Where do the billions go?

Anyone wanting to talk about potential savings first needs the orders of magnitude. This overview shows the state’s large spending blocks: the federal budget, the social budget across all providers, public development assistance and payments to the United Nations. Every figure appears with its year, its basis and its source. Where two figures sound similar but measure different things, that is stated expressly.

The federal budget

For 2026 the Bundestag adopted spending of 524.54 billion euros.^[1][2] In the core budget the federal government takes on 97.96 billion euros of new borrowing for this; in addition come 83.58 billion euros of borrowing by the special funds for the armed forces, infrastructure and climate neutrality. Together that is around 181.5 billion euros of new debt in one year.^[1][2]

For basic income support for jobseekers the 2026 budget provides 51.02 billion euros in total. Of that, 28.05 billion euros goes to the cash benefit itself, the former Bürgergeld, which after the reform adopted in March 2026 is called Grundsicherungsgeld, 13 billion euros to the federal government’s share of accommodation and heating and 4.7 billion euros to integration into work.^[4][5][8]

The social budget across all providers

The federal budget is only one part. The social budget of the federal ministry of labour and social affairs adds up the social benefits of all providers: social insurance funds, the federal government, the Länder, the municipalities, employers. For 2025 it estimates them at 1,431.0 billion euros, that is 32.0 per cent of economic output. For 2024 it reports 1,354.1 billion euros, 31.3 per cent.^[9]

The social insurance systems account for 863.2 billion euros, around three fifths of the benefits. The social budget is financed to around two thirds from social contributions: 973.9 of 1,488.2 billion euros of revenue.^[9]

Both figures are correct. They measure different things and must not be set against each other.

Public development assistance

Germany’s public development assistance (ODA) stood at 35.1 billion euros in 2023, 0.82 per cent of gross national income. Of that, 25.2 billion euros ran through bilateral and 9.9 billion euros through multilateral channels. The largest provider was the development ministry with 13.0 billion euros (37.2 per cent), while the foreign office came to 4.8 billion euros (13.8 per cent). 6.7 billion euros (19.2 per cent) were eligible costs for refugees from developing countries in Germany, and 1.98 billion euros the Länder’s costs for university places.^[10]

A matter of definition: the 62.5 billion euros that the Federal Statistical Office also gives for 2023 are the total flows to developing countries. Besides ODA these include private flows, for instance 18.4 billion euros of direct investment by companies and 1.5 billion euros from aid organisations. They are not state spending.^[10]

Since then the flows have fallen markedly. In 2024 they stood at 32.83 billion US dollars, 0.68 per cent of gross national income, for the first time since 2020 below the United Nations target of 0.7 per cent.^[11] For 2025 the OECD provisionally reports around 26 billion euros, 0.56 per cent; the eligible costs for refugees within Germany fell to around 4.3 billion euros.^[12][13]

Payments to the United Nations

According to the federal government’s reports, Germany paid 6.80 billion euros to the United Nations system in 2022, 5.05 billion in 2023, 4.16 billion in 2024 and 3.24 billion euros in 2025.^[16][17] Assessed contributions, for instance to the regular budget and to the peacekeeping missions, whose level the General Assembly sets bindingly, made up only a smaller part of that: 695.8 million euros in 2023 (13.8 per cent) and 807.4 million euros in 2025 (24.9 per cent). The rest are voluntary payments.^[16][17]

The level of debt

At the end of 2025 general government debt under the rules of the Maastricht Treaty stood at 2.84 trillion euros, 63.5 per cent of economic output.^[18] At the end of the first quarter of 2026 it was 2.90 trillion euros, 64.4 per cent.^[19]

The orders of magnitude at a glance

The rows partly overlap and do not add up to a total.