Figure 3 – Government expenditure on recreation and sport, € per inhabitant, EU-27, 2018

In 2018, the 27 EU Member States spent collectively nearly €51 billion on recreation and sport, or €113 per inhabitant. The ratio of government recreation and sports expenditure to total expenditure varied across EU countries from 0.4 % of the total expenditure in Bulgaria, Ireland and Malta, to slightly over 2 % in Hungary.
However, these figures can be put into perspective considering the size of the population of each EU country. Thus, the relative expenditure per inhabitant was above €200 in six Member States: Luxembourg (€500 per inhabitant), Sweden (€254), Finland (€226), France (€204), the Netherlands (€202) and Denmark (€201), as shown in Figure 3. In contrast, the lowest recreation and sports expenditure per inhabitant was recorded in Bulgaria (€11), Romania (€30) and Slovakia (€31), followed by Lithuania (€35) and Croatia (€39).