Romania allocates the lowest percentage of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to education in the entire European Union, namely 3%, while the European average is 4.7%. On the other hand, Sweden allocates the most – 6.8%, according to data published on Tuesday, August 18, by Eurostat \u2013 the European Statistical Office.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, Romania allocates the lowest share of education budget on investments (as opposed to wages).\u00a0<\/p>\n
When it comes to the structure of expenditure, in Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Poland, Estonia, and Luxembourg, capital expenditure represented at least 10% of total expenditure for educational institutions in 2023. In contrast, capital expenditure represented less than 5% of total expenditure in Romania and Belgium.<\/p>\n
Public spending on education (from kindergarten to high school) in the European Union represented 4.7% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2023, a figure that did not change compared to the situation in 2022, according to data published by Eurostat.<\/p>\n
Among the Member States, the highest level of public expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP was recorded in Sweden (6.8%), followed by Finland (6.3%) and Belgium (6.2%). At the opposite end of the scale, the lowest levels were recorded in Romania (3% of GDP), Greece (3.3%), and Malta (3.4%).<\/p>\n
At the level of the EU bloc, public spending on education decreased slightly, by 0.3 percentage points, in 2023 compared to the situation in 2020, when it stood at 5% of GDP, with this also being the year with the highest level of public spending on education since the beginning of statistical data collection, in 2012.<\/p>\n