At the Rimini 2025 Meeting of Communion and Liberation, the Minister of Education and Merit Giuseppe Valditara In one of his intervention he declared that in Italy «the state funding It is absolutely not lower than that of many other European countries, I think that in relation to GDP is even higher than Germany. It is the private funding that is dramatically lower ». In reality, according to the latest official data issued byEurostat and also reported byIstatat 2023 (latest data available) Italy is among the EU countries that invests less in the education sectorwith public spending equal to 3.9% of GDP (Gross domestic product), compared to an EU average of 4.7%. Germany, cited by Valditara, in 2023 destined 4.7% of GDP to education. This is not an isolated data: according to Istat data, Italian investments for the world of school, university and research have decreased in recent years, without ever reaching 4.5% of Italian GDP since 2000. Investments in Italy are however higher than the European average as regards primary school.
Public spending intended for education in 2023
As anticipated, the latest available data issued by the Eurostat (and also reported within the report Istat We Italy 2025) concern the year 2023when the expenditure intended by the Italian State for Education reached the 3.9% of our gross domestic product (GDP), in the face of an EU average that has instead reached the 4.7%. To be clear, it means a total of about 82.9 billion eurosagainst an Italian GDP 2023 equal to 2,128 billion euros. This positions us in the queue of the ranking of the European Union countries for investments dedicated to education: behind us, on the list of 27 EU countries, alone Romania (3.3%) e Ireland (2.8%).
In Italy, therefore, public investments intended for education in 2023 they were not superior to those of Germanywhich instead spent 4.5% of its GDP for the world of school, university and research. At the height of the ranking there are countries like Sweden (7.2% of GDP), Belgium (6.3%), Estonia (6.3%) e Finland (6.1%).
The trend of public spending for education since 2000
To be considered, however, there is also the progress of public spending for education during the last 23 years. Starting from 2000, in fact, Italian investments against this sector have proved rather fluctuating, with one constant decrease since 2010with the exclusion of a peak recorded between the 2018 and the 2020.
As visible also from the graph, the situation does not change much if we consider the outputs intended for education Compared to the total amount of public spending: in 2023, for example, investments for school, university and research were equal to 6.5% overall public spending, a value that in 2000 came almost to 9% of the total exits of the state.
While considering the demographic drop, the Expenditure per student in relation to PDP capitapassed from 23% In 2000 to a value less than the 20% In 2023: this reduction, however, varies according to the level of education considered (primary, secondary school, university or preschool education).
Specifically, over the past 23 years public spending intended for university education has passed from the 20% to 15% of the per capita GDP: it should be emphasized, however, that this decline is not so much to be attributed to the reduction of public allocations for the university (which remained rather similar considering the inflation rate), but rather toIncrease in the number of university students over the past 23 years.
As also reported in the graph above, in 2021 Italian public investments for theprimary education Instead, they have been among the highest if compared with those of the economically advanced countries, with an expense per student equal to 25% of the per capita GDP.
On the contrary, as regards theSecondary and tertiary education (university), the Italian position is actually among the worst: to have an idea, in absolute terms in 2021 Italy has spent about 7,200 euros for university student (or enrolled in other tertiary institutions), less than half Compared to what is spent by Germany (16,300 euros), but also less than the expense of France (12,500 euros) e Spain (10,500 euros).
