Health and Welfare Policy Forum

Foreword (October 2025, Health and Welfare Policy Forum)

  • Author

    Ham, Young Jin

  • Page

    3-3

  • PubDate

    2025. 10.

  • Language

    kor

The OECD’s Social Expenditure Database (SOCX) was established and has been maintained to facilitate cross-national comparisons of public and private social expenditures. The OECD compiles long-term time-series SOCX statistics using its definitions of social expenditures and category codes, and, to avoid double counting, does so in coordination with its other statistical databases, such as those covering education and health spending. Since joining the OECD, Korea has participated in compiling SOCX statistics, with the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (KIHASA), together with the Ministry of Health and Welfare, consistently collecting data from the outset on social welfare expenditure programs administered by both central and local governments, as well as on private-sector social welfare expenditures. However, as the SOCX is modeled on the European System of Integrated Social Protection Statistics (ESSPROS), it should not be assumed that all OECD countries compile their national data for the database fully in accordance with the common SOCX manual. The OECD thus allows member countries a certain degree of discretion―recognizing differences in their budget systems and welfare benefit structures―when compiling their national data for the SOCX. Therefore, understanding each country’s statistical overview (Country Note) is necessary when interpreting SOCX data, and meaningful cross-national comparisons require familiarity with each country’s social welfare system.
The October issue of Health and Welfare Forum focuses on the “Current State and Challenges of the SOCX,” featuring articles that present finalized expenditure data for 2020 and 2021 from the SOCX 2025 update. Drawing on this data, the authors analyze and compare national expenditures and fiscal burden indicators, examine social spending on health and families, and conduct policy simulations. This issue also includes a structural analysis of public and private pension expenditures in selected OECD countries, an examination of Korea’s public and private social expenditures and net social expenditures, and a discussion of the resulting policy implications. We hope this issue marks another step toward further stabilizing the data compilation process for the SOCX―the only database enabling cross-national comparisons of social welfare expenditures in OECD countries―and toward fostering follow-up analyses across different policy areas.

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