Insee Première · February 2026 · n° 2093

Use of public funds: government expenditure by function in 2024 An increase in government expenditure driven by pensions and healthcare

In 2024, government expenditure increased by 4.0%, which was slightly faster than the growth in nominal GDP (+3.3%). As in 2023, it accounted for 57% of GDP. Social protection spending (not including health in this publication) contributed the most to this increase, at +2.2 points (including 1.4 points for pensions). Expenditure on health and education also increased, contributing +0.7 and +0.4 points respectively to the rise in total expenditure, as did debt‑related expenditure (+0.5 points). However, economic affairs spending mitigated the increase by 0.7 percentage points due to the almost complete phasing out of measures taken in 2022 and 2023 to limit the negative impact of rising energy prices on purchasing power. Defense spending contributed 0.2 points to the increase.

Between 1994 and 2004, social protection expenditure increased by €165 billion, but the proportion of GDP allocated to social protection fell by 0.8 percentage points, while the proportion of GDP allocated to public health expenditure increased by 0.6 percentage points (+€82 billion over ten years).