§ Mr. Hayhoeasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will publish in the Official Report, from international sources available to him, a table showing for each present member of the EEC, Canada and the United States of America, the percentage of gross national product devoted to education in each year since 1960.
§ Mr. Gerry FowlerFigures, which are of public expenditure on education, are published in successive editions of the UNESCO Statistical yearbook and are given in the table below. It must be emphasised that the UNESCO definition of public expenditure differs from that used in the corresponding statistics officially compiled and published in the United Kingdom, and that the UNESCO definition of gross national product is at market prices—which includes taxes and excludes subsidies—rather than at factor cost. Moreover, since the education systems of the various countries have salient differences which can affect comparability, care should be exercised in any use made of these figures. In those cases where the published figures are of percentage of national income they will normally, other things being equal, produce a higher percentage than if based on gross national product.
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PERCENTAGE OF GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT AT MARKET PRICES DEVOTED TO EDUCATION IN EEC COUNTRIES, CANADA AND UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Country 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 United Kingdom .. 4.3 5.8* 4.8 4.8 5.1 5.3 5.6 4.91 5.6 5.9 5.9 6.09 Other EEC: Belgium 4.6 .. 6.2* 3.32 5.6 4.22 4.62 4.72 5.0 5.4 .. .. .. Denmark 3.1 4.4* 6.2* 5.1 5.3 5.7 6.3 6.1 6.3 6.5 7.0 7.6 7.0 France 2.4* 4.3* 4.2* 3.43 3.43 3 .42 4.2 3.52 4.4 4.5 3.5 3.5 3.6 Germany (Federal Republic) 3.5* 2.94 3.8* 3.14 3.24 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.5 3.6 4.0 4.5 4.0 Ireland 3.6* 3.2 3.3*,5 3.4 3.9 4.2 4.1 4.3 4.5 4.8 4.9 5.0 5.2 Italy 3.6 5.3* 5.9* 4.8 4.9 5.2 4.7 5.2 4.8 4.3 4.3 4.8 5.2 Luxembourg 1.7* 3.6* 3.8* 3.6* 4.7 4.3 4.9 4.9 5.2 4.9 4.36 5.36 .. Netherlands 4.9 5.1 6.7* 5.7 6.1 6.3 6.6 6.9 7.0 7.3 7.8 7.9 .. Canada 5.8*,7 4.6 7.3* 5.5 5.5 6.3 7.2 7.6 7.9 8.3 8.6 8.5 .. United States of America 4.08 4.4 5.9* 4.8 5.1 5.38 5.3 5.6 5.88 6.38 6.58 6.8 6.5 .. Data not available from international sources. * Percentage of national income. 1 Not including expenditure on universities in England and Wales. 2 Expenditure of Ministry of Education only. 3 Percentage of gross domestic product at market prices. 4 Data not strictly comparable with those for later years. 5 Not including expenditures referring to universities. 6 As percentage of GDP at market prices (provisional figure). 7 Including private expenditure relating to private education. 8 Shown as provisional in published sources. 9 Based upon returns sent to UNESCO, but not yet published.