In Spain, a full third of the population over age 15 relies on a monthly payment from the government for their income. The immediate question is, how sustainable is such a system?
The figures come from calculations by two news organizations–the regional El Correo and the national website El Debate. They reveal increasing levels of welfare dependency and a bloated public sector.
In an article published last week, the Basque newspaper El Correo estimated that four out of every ten Basques over the age of 20 “already receive a public ‘payroll’.” To reach that conclusion, the author added the total number of public workers, pensioners, unemployed people with benefits, and citizens who receive the minimum vital income (IMV) and guaranteed income (RGI), and then divided the result by the total of people over 20 years of age in the region.
Calculated at national level and with slightly expanded age ranges, the figures are no more promising.
Spain’s national statistics service provides demographic data in age ranges of five years, so the Spanish newspaper El Debate then made the same calculations at a national level. This included the age range of 15 to 19 years old, since the legal age of emancipation and to start working is 16 (even though most Spaniards remain in school until they are at least 18 years of age).
According to El Debate, in Spain there are 3.5 million employees in the public sector and 1.8 million recipients of unemployment benefits, which represents 60% of the unemployed in the country. In addition, 6.4 million people receive a retirement pension and just over 735,000 receive a minimal sustenance benefit, the IMV. In total, there are almost 12.5 million people who receive remuneration from the State, 30% of the population over 15 years of age.
The differences between the country’s autonomous communities, however, are notable. The Canary Islands include 25.5% on the state ‘payroll’; Madrid 26.2%, the Balearic Islands 26.4% and Murcia 26.7%—all have a slightly lower than average number of people reliant on public funds in some form. Extremadura with 37.2%, Asturias 34.2%, Ceuta 33.9% and Castilla y León 33.7% are above the national average.
This disparity in results has a lot to do with the particularities of each region: the highest percentage of public workers is found in Extremadura and Castilla y León due to their military installations with the accompanying personnel, while Asturias, Galicia and the Basque Country have higher percentages of pensioners than other regions. While retirement pensions include an element of employee contributions and military spending is a legitimate activity, the figures remain concerning.
The numbers also reflect growth in the amount of payments the Spanish government has to make each month. In recent years, retirement pensions have grown by 7% and there are now more employees in the public administration. Spain, however, is still one of the EU countries with comparatively fewer public employees, with the Scandinavian member states having the highest rates among the bloc.
Spain’s national debt is also increasing under prime minister Pedro Sánchez, who first took office in 2019. It closed the third quarter of 2023 at €1,577 trillion, 5% more than the same period in 2022 and 34% more than in 2018. Despite Brussels’ sovereignty-infringing demands to reduce the deficit, Sánchez has shown little inclination to change course and drastically reduce public spending.
