In Lithuania, the indicator stood at 19.1 percent of the GDP, just 1.5 percentage points above Romania, which had the smallest social security budget (17.6 percent), shows 2010 data published by the EU statistical agency earlier this week.
Lithuania was also slightly ahead of other Eastern European nations, including Latvia (17.8 pct), Bulgaria and Estonia (18.1 pct), Slovakia (18.6 pct), and Poland (18.9 pct).
Biggest spending on social security in 2010 were reported in more developed EU nations, namely France (33.8 pct), Denmark (33.3 pct), the Netherlands (32.1 pct), and Germany (30.7 pct).
According to Eurostat, the differences reflect different living standards, as well as the diversity of national social security systems.