Home > Statistics > Local government finances > 2015 > Net costs of municipalities’ social and health care activities amounted to EUR 17.9 billion in 2015

Published: 4 November 2016

Net costs of municipalities’ social and health care activities amounted to EUR 17.9 billion in 2015

Corrected on 3 November 2017. The corrected figures are indicated in red.

Net costs of municipalities’ social and health care activities amounted to EUR 17.9 billion in 2015. The share of social and health care activities in the net costs of municipalities’ operating economy was 58.6 per cent. Municipalities spent EUR 6.6 billion on specialised health care on net, which represented 37.1 per cent of all net costs of social and health care activities. These data appear from Statistics Finland's statistics on local government finances, for which data were collected from all 317 municipalities and all 146 joint municipal authorities.

Operating economy of municipalities in 2015, EUR million ¹⁾

	Municipalities
	Operating costs	Operating income	Net costs
Social services and health care, total	20 771	2 911	17 860
Of which: Specialised health care	6 911	279	6 632
Educational and cultural activities, total	11 605	1 117	10 488
Of which: Primary education	5 064	311	4 753
Other activities, total	11 530	9 409	2 121
Of which: Fire and rescue activities	705	292	413
Operating economy, total	43 905	13 437	30 468

1) Operating costs include operating expenses, depreciations and reductions in value as well as costs carried forward. Operating income includes operating income and income carried forward, change in inventory of finished products and production for own use. Net costs are the difference between operating costs and operating income.

Operating economy of municipalities

In 2015, municipalities combined operating costs amounted to EUR 43.9 billion and operating income to EUR 13.4 billion. Thus, the net costs amounted to EUR 30.5 billion. A majority of these were directed at social and health care activities, the net costs of which were EUR 17.9 billion or 58.6 per cent of the net costs of the entire operating economy.

Specialised health care formed the largest share of municipalities’ net costs from social and health care activities, and primary health care ¹⁾ the second-highest share. The share of specialised health care in social and health care activities was 37.1 per cent or EUR 6.6 billion and the share of primary health care was 19.0 per cent or EUR 3.4 billion.

Last year, 34.4 per cent of municipalities’ combined net costs were directed at education and cultural activities. The net costs of municipalities’ education and cultural activities totalled EUR 10.5 billion in 2015. A majority of the net costs from education and cultural activities were directed at primary education. The net costs of primary education were EUR 4.8 billion and thus 45.3 per cent of the net costs of education and cultural activities.

Measured in net, a total of EUR 2.1 billion was in 2015 directed at other activities, which includes all other activities apart from social and health care activities and education and cultural activities. Thus, all in all 7.0 per cent of the entire net costs of the operating economy was directed at other activities.

Operating economy of joint municipal authorities

In 2015, joint municipal authorities’ combined operating costs on gross amounted to EUR 14.1 (was 13.7) billion and operating income to EUR 14.3 (was 13.8) billion. A majority of the operating costs of joint municipal authorities were directed at social and health care activities and education and cultural activities just like for municipalities. The gross operating costs of joint municipal authorities’ social and health care activities totalled EUR 10.2 (was 9.7) billion or 72.3 (was 71.3) per cent of the entire operating economy. The share of education and cultural activities of joint municipal authorities’ operating costs on gross was 9.5 (was 9.7) per cent or EUR 1.3 billion.

Information on the statistics

Statistics on local government finances contain data on municipalities’ and joint municipal authorities’ operating economy, investments, balance sheets and activities. Data are collected from all municipalities and joint municipal authorities in Finland.

The data content and data collection for the statistics on local government finances have been revised for which reason the data are not directly comparable with the data of statistics on finances and activities of municipalities and joint municipal authorities published in previous years. In the statistics on local government finances enterprises are combined with the data on basic municipalities and joint municipal authorities, while this was not done in the statistics on finances and activities of municipalities and joint municipal authorities. In addition, changes have been made to the activity classification of municipalities and joint municipal authorities.

1) Primary health care services include outpatient care in primary health care, ward care in primary health care and oral health care.

Source: Local government finances 2015. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Karen Asplund 029 551 3611, kuntatalous@stat.fi

Director in charge: Ville Vertanen

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• Appendix table 1. Regional net costs in 2015 1) (4.11.2016)

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Updated 4.11.2016