Bulgaria Last But One in EU by Education Spending as Ratio to GDP

Bulgaria is last but one in the EU by government expenditure on education as a share of the GDP, according to Eurostat data for 2012.

In 2012, EU-27 total general government expenditure amounted to 49.4  % of GDP. Based on the latest available expenditure data by economic function for 2012, 5.3  % of GDP was devoted to expenditure on education. Of this, the highest shares were dedicated to 'secondary education' at 1.9  % of GDP and 'pre-primary and primary education' at 1.7  % of GDP.

As a ratio to GDP, the highest levels of government expenditure on education among the reporting countries in 2012 were found in Denmark (7.9  % of GDP), Sweden (6.8  % of GDP) and Cyprus (6.7  % of GDP), while the lowest ratios were recorded in Romania (3.0  % of GDP), Bulgaria (3.5  % of GDP) and Slovakia (3.9  % of GDP). As far as EFTA countries are concerned, the highest value was recorded in Iceland (8.0  % of GDP).

General government expenditure on education amounted to around EUR 680 billion in 2012 in the EU-27, or 5.3  % of GDP.

In 2012, education had the highest weight in total government expenditure in Estonia (16.2  % of total expenditure), followed by Lithuania (15.5  %) and Latvia (15.0  %).

The lowest weights of general government expenditure on education in total general government expenditure were recorded in Greece (7.7 % of total expenditure), Italy and Romania (both 8.2  % of total expenditure).

As a ratio to GDP, government expenditure on education in Bulgaria has been decreasing since 2009, the year when the crisis was most tangible in the country. In 2009, government spending on education reached 4.32% of the GDP, falling to 3.79% in 2010, and to 3.63% in...