§ Mr. MacShaneTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what percentage of GNP was spent on(a) education and (b) secondary schools in (i) Germany, (ii) France, (iii) the Netherlands, (iv) Sweden, (v) Switzerland, (vi) the US and (vii) the UK in each year since 1968. [62085]
§ Mr. MudieInformation on expenditure on all levels of education as a percentage of GDP has, for the countries mentioned, been collected by the OECD for the period 1970 to 1995 (the latest year for which such collated data are available). Information about secondary school expenditure has not been collected by the OECD separately from other forms of educational expenditure.
This information on all educational expenditure is given in the table. Any comparisons should be cautious, since the expenditure definitions used are not always fully comparable, (particularly in their treatment of research and development expenditure) and definitions, as indicated in the table, have sometimes changed over time. In addition, the special OECD definitions mean that the OECD figures for the UK may differ from those published in "Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses".
Public expenditure on education as a proportion of GDP fell between 1994–95 and 1997–98. However, as a result of the investment in education announced in the Comprehensive Spending Review, expenditure on education as a proportion of GDP will rise from 4.6 per cent. in 1998–99 to 5.0 per cent. in 2001–02.
675W
Public expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP, 1970–1995 Year France Germany Netherlands Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom United States 1970 n/a 3.7 7.5 7.9 3.9 6.2 6.0 1971 n/a 4.2 7.5 8.0 4.3 6.3 6.0 1972 n/a 4.4 7.4 7.9 4.5 6.5 5.7 1973 n/a 4.5 7.3 7.6 4.7 6.3 5.5 1974 5.5 4.9 7.1 7.3 4.9 6.9 5.5 1975 5.6 5.1 7.4 7.1 5.3 6.8 5.7 1976 5.5 4.9 7.2 7.2 5.5 6.4 5.6 1977 5.4 4.7 7.1 7.7 5.5 6.0 5.3 1978 5.3 4.6 7.1 8.0 5.4 5.8 5.0 1979 5.2 4.6 7.0 8.6 5.3 5.7 4.9 1980 5.1 4.8 7.1 8.5 5.2 5.7 4.9 1981 5.5 4.8 7.2 8.0 5.1 5.6 4.8 1982 5.6 4.7 7.2 7.8 5.2 5.5 4.9 1983 5.7 4.8 7.0 7.4 5.3 5.2 4.8 1984 5.7 4.6 6.6 7.2 5.2 5.2 4.6 1985 5.7 4.6 6.6 7.0 5.1 4.9 4.6 1986 5.7 4.5 6.7 7.0 5.2 4.9 4.8 1987 5.6 4.4 6.9 6.9 5.2 4.8 4.8 1988 5.5 4.3 6.1 6.5 5.0 4.8 4.9 1989 5.1 4.2 5.7 5.4 n/a 4.8 5.0 1990 5.1 4.1 5.7 5.6 5.2 4.9 5.2 1991 5.4 4.1 5.6 6.5 5.4 5.3 5.5 1992 5.5 4.1 5.6 7.7 5.7 5.2 5.4 1993 5.7 4.8 5.4 7.7 5.8 5.1 5.2 1994 5.9 4.7 5.2 7.7 5.7 5.2 4.9 1995 6.0 4.8 5.2 7.7 5.6 5.2 5.0 Notes:
Horizontal lines indicate a break in the series
n/a—data not available
Source:
Data supplied to OECD by individual countries for the "Education at a Glance" series.