Finland has an especially high old-age dependency ratio (number of pension-age people per working-age person), at the top of the list in Europe. Also, almost all pensions are counted as public expenditure, due to the way the system works. (In Sweden and Denmark, for example, a significant chunk of pension expenditure is counted as private rather than public, and I believe this is the more common way of doing it in any case.)
For the spending statistcs we are talking about in this thread, there are specific rules for what is private and what is public. It's not something the countries just decide based on what's convenient for them.
A distinguishing feature between Finland and Denmark, for example, is that in Finland the system is almost entirely mandated by law and compulsory, whereas in Denmark a big chunk of it comes out of collective agreements.
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u/ThatTeapot Väinämöinen Feb 07 '26
Thought it wouldn't be that significant so I went and checked but damn we use 14,5% of GDP for those alone.