EUROPE: Cyprus spends 0.8% of expenditure on recreation and sport

Cyprus spends 0.8% of total expenditure (€59.8 mln) on recreation and sport putting it above the EU average of 0.7% but behind biggest spender Hungary.

In 2017, the EU's 28 Member States spent €51.3 bln of government expenditure on recreation and sport.

Overall, the general government expenditure on recreation and sport has remained stable as a percentage of total expenditure since the beginning 2004.

The ratio of government recreation and sport expenditure to total expenditure varied across the EU from 0.2% of the total expenditure in Croatia, 0.4% in Ireland, Malta, Slovakia and the United Kingdom, to 1.2% in Luxembourg, 1.4% in Estonia and 2.5% in Hungary. 

The amounts spent by EU governments can be put into perspective with the size of the population of each Member State.

Recreation and sport government expenditure per inhabitant was above €200 in three EU Member States in 2017: Luxembourg (€492 per inhabitant), Sweden (€256) and Finland (€206), closely followed by the Netherlands (€199), Denmark (€192) and France (€183). For Cyprus the figure was €69 per inhabitant.

In contrast, the lowest recreation and sport expenditure per head was recorded in Croatia (€13 per inhabitant) and Bulgaria (€16), followed by Slovakia (€23), Romania (€25), Lithuania (€31) and Malta (€32).