How much does France spend on education compared with the rest of Europe?

French secondary school students have been protesting for more than two weeks against conditions in schools, including overcrowded classrooms and teacher shortages, and there is no sign of the movement ending.

The unrest began on 21 September when students blockaded a school in the Paris suburb of Creteil. Within a week the protests had spread nationwide, with students and police clashing violently. On 29 September the marches coincided with a nationwide public-sector strike, as teachers and other civil servants demonstrated against a proposed pay freeze. More than 6,100 people were detained.

With the government under pressure to cut spending as public debt rises, Al Jazeera looks at how much France invests in education, how that compares with the rest of Europe, and how it stacks up against spending on health and defence.

How much does France spend on education?

According to the latest data from Eurostat, the European Union's statistics agency, France's public spending on education amounts to 5.1 percent of GDP. That figure excludes private spending such as tuition fees paid by families.

France's Ministry of National Education uses a broader measure, known as domestic spending on education, which counts all money flowing into education from the state, local authorities, businesses or households. Beyond teaching, it includes adult training, continuing education and related costs such as school meals, boarding and transport.

By this measure, France spent 199.2 billion euros ($223 billion) on education in 2025, equivalent to 6.7 percent of GDP and about 2.4 billion euros more than in 2024, according to provisional ministry figures.

Spending has more than doubled since 1980 even after adjusting for inflation. But the economy has grown too, so education's share of GDP is now lower than in the mid-1990s.

Secondary education accounts for the largest share at 73.7 billion euros (37 percent), followed by primary education at 60 billion euros (30 percent), higher education at 45.6 billion euros (23 percent) and adult and continuing training at 19.7 billion euros (10 percent), according to the Ministry of National Education.

How much do other European countries spend?

Among European countries, Sweden devotes the largest share of GDP to education at 7.3 percent in 2024, followed by Iceland (7 percent) and Belgium, Estonia and Finland (all 6.3 percent), according to Eurostat.

The lowest spenders include Ireland (2.7 percent), Greece (3.9 percent), Romania and Italy (both 4 percent), and the United Kingdom and Spain (both 4.1 percent).

At 5.1 percent, France is tied for 13th with the Netherlands and Slovakia, above the EU average of 4.8 percent.

But above-average spending has not spared France the problems affecting many developed countries. Teacher shortages are growing across countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), according to the OECD's latest Education at a Glance report.

Rather than leaving positions vacant, many countries fill them with underqualified teachers. In the 2024-2025 school year, 9 percent of primary and secondary teachers across the OECD were underqualified.

In France, the pressure is most visible in secondary schools. About 11 percent of secondary teachers are underqualified, compared with under 3 percent in primary schools. The average lower-secondary class has 26 pupils, compared with 23 across the OECD.

This reflects what students have raised in the recent protests: crowded classes and absent teachers who are not replaced. Some also describe dilapidated schools, a lack of desks and chairs and, in some places, rats. This year's intense heatwaves in France have made matters worse in many neglected buildings, most of which have no air conditioning, according to students.

Teachers also feel undervalued. Only 4 percent say their profession is valued by society, the lowest rate among the countries surveyed and far below the OECD average of 22 percent.

How has spending changed?

Historical UNESCO data show France's education spending fell from 5.5 percent of GDP in 2017 to 5.3 percent in 2022, though it still ranked ninth among the 29 European countries with data. A brief rise to 5.7 percent in 2020 reflected a economy shrinking because of the pandemic, not extra spending.

France is among 14 countries where the ratio fell. Norway and Denmark recorded the steepest declines, while Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania and Czechia posted the largest increases.

What else do these countries spend on?

The protests coincided with a nationwide public-sector strike against the government's proposed 2027 budget, which aims to save 54 billion euros ($61.3 billion) as President Emmanuel Macron's administration tries to rein in a large public deficit.

Unions and civil servants are particularly opposed to the plan to freeze public-sector pay, which is expected to save about 2 billion euros ($2.27 billion).

Across Europe, most governments spend more on education than on defence, but health accounts for the largest share of national income in all three areas, according to 2022 data from the World Bank and UNESCO.

France spent 11.9 percent of GDP on health in 2022, one of the highest rates in Europe.