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THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
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In almost every EU Member State, this improve-
ment in the Gini coefficient is higher than the
OECD average, which points to a higher redis-
tribution degree in the EU. It must be said that
some Member States are less redistributive than
others, as clearly shown in the last column,
which indicates the difference between both
Gini coefficients. They also include the countries
in the Southern periphery (Spain, Portugal, Italy;
there isn’t enough data about Greece).
The share of social benefits in the GDP is an
indicator of the state’s efforts to correct market
results. We don’t see any convergence in the EU
social protection ratios (cf.
Table 6
). Romania
and the other new Member States, which have
the lowest rate, are catching up a little but only
Table 4.
Development of inequality (S80/S20) 2005-2014
Country
Level
Difference
Change in %
2005
2008
2014
2014-2005
2005-2008
2008-2014
2014-2005
Poland
6.6
5.1
4.9
-1.7
-1.5
-0.2
-25.8
United Kingdom
5.9
5.6
5.1
-0.8
-0.3
-0.5
-13.6
Lithuania
6.9
6.1
6.1
-0.8
-0.8
0
-11.6
Portugal
7
6.1
6.2
-0.8
-0.9
0.1
-11.4
Ireland
5
4.4
4.7
-0.3
-0.6
0.3
-6.0
Czech Republic
3.7
3.4
3.5
-0.2
-0.3
0.1
-5.4
Belgium
4
4.1
3.8
-0.2
0.1
-0.3
-5.0
Netherland
4
4
3.8
-0.2
0
-0.2
-5.0
Latvia
6.7
7.3
6.5
-0.2
0.6
-0.8
-3.0
Finland
3.6
3.8
3.6
0
0.2
-0.2
0.0
Slovakia
3.9
3.4
3.9
0
-0.5
0.5
0.0
Malta
3.9
4.3
4
0.1
0.4
-0.3
2.6
Hungary
4
3.6
4.2
0.2
-0.4
0.6
5.0
Italy
5.6
5.2
5.8
0.2
-0.4
0.6
3.6
Austria
3.8
4.2
4.1
0.3
0.4
-0.1
7.9
France
4
4.4
4.3
0.3
0.4
-0.1
7.5
Slovenia
3.4
3.4
3.7
0.3
0
0.3
8.8
Luxemburg
3.9
4.1
4.4
0.5
0.2
0.3
12.8
Denmark
3.5
3.6
4.1
0.6
0.1
0.5
17.1
Estonia
5.9
5
6.5
0.6
-0.9
1.5
10.2
Sweden
3.3
3.5
3.9
0.6
0.2
0.4
18.2
Greece
5.8
5.9
6.5
0.7
0.1
0.6
12.1
Cyrpus
4.3
4.3
5.4
1.1
0
1.1
25.6
Gernany
3.8
4.8
5.1
1.3
1
0.3
34.2
Spain
5.5
5.6
6.8
1.3
0.1
1.2
23.6
Croatia
:
:
5.1
Bulgaria
:
6.5
6.8
0.3
Romania
:
7
7.2
0.2
Source:
Eurostat; author’s calculations.
Remark: no 2005 data available for the latest accession countries Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia.