The table provides information about the proportion of government spending on five domestic sectors – public services, economic affairs, environmental protection, health and education – in Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom in 2009.
Overall, health received the highest share of expenditure in all three countries, while environmental protection was funded the least. Another noticeable feature is that the United Kingdom allocated the largest proportion to most sectors, except public services and economic affairs, which were highest in Italy.
Italy spent the most on public services at 8.6%, followed by Germany at 6.6%, whereas the United Kingdom allocated only 4.6% to this area. Health represented the largest portion of budgets, ranging from 7.1% in Germany to 7.8% in the UK. Spending on education was also relatively high in Britain (6.4%), compared with 4.6% in Italy and 4.3% in Germany.
By contrast, economic affairs accounted for around 4-4.5% of expenditure in all three countries, with Italy again at the top. Environmental protection received less than 1% of funding, although the UK recorded the highest percentage at 1.0%, slightly above Italy (0.9%) and Germany (0.7%).