 Percentage of GDP2008: 12.6 Percentage of GDP2009: 13.7 Percentage of GDP2010: 14.4 Percentage of GDP2011: 16.1 Percentage of GDP2012: 17.6 Percentage of GDP2013: 16.2 Percentage of GDP2014: 16.7 Percentage of GDP2015: 17.6 Percentage of GDP2016: 17.3 Percentage of GDP2017: 16.2 Percentage of GDP2018: 15.8 Percentage of GDP2019: 15.5 Percentage of GDP2020: 17.9 Percentage of GDP2021: 16.2 Percentage of GDP

Source: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Measured in Percentage of GDP.

Analysis

Greece recorded 16.18 Percentage of GDP for public expenditure on old-age and survivors cash benefits in % gdp in 2021.

Compared with earlier readings it is down 9.5% on the previous year and up 0.4% over ten years.

Over the whole period, public expenditure on old-age and survivors cash benefits in % gdp in Greece peaked at 17.87 Percentage of GDP in 2020 and was at its lowest, 5.24 Percentage of GDP, in 1980.

That places Greece 1st out of 33 countries with data for 2021, putting it in the top 10%.

The long-run direction has been consistently rising across the 42 years of available data.

Public expenditure on old-age and survivors cash benefits in % GDP in Greece, year by year

Annual values for Public expenditure on old-age and survivors cash benefits in % GDP — Social expenditure in Greece, 1980 to 2021.
Year Percentage of GDP Change
1980 5.24 Percentage of GDP
1981 5.79 Percentage of GDP +10.5%
1982 7.36 Percentage of GDP +27.0%
1983 7.42 Percentage of GDP +0.9%
1984 7.98 Percentage of GDP +7.5%
1985 8.39 Percentage of GDP +5.2%
1986 8.46 Percentage of GDP +0.8%
1987 8.82 Percentage of GDP +4.3%
1988 8.61 Percentage of GDP -2.4%
1989 8.96 Percentage of GDP +4.0%
1990 9.61 Percentage of GDP +7.3%
1991 9.04 Percentage of GDP -5.9%
1992 9 Percentage of GDP -0.5%
1993 9.29 Percentage of GDP +3.2%
1994 9.19 Percentage of GDP -1.0%
1995 9.33 Percentage of GDP +1.5%
1996 9.76 Percentage of GDP +4.6%
1997 9.86 Percentage of GDP +1.1%
1998 10.52 Percentage of GDP +6.6%
1999 10.74 Percentage of GDP +2.2%
2000 10.53 Percentage of GDP -2.0%
2001 10.9 Percentage of GDP +3.5%
2002 10.76 Percentage of GDP -1.3%
2003 10.59 Percentage of GDP -1.6%
2004 10.83 Percentage of GDP +2.3%
2005 11.62 Percentage of GDP +7.3%
2006 11.53 Percentage of GDP -0.8%
2007 11.82 Percentage of GDP +2.5%
2008 12.64 Percentage of GDP +7.0%
2009 13.72 Percentage of GDP +8.5%
2010 14.35 Percentage of GDP +4.6%
2011 16.12 Percentage of GDP +12.3%
2012 17.58 Percentage of GDP +9.0%
2013 16.22 Percentage of GDP -7.7%
2014 16.66 Percentage of GDP +2.7%
2015 17.55 Percentage of GDP +5.4%
2016 17.31 Percentage of GDP -1.4%
2017 16.21 Percentage of GDP -6.4%
2018 15.78 Percentage of GDP -2.6%
2019 15.49 Percentage of GDP -1.9%
2020 17.87 Percentage of GDP +15.4%
2021 16.18 Percentage of GDP -9.5%

Greece compared with similar countries

  • Greece's 16.18 Percentage of GDP is above the median for Europe & Central Asia, which is 8.85 Percentage of GDP, 1.8× the median. (21 countries reporting)
  • Greece's 16.18 Percentage of GDP is above the median for high income countries, which is 7.99 Percentage of GDP, 2.0× the median. (29 countries reporting)

