South Korea's social-spending-to-GDP ratio lowest among 28 OECD nations

South Korea's social-expenditure-to-GDP ratio was the lowest among 28 OECD countries surveyed in 2014. The OECD stands for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The country's social-spending-to-GDP ratio stood at 10.4 percent last year (up 0.2 percentage point from a year earlier), compared with the OECD average of 21.6 percent.

Estonia placed 27th in the OECD Social Expenditure database (SOCX) list with a social-spending-to-GDP ratio of 16.3 percent, 5.9 percentage points high than South Korea.

Public spending was highest in France (31.9 percent) and Finland (31 percent), both triple that of South Korea.

The SOCX presents public and private benefits with a social purpose grouped along the following policy areas: old age, survivors, incapacity-related benefits, health, family, active labor market program, unemployment, housing and other social policy areas.

Park Sae-jin swatchsjp@ajunews.com

South Korea's social-spending-to-GDP ratio lowest among 28 OECD nations

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