In 2023, public spending on education (from pre-primary to the tertiary level) in the EU accounted for 4.7% of its gross domestic product (GDP). Compared with 2022, this figure did not change; however, it represents a slight decrease of 0.3 percentage points (pp) from 2020 (5.0%), the year with the highest level of public expenditure on education since the data collection started in 2012.
Among the EU countries, the highest level of public expenditure on education relative to the GDP was observed in Sweden (6.8%), followed by Finland (6.3%) and Belgium (6.2%). The lowest levels were registered in Romania (3.0%), Greece (3.3%) and Malta (3.4%).
Source dataset: educ_uoe_fine06