Government Expenditure in the EU: share of government spending by function 1995-2022

Within the European Union, the most common government function which the governments of member states spend money on is social protection, followed by health services and economic affairs. The most notable trend over the preceding decades has been the compression of spending on general public services, which fell from almost 20 percent of total spending in the late 1990s and early 2000s, to less than ten percent in the 2020s.

At the same time, spending on health has increased from around ten percent, to over 15 percent during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. Economic affairs experienced a surge in spending during the pandemic, as governments stepped in to provide economic support and subsidies to industries and sectors which were adversely affected by the pandemic, such as the food and accommodation sectors.