Social protection expenditure and financing in Finland

Social protection expenditure mainly comprises

  • pensions
  • health insurance and
  • unemployment security spending, as well as
  • social and healthcare costs covered by tax reserves.

Private insurance, social and health care patient and client fees or personal liability in health insurance are not calculated in social protection expenditure.

Social protection expenditure in Finland was (at 2018 prices)

  • 70.1 billion euros in 2016
  • 69.8 billion euros in 2017
  • 70.2 billion euros in 2018

In 2018, social protection expenditure was 30.0 per cent in relation to GDP. This is 0.9 percentage point less than in 2017. The GDP share of social protection expenditure in Finland is above the EU average. The per capita social protection expenditure adjusted by purchasing power parity is also higher than the EU average.

Financing expenditure 

Social protection in Finland is financed as follows (2018):

  • employers pay 31.0 %
  • insured pay 13.9 %
  • the state pays 26.8 %
  • municipalities pay 22.4 %

The remaining 6% is covered by return of social protection funds.

In Finland, statistics on social protection expenditure are produced by The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL)

Further information