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Eurydice

EACEA National Policies Platform:Eurydice
Funding in education

Austria

3.Funding in education

Last update: 9 June 2022

According to the joint data collection of UNESCO-OECD-EUROSTAT (UOE), public expenditure on education amounts to EUR 18,785.2 million in 2015. In addition, there is EUR 1,348.4 million from private sources. Across all ISCED fields, this results in a distribution of 93.3% public funding and 6.7% private funding.

  • EUR 2,325.5 million is spent on the elementary sector (ISCED 0), with public funding accounting for 85.4% (EUR 1,985.2 million) and private funding for 14.6% (EUR 340.3 million). Compared to the average, private organisations and households therefore spend an above-average amount on education.
  • In the primary sector (ISCED 1), total expenditure on education amounts to EUR 3,259.6 million. In this area, EUR 3,112.3 million (95.5%) comes from public sources and EUR 147.3 million (4.5%) from private sources.
  • In the secondary and non-tertiary post-secondary sector (ISCED 2-4), total expenditure in 2015 amounts to EUR 8,024.5 million. 94.2% or EUR 7,557.4 million comes from public sources and 5.8% or EUR 467.1 million from private sources.
  • The total expenditure in the tertiary sector (ISCED 5-8) amounts to EUR 6,524.0 million. The share of public funding in this education sector is 94.0% (EUR 6,130.3 million), and 6% or EUR 393.7 million comes from private sources.

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SectorsPublic expenditure, € in millionsPrivate expenditure, € in millionsPublic expenditure, sharePrivate expenditure, share
ISCED 0: Elementary sector1,985.2340,385.4%14.6%
ISCED 1: Primary sector Grade 1 - 43,112.3147.395.5%4.5%
ISCED 2: Lower secondary level Grade 5 - 84,100.6183.195.7%4.3%
ISCED 3: Upper secondary level Grade 9 and higher3,390.5247.393.2%6.8%
ISCED 4: Post-secondary, non-tertiary sector66.336.764.4%35.6%
ISCED 5: Non-university tertiary sector966.047.195.4%4.6%
ISCED 6-8: University tertiary sector5,164.3346.693.7%6.3%
Total expenditure18,785.21,348.493.3%6.7%

Source: Eurostat (2019)

In 2016, public spending on education amounted to EUR 19,595.6 million. This is distributed as follows among the three central bodies (federal government, provinces and municipalities):

  • the federal government (including other public bodies) spent 52.9% (EUR 9,943.4 million).
  • The share of expenditure of the provinces including the federal capital Vienna(1)  amounted to around 34.6% (EUR 6,497.8 million)
  • and that of the municipalities and regional boards of education(2)  to around 12.5% (EUR 2,344.1 million) of public education expenditure.

However, the distribution of final expenditure on education between local authorities differs from the raising of funds. Financial transfers between local authorities therefore play an important role in the education sector. In the compulsory school sector (ISCED 1 and 2), for example, most of the expenditure is financed by the federal government and transferred to the provinces, which, as the responsible body, spend these funds on schools. In the elementary sector, on the other hand, the provinces provide the majority of funding, some of which is passed on to the municipalities in the form of transfers.

(1) Vienna’s expenditure is determined separately each year by the national statistical authority (Statistics Austria). This is a result of Vienna’s special status as both a province (NUTS 1) and a municipality (NUTS 2).

(2) With regard to the funding of education, regional boards of education only play a role in some provinces. The majority of the expenditure is accounted for by associations of compulsory secondary schools (ISCED 2).

Sources