The importance of welfare services

The concept of public welfare services refers to the publicly funded services that benefit individuals or households through individual consumption, primarily in health care, education and social care.

-Disposable income provides opportunities for consumption or saving for households and is the measure commonly used when analysing income inequality. If you add the value of public welfare services, there is an equalization of the economic differences, says Mattias Bågling, statistician at Statistics Sweden.

Public welfare services are redistributing funds mainly from people of working age to young and older people.

Distribution of welfare services by income

The chart below shows how welfare services are distributed by income.

- Everyone receives welfare services, even those with the highest income. But it is clear that people with lower income on average receive more public welfare services, says Karin Olin, statistician at Statistics Sweden.

It is mainly consumption of social protection services, which includes services in elderly care and disability, that are larger in the lower income brackets.

Consumption of education services are lower among those with the highest income. Education services is consumed most in the lowest income bracket, where many students are found.

Most public welfare services were consumed in income decil 2, the individuals with the second lowest incomes, with an average value of 136 000 SEK per person.

Persons in income decile 9, the individuals with the second highest income, consumed the least welfare services, barely 79 000 kronor per person in 2022.

Public welfare services Economic equalisation between individuals and households 2022