Adequacy of social safety net programs by country
Adequacy of social safety net programs is measured by the total transfer amount received by the population participating in social safety net programs as a share of their total welfare. Social safety net programs include cash transfers, social pensions, cash transfers, school feeding, and other social assistance programs.
What the numbers show
Adequacy of social safety net programs is currently reported for 33 countries. The highest value is 42.3% in Georgia; the lowest is 0.7% in Colombia.
The median across all reporting countries is 9.4%, and the mean is 12.1%.
The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 61.
Over the past decade 23 countries rose and 10 fell. The largest increase was in El Salvador (up 558.6%), and the largest decrease in Honduras (down 87.1%).
Adequacy of social safety net programs: full country ranking
| # | Country | Latest | Year | 10-year change | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Georgia | 42.3% | 2021 | up 45.1% | rising |
| 2 | Armenia | 30.0% | 2022 | up 64.7% | rising |
| 3 | Serbia | 26.4% | 2022 | up 38.9% | rising |
| 4 | Brazil | 25.9% | 2022 | up 185.1% | rising |
| 5 | Poland | 22.4% | 2019 | up 159.5% | rising |
| 6 | Kazakhstan | 19.8% | 2021 | up 215.1% | volatile |
| 7 | Kyrgyzstan | 16.9% | 2020 | up 100.6% | rising |
| 8 | Chile | 16.8% | 2022 | up 128.2% | rising |
| 9 | Costa Rica | 15.0% | 2022 | up 21.3% | rising |
| 10 | Ecuador | 14.8% | 2022 | up 41.9% | rising |
| 11 | Romania | 14.6% | 2021 | up 25.8% | rising |
| 12 | Belarus | 13.4% | 2019 | up 79.2% | volatile |
| 13 | Moldova | 13.2% | 2018 | up 52.0% | rising |
| 14 | Argentina | 12.8% | 2022 | up 22.4% | rising |
| 15 | Mexico | 10.7% | 2022 | up 5.0% | falling |
| 16 | Mongolia | 9.8% | 2020 | up 65.2% | rising |
| 17 | Turkey | 9.4% | 2019 | up 47.7% | rising |
| 18 | Indonesia | 9.4% | 2022 | down 41.2% | volatile |
| 19 | Vietnam | 8.8% | 2020 | down 2.5% | volatile |
| 20 | Panama | 8.1% | 2023 | up 23.5% | rising |
| 21 | Dominican Republic | 6.9% | 2021 | up 54.0% | rising |
| 22 | Sri Lanka | 6.5% | 2019 | up 91.2% | rising |
| 23 | Paraguay | 5.6% | 2022 | down 57.7% | falling |
| 24 | Uruguay | 5.2% | 2022 | up 89.5% | falling |
| 25 | Bolivia | 4.9% | 2021 | down 33.4% | falling |
| 26 | Pakistan | 4.9% | 2018 | down 72.4% | falling |
| 27 | Thailand | 4.9% | 2021 | down 28.0% | volatile |
| 28 | Malawi | 4.5% | 2019 | up 149.0% | rising |
| 29 | Peru | 4.2% | 2022 | down 57.2% | falling |
| 30 | Ukraine | 4.0% | 2020 | down 57.7% | falling |
| 31 | El Salvador | 3.2% | 2022 | up 558.6% | falling |
| 32 | Honduras | 2.6% | 2019 | down 87.1% | volatile |
| 33 | Colombia | 0.7% | 2022 | down 86.6% | volatile |
About this data
Adequacy of social safety net programs is measured by the total transfer amount received by the population participating in social safety net programs as a share of their total welfare. Social safety net programs include cash transfers, social pensions, cash transfers, school feeding, and other social assistance programs.