Madrid is the community that invests the least in health, education and social services in Spain. Spending per inhabitant barely reaches 2,400 euros, 1,500 euros less than Navarra, 1,300 less than the Basque Country or 1,230 less than Extremadura, the regions with the most. Catalonia is behind those of Madrid, with 2,789 euros per inhabitant. Catalonia is the only community that has not recovered the budget for social policies prior to the 2010 cuts, while Valencia is the one that has increased spending per inhabitant on social policies the most since that year (with an increase of €855 per inhabitant).
All the autonomous communities exceed 3,000 euros in social expenses, except for the two mentioned, along with Murcia and Andalusia.
This is indicated by the latest report from the Association of Directors and Managers of Social Services, with data extracted from the budgets of the communities, which highlights that although the health and social crisis caused by covid demonstrated the importance of spending on services essential public health, education and social services, the increase in spending on these policies managed by communities has only been 13.5% between 2019 and 2022 (7.9% in health, 17.7% in education and 28. 8% in social services), while the increase in spending on the rest of the policies was 41% in that same period (3 times more). “This shows the loss of specific weight of social spending in the autonomies,” says the aforementioned report.
The evolution of spending on social policies since 2009, with the financial crisis, has been very different in the various communities. All of them, except Catalonia, have exceeded in 2022 the social spending per inhabitant that they had then, led by Valencia, Navarra, and Asturias. At the other extreme, Catalonia has reduced spending per inhabitant by 6 euros and Madrid has increased it by just 168 euros.
The report indicates that the largest increase in regional spending has been in paying the debt, multiplying the total cost by five and increasing by 729 euros per inhabitant. “In this way, while per capita spending on social policies has increased by 404 euros, debt payment has increased by almost double, thus limiting the ability of communities to increase their spending on health, education and services. social.
