On Nov. 9, it was revealed that South Korea spent 337 trillion won on public social welfare in 2021. This is a 10% increase from the previous year, but is at 69% of the average among member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The OECD published the report entitled "OECD social expenditure update 2025" on Nov. 8, which contains these details.
OECD social expenditure data serves as an indicator to understand the level of social security and allows for international comparison. It is used as a basis for evaluating and establishing social security policies.
In 2021, South Korea's public social welfare expenditure was 15.2% of gross domestic product (GDP). The total was 337.4 trillion won. In 2020, it was 14.8% of GDP, amounting to 304.7 trillion won. A Ministry of Health and Welfare official noted, "This is due to increased disaster support payments in response to COVID-19, as well as rising expenditures on public pensions and medical costs."
As of 2021, South Korea's share of public social welfare expenditure is about 69% of the OECD average. In that year, the OECD member countries with a smaller expenditure ratio compared to South Korea were Mexico, Turkey, Costa Rica, and Ireland among the total of 38 countries.
South Korea has appeared to spend the most on health (113 trillion won), elderly welfare (74.6 trillion won), and family support (34.3 trillion won) among the nine major areas of social welfare policy.
The remaining areas include other social policies (32.6 trillion won), unemployment (30.6 trillion won), work incapacity (19.4 trillion won), active labor market (14.1 trillion won), housing (9.7 trillion won), and survivor benefits (8.9 trillion won).
Lim Hye-sung, head of the social security committee at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said, "I will derive necessary improvement tasks and implications for the operation of our social security schemes in the future."