Albanian Government spending on social protection are as high as 9% of Gross Domestic Product, according to data from the Ministry of Finance and Economy. Compared to European Union countries, where social protection spending is 28.2% of GDP, the Albanian government spends 3 times less. Expenditures on social protection include unemployment, health and disability payments, economic aid, senior citizens 'and veterans' fees, and so on.
However, even among the European Union countries, there are differences over the percentage of spending going to social protection.
Europe's most social state is France, where according to Eurostat data, France spending on social protection is as much as 34.3% of GDP. In general, the countries of Northern and Western Europe are more social and spend more than the European Union average on social protection After France comes Finland with 32% of GDP, Denmark 31.6%, Austria with 30.3%. Over the EU average are included also Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Italy and Belgium.
While the lowest costs for social protection have Central and Eastern European countries. Among the EU member states, Romania has the lowest share of social protection spending, with about 15% of GDP.
Eurostat estimates that in the group of social protection spending, about 45.6% go to the elderly and 36.9% go to health and disability pensions. 8.7% go to households and children, 4.7% for unemployment and 4.2% for housing and social exclusion.
In Albania, the largest share of total social protection expenditures is occupied by internal transfers with 83% of the total, with the main item are pensions payments (almost double the EU average) and 16% of the total goes to the budgets of households and individuals.
In Europe, the countries with the highest share of pension payments are Greece with 65%, Portugal and Italy with 58%, Cyprus and Poland with 56%.
Social protection consists of government policies and programs to reduce poverty and support vulnerable groups of society.