Cyprus social spending is low by EU standards

Annual statistics and social statistics published

 

The Statistical Service has published both “Social Protection in Cyprus 2001-2004” and the annual Statistical Abstract covering a wide range of statistics.

The Social Protection report is based on a survey in compliance with the European system and provides detailed data on the social protection expenditure of the public and private sector.

Social Protection expenditure includes old age, sickness, disability, unemployment, housing and other categories of benefits.

In 2004 social protection expenditure amounted to CYP 1,294 mln (CYP 1.3 bln) compared with CYP 1,246 mln (CYP 1.2 bln) in 2003, i.e. an increase of almost 4%.

For the year 2004, the social protection expenditure as a percentage of GDP was 17.5%, while the corresponding percentage in the EU averaged 27.3% in 2004.

Old age and sickness benefits in Cyprus comprised 47% and 24% respectively of total social benefits.

The overwhelming majority of the benefits originated from public sources (81.6% in 2004).

The report is available free of charge, on the web site of the Statistical Service under the section Publications (Category: Annual Publications, Theme: Population and Social Conditions, Subtheme: SocialConditions).

Meanwhile, the annual Statistical Abstract produced by the Statistical Service has been published.

It provides comparable time series data (in many cases since 1960) for a wide range of economic and social indicators.

It is available for sale at the Government Printing Office in Lefkosia at the price of CYP 10.00 per copy or can be downloaded free of charge from the website of the Statistical Service, under the section Publications (Category: Annual Publications, Theme: Other, Subtheme: General).