What does the government spend the most on?
Social security and welfare, including New Zealand Superannuation, was the largest core Crown spending function at $47,568 million (The Treasury (New Zealand), 2024/25).
Updated
Government spending split by function (welfare, health, education, law and order and so on), classified by Treasury using the United Nations Classification of the Functions of Government (COFOG).
Pre-1994 series were reclassified to COFOG headings by Treasury but are "not necessarily consistent with the COFOG standard". Before 1994 the functions do not sum to financial net expenditure (net lending is not allocated to functions).
Dividing a national total by population puts it on a human scale. Spending per person is an average across the country; the amount spent on each person varies with their circumstances.
Read the period beside each number before comparing it with another figure. A monthly observation, a quarterly result and a financial year cover different spans of time. The latest release can also revise earlier observations. The chart and downloads keep the published periods so you can check which figures are being compared. A change in spending describes what happened during that period; it does not by itself explain why it happened or identify the effect of a government policy. Definitions and coverage matter as much as the size of a change.
Government spending: social security and welfare (incl. GSF) was $44,658 million in 2023/24, a year earlier.
The earliest observation on the same basis was $15,253 million in 2004/05.
Spending: definitions
Government spending split by function (welfare, health, education, law and order and so on), classified by Treasury using the United Nations Classification of the Functions of Government (COFOG).
- Pre-1994 series were reclassified to COFOG headings by Treasury but are "not necessarily consistent with the COFOG standard".
- Before 1994 the functions do not sum to financial net expenditure (net lending is not allocated to functions).
- Social security and welfare includes the Government Superannuation Fund (GSF); NZ Super is within this category.
Show the figures
| Period | Core Crown expenses: social security and welfare (incl. GSF) ($m) |
|---|---|
| 2024/25 | $47,568 million |
| 2023/24 | $44,658 million |
| 2022/23 | $41,575 million |
| 2021/22 | $42,954 million |
| 2020/21 | $36,759 million |
| 2019/20 | $44,028 million |
| 2018/19 | $28,806 million |
| 2017/18 | $26,149 million |
| 2016/17 | $25,511 million |
| 2015/16 | $24,352 million |
| 2014/15 | $23,881 million |
| 2013/14 | $23,308 million |
| 2012/13 | $22,737 million |
| 2011/12 | $22,148 million |
| 2010/11 | $22,029 million |
| 2009/10 | $21,142 million |
| 2008/09 | $19,844 million |
| 2007/08 | $18,420 million |
| 2006/07 | $17,266 million |
| 2005/06 | $16,212 million |
Fiscal years. Year ended 31 March to 1989, year ended 30 June from 1990 (the April–June 1989 quarter falls between the two).. Source: The Treasury (New Zealand). Lines break at basis changes and missing periods.
Spending: questions for your AI
Download the data, attach it in your assistant, then paste the prompt.
The attached CSV is government spending by function, from The Treasury (New Zealand). Answer: What does the government spend the most on? Name the unit and period. Use only directly supported observations. Definitions: government spending split by function (welfare, health, education, law and order and so on), classified by Treasury using the United Nations Classification of the Functions of Government (COFOG). Limits: Pre-1994 series were reclassified to COFOG headings by Treasury but are "not necessarily consistent with the COFOG standard". Before 1994 the functions do not sum to financial net expenditure (net lending is not allocated to functions). Social security and welfare includes the Government Superannuation Fund (GSF); NZ Super is within this category.
More questions about spending
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Spending: sources
The source publication, licence and snapshot used to build this page.
- Organisation
- The Treasury (New Zealand), Fiscal Time Series – Historical Fiscal Indicators
- Licence
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Source: The Treasury, Fiscal Time Series – Historical Fiscal Indicators, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Figures transformed and calculated by NZ in Numbers.
- Reuse limits
- Treasury logos, emblems, trade marks and website design are not covered and must not be reused.
- Snapshot
- data/raw/treasury-hfi/2026-10-10_de59f9028a81.xlsx
- SHA256
- de59f9028a81a697ee66eea04861edfd8e2c3a7e472b3b8798d976951964f70f
- Retrieved
- 10 October 2026