Countries With the Lowest Unemployment Benefit Spending

Every country with a figure for unemployment benefit spending, ranked from lowest to highest. The top three are Denmark (0.006%), Costa Rica (0.015%) and United Kingdom (0.074%). The middle country of the 39 has 0.638%.

What this measures

Public spending on unemployment benefits, in % of GDP. Source: OECD. For this measure, no agreed better direction.

It rises with unemployment as well as with how generous benefits are. So read it beside the unemployment rate, not instead of it.

The full ranking

Each country’s latest figure, from 2021–2023. The year beside each value says when it was measured.

More on unemployment benefit spending

• Countries With the Highest Unemployment Benefit Spending
• Unemployment benefit spending by country: trend over time and what it goes with

Related rankings

• Countries With the Lowest Active Labour Market Spending
• Countries With the Lowest Retirement Age, Men
• Countries With the Lowest Retirement Age, Women
• Countries With the Lowest Hours Worked
• Countries With the Lowest Informal Employment
• Countries With the Lowest Unemployment
• Countries With the Lowest Female Labor Participation
• Countries With the Lowest Male Labor Participation

A ranking describes countries, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All country rankings.