Averages by decade

DecadeAverage LowestHighest Years
1980s 7.7 Percentage of GDP 5.24 Percentage of GDP 8.96 Percentage of GDP 10
1990s 9.64 Percentage of GDP 9 Percentage of GDP 10.74 Percentage of GDP 10
2000s 11.49 Percentage of GDP 10.53 Percentage of GDP 13.72 Percentage of GDP 10
2010s 16.33 Percentage of GDP 14.35 Percentage of GDP 17.58 Percentage of GDP 10
2020s 17.03 Percentage of GDP 16.18 Percentage of GDP 17.87 Percentage of GDP 2

Countries ranked near Greece

  1. 1 Poland 11.19 Percentage of GDP compare
  2. 1 Croatia 8.89 Percentage of GDP compare
  3. 2 Italy 16.09 Percentage of GDP compare
  4. 2 Slovenia 10.62 Percentage of GDP compare
  5. 3 Austria 14.02 Percentage of GDP compare
  6. 3 Latvia 7.52 Percentage of GDP compare
  7. 4 Estonia 6.78 Percentage of GDP compare
  8. 4 France 13.4 Percentage of GDP compare

See the full ranking of 43 places →

More economy & growth data for Greece

All data for Greece →

Frequently asked questions

What is public expenditure on old-age and survivors cash benefits in % gdp in Greece?
Public expenditure on old-age and survivors cash benefits in % gdp in Greece was 16.18 Percentage of GDP in 2021, according to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
What is the highest public expenditure on old-age and survivors cash benefits in % gdp recorded in Greece?
The highest recorded value was 17.87 Percentage of GDP in 2020.
What is the lowest public expenditure on old-age and survivors cash benefits in % gdp recorded in Greece?
The lowest recorded value was 5.24 Percentage of GDP in 1980.
How does Greece rank for public expenditure on old-age and survivors cash benefits in % gdp?
Greece ranks 1st out of 33 countries with data for 2021.
Is public expenditure on old-age and survivors cash benefits in % gdp rising or falling in Greece?
Over the last ten years it is up 0.4%. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.
Where does this Greece data come from?
The figures come from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, published as part of Public expenditure on old-age and survivors cash benefits in % GDP — Social expenditure. Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.

Download this data

CSV · JSON — 42 observations, free to reuse under OECD Terms and Conditions (attribution required).

Share, cite or embed this page

Cite this page

Public expenditure on old-age and survivors cash benefits in % GDP in Greece. Statizoid, drawing on Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Retrieved 17 September 2026, from https://economy.statizoid.com/stat/public-expenditure-on-old-age-and-survivors-cash-benefits-in-percent-gdp-social/greece/

Embed or link this data

Paste this into a page to link back to these figures. The data itself is free to reuse under OECD Terms and Conditions (attribution required); please keep the attribution.

<a href="https://economy.statizoid.com/stat/public-expenditure-on-old-age-and-survivors-cash-benefits-in-percent-gdp-social/greece/">Public expenditure on old-age and survivors cash benefits in % GDP in Greece</a> — Statizoid

About this data

Indicator
Public expenditure on old-age and survivors cash benefits in % GDP — Social expenditure
Unit
Percentage of GDP
Source
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Licence
OECD Terms and Conditions (attribution required)
Coverage
43 places, 1,481 data points, 1980–2023
Last refreshed

The OECD Social Expenditure Database (SOCX) has been developed in order to serve a growing need for indicators of social policy. It includes reliable and internationally comparable statistics on public and mandatory and voluntary private social expenditure at programme level. SOCX provides a unique tool for monitoring trends in aggregate social expenditure and analysing changes in its composition. It covers 38 OECD countries and some accession countries for the period 1980-2021/23 and estimates for aggregates for 2022-24. A Social Expenditure Update can be found under www.oecd.org/en/data/datasets/social-expenditure-database-socx.htm. The main social policy areas are as follows: Old age, Survivors, Incapacity-related benefits, Health, Family, Active labor market programmes, Unemployment, Housing, and Other social policy areas. This version also includes estimates of net total social spending for 2021 for 38 OECD countries. SOCX aggregated data as well as sources and methodology are described in The OECD SOCX Manual – 2019 edition- A guide to the OECD Social Expenditure Database.