How much the Member States are spending on public order and safety
The EU 28 Member States reported in 2015 more than €258 billion of government expenditure on “public order and safety” – which encompasses expenditure on police services, fire protection services, law courts and prisons, a figure that is equivalent to 1.8% of EU’s GDP. The value is higher than the amount spent on other major activities like “defence” (1.4%), “recreation, culture and religion” (1.0%) or “environmental protection” (0.8%), according to Eurostat.
The highest ratio to GDP of government expenditure for “public order and safety” could be found in Bulgaria (2.8%), Slovakia (2.4%) and Romania (2.3%). Croatia and Poland followed, both at 2.2%. At the opposite side, Denmark and Luxemburg (both 1.0%) spent little of their GDP on “public order and safety”, as well as Ireland (1.1%), Malta and Finland (1.2%), Sweden (1.3%) and Austria (1.4%).
Greece and Bulgaria (both 1.4% of GDP) spent the highest amount of police services, followed by Cyprus (1.3% of GDP), as Eurostat reports. Meanwhile, expenditure on fire protection services amounted to 0.3% of GDP in Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, France and Finland, while expenditure on prisons varied between 0.1% and 0.2% of GDP in all countries, with the exception of the Netherlands and Poland (0.3% of GDP in 2015).
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However, the ranking is different when the money spent are graded according to the size of the population of each state. In 2015, expenditure on “public order and safety” amounted to €507 per inhabitant in the EU. When it comes to amount spent per inhabitant for “public order and safety”, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom and the Netherland spent the most (€899, €792, respectively €724) – followed by Belgium (€644), Ireland (€598), Sweden (€594), Germany (€581), Austria (€545), France (€533) and Italy (€506). At the opposite pole, the countries that spent the least per inhabitant were Bulgaria (€173), Romania (€183), Lithuania (€204), Hungary (€230), Croatia (€231), Poland (€247) and Latvia (€248).
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