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Municipal expenditure on social services

What are the costs of people receiving publicly funded social services? How are expenditures distributed across different types of social services? The municipal expenditure on social services statistics provide an overview of municipalities' expenditure on selected social services (under the Danish Social Services Act) and is available at the individual level.

Explainer on…

Expenditure on social services that can be directly attributed to the individual receiving the service. The concept covers municipal expenditure on selected services provided under the Danish Social Services Act (Serviceloven), where expenditure is recorded at the individual level and can therefore be attributed to the individual citizen.

Annualised expenditure per citizen receiving a given service. The concept is calculated from the actual expenditure incurred during the period in which the citizen received the service and converted to an annual amount to make expenditure comparable across citizens and periods of expenditure.

Social services indicates the provision granted under a specific section of the Danish Social Services Act (Serviceloven). Social services are granted by municipalities to adults with disabilities, social problems or other special needs, for example in the form of residential care services or social pedagogical support. An individual may receive several social serives simultaneously, as different needs may be addressed under different sections of the Act. The statistics cover a selection of sections of the Danish Social Services Act. The sections for which data are collected are specified in the Executive Order on Data Collection in the Social Services Area.

Selected statistics on Municipal expenditure on social services

This page shows selected popular statistics on the subject of Municipal expenditure on social services. In Statbank Denmark, you can find more data and compile your own statistics.

Median individual unit expenditure by service type

This chart shows the median individual unit expenditure by social service under the Danish Social Services Act: Temporary residential  accommodation (Section 107), long-term residential accommodation (Section 108), crisis shelters (Section 109), shelters (Section 110), and Support in residential accommodation-like arrangements under the Danish Social Housing Act (Section 105) in conjunction with Section 85. The median represents the middle value when individual unit expenditures are ranked from lowest to highest.
More about the figure
Last update
2.7.2026
Next update
22.6.2027
Source data

Municipalities report data on individually attributable expenditure to Statistics Denmark. Data are submitted either through system-to-system transfers from municipalities' administrative financial management systems or via the web-based reporting solution, IDEP, which is accessed through Virk.dk. Through IDEP, municipalities can access all data they have reported. Most municipalities submit their data via IDEP.

When municipalities collect and report data through IDEP, this is primarily done in one of the following ways, or through a combination of these methods. The method used depends on the municipality's accounting practices and the availability of data:

  1. Expenditure and the expenditure period are extracted from the municipality's financial management system.
  2. Expenditure and the expenditure period are extracted from the municipality's case management system.
  3. Expenditure and the expenditure period are compiled and processed in a municipality-specific spreadsheet before being reported.

The data reported by municipalities are reconciled with the municipal accounting data from the Municipal Accounts and Budgets statistics.

Distribution of individual unit expenditure by residential accommodation

This chart shows the distribution of individual unit expenditure for selected residential accommodations, including the median, average, first quartile and third quartile. It covers temporary residential care accommodation (Section 107), long-term residential care accommodation (Section 108), crisis shelters (Section 109), shelters (Section 110), and support in residential accommodation-like arrangements under the Danish Social Housing Act (Section 105) in conjunction with Section 85. The first quartile marks the lowest 25 per cent of individual unit expenditures, while the third quartile marks the highest 25 per cent
More about the figure
Last update
2.7.2026
Next update
22.6.2027
Source data

Municipalities report data on individually attributable expenditure to Statistics Denmark. Data are submitted either through system-to-system transfers from municipalities' administrative financial management systems or via the web-based reporting solution, IDEP, which is accessed through Virk.dk. Through IDEP, municipalities can access all data they have reported. Most municipalities submit their data via IDEP.

When municipalities collect and report data through IDEP, this is primarily done in one of the following ways, or through a combination of these methods. The method used depends on the municipality's accounting practices and the availability of data:

  1. Expenditure and the expenditure period are extracted from the municipality's financial management system.
  2. Expenditure and the expenditure period are extracted from the municipality's case management system.
  3. Expenditure and the expenditure period are compiled and processed in a municipality-specific spreadsheet before being reported.

The data reported by municipalities are reconciled with the municipal accounting data from the Municipal Accounts and Budgets statistics.

On the statistics – documentation, sources and method

Gain an overview of the purpose, contents and quality of the statistics. Learn about the data sources of the statistics, the contents of the statistics and how often they are published.

See the documentation of statistics to learn more:

Need more data on Municipal expenditure on social services?

Go on searching on your own in Statbank Denmark and find more detailed figures, e.g. the individual unit costs broken down by municipality and age.

Contact

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Phone: +45 39 17 32 50