The Spanish education system has a decentralised management and administration model. Educational powers are shared between:

• the State General Administration: Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MEFP) and Ministry of Universities;
• the Autonomous Communities (Departments for Education).

The general system for the transfer of funding to each Autonomous Community is settled by means of a multilateral agreement between regional governments and the State, which guarantees, through a series of mechanisms, solidarity between territories and a certain level of expenditure for the provision of the basic public service of education throughout the country.

The Autonomous Communities enjoy a high degree of management autonomy and they are therefore entitled to approve their own annual budget and to decide on the distribution of their resources.

Most of the investment in education is public, representing an 86% of the total spending on education in 2018 in lower levels than higher education and a 66% in tertiary education.

Private expenditure comes mainly from household spending (13%), particularly in non-university education, where household spending is equal to the total expenditure.

Proportion of public and private expenditure on education. Year 2018

Source: Drawn up by Eurydice National Unit of Spain (National Institute for Educational Evaluation, MEFP) on the basis of Education at a Glance 2021: OECD Indicators.

Public expenditure on education refers to the amounts targeted by public authorities. Most of it is assumed by the education authorities (the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, the Ministry of Universities and the Departments for Education in each Autonomous Community), whereas the rest is provided by other authorities.

Private funding comes exclusively from private sources:

• non-university education in public schools and publicly-funded private schools: it supplements public expenditure and covers expenses such as books and school materials, meals, transport or extracurricular activities. In private non grant-aided schools, families must pay for registration and tuition fees;
• university education: in public universities, private funding comes mainly from registration and tuition fees paid by students, the organisation of specialised courses and agreements signed with private corporations, as well as from other sources such as legacies, donations or subsidies granted by private institutions.

The annual expenditure, both public and private, per student by educational institutions is the result of dividing the total expenditure on education by the total number of students in Spain. This expenditure per student, expressed as a percentage of GDP per capita, reflects the effort made by the country in relation to its level of development.

Tertiary education students are the ones generating the highest cost, followed by secondary and primary education students.

Annual expenditure (public and private) per student¹ by educational institutions, relative to GDP per capita (from primary to tertiary education). Year 2018

¹In equivalent US dollars converted using PPPs.

Source: Drawn up by Eurydice National Unit of Spain (National Institute for Educational Evaluation, MEFP) on the basis of Education at a Glance 2021: OECD Indicators.

Public educational expenditure in 2019 reached around EUR 53 087.5 million, representing 4.26% of the GDP, and was mainly distributed amongst pre-primary and primary education (34.7%), secondary education and vocational training (30.1%) and university education (19.5%).

Distribution of public expenditure on education according to educational activity. 2019 (in EUR thousand) 

Source: Drawn up by Eurydice National Unit of Spain (National Institute for Educational Evaluation, MEFP), on the basis of data from Statistics on Public Spending of the General Subdirectorate for Statistics and Studies of the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training. rediE has elaborated the comparative chart of public expenditure distribution according to educational activity per autonomous community.

Public spending on education is directed at students of the different educational stages in both public and publicly-funded private schools, by means of educational agreements and grants and financial support. In 2019, around EUR 6 653.1 million were allocated to publicly-funded private schools offering pre-primary and/or primary education, secondary education, special education, other types of education and university education.

Public expenditure allocated to agreements. 2019 (in EUR thousand)

Source: Drawn up by Eurydice National Unit of Spain (National Institute for Educational Evaluation, MEFP) on the basis of data from Statistics on Public Spending of the General Subdirectorate for Statistics and Studies of the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training. rediE has elaborated the comparative chart of public expenditure distribution according to educational activity per autonomous community.