Hungary spent most on culture, sports and religion in EU relative to GDP

March 02. 2023. – 01:29 PM

updated

Hungary spent most on culture, sports and religion in EU relative to GDP
A U17 match at the Pancho Arena in Felcsút – Photo by Attila Kisbenedek / AFP

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Relative to the gross national product, the Hungarian government was the third highest spender in the EU in 2021 when it comes to spending on itself. According to Eurostat data for 2021, eight percent of the GDP was spent on this in Hungary,

only Italy and Finland spent a tenth more on government bureaucracy. At three percent of the GDP, Hungary has by far spent the most in the EU on culture, sports and recreation and religion.

(Estonia came in second with 2.1 per cent.) The EU's statistics office did not give details of how much each of the three areas contributed to the EU's top spot. The 2021 result is a big drop from 3.9 percent a year earlier, but roughly the same as in 2019 and 2018. Hungary also took the bronze in economic affairs with 9.2 percent.

The detailed data reveals that Hungary is only fourth from bottom in the EU when it comes to spending on social assistance and health, with 13.1 and 5.6 percent respectively.

Defense was 1.1 per cent, which means that even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with the already accelerated military build-up, we were not only well below NATO's recommendation of two per cent, but also below the EU's 1.3 per cent. The environment was also below average (0.7 per cent), while law enforcement and education received relatively slightly more than the EU average, at 1.8 and 5 per cent respectively.

Overall, the 48.4 percent government expenditure was below the EU average of 51.5 percent.

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