EU countries, socio-economic indicators, social protection, social protection indicators

Comprehensive social protection systems are the cornerstones of European Union Member State welfare systems. The paper focuses on socio-economic indicators (poverty or social exclusion, unemployment, GDP per capita) and social protection indicators (social protection expenditure and benefits by function) in 27 EU countries. Changes to the selected social indicators in the European Union are evaluated in the years 2010, 2015 and 2020. With the use of hierarchical cluster analysis, the similarity in socio-economic indicators of EU countries is evaluated in the period 2010-2018, leading to the division of these countries into five clusters according to economic and living standards. The results of social protection in the EU countries in the period 2010-2018 based on correlation analysis proved a moderate relationship, in particular between social protection benefits (aggregate) and benefits of social protection in specific areas (sickness/health care, family/children, disability) on one side, and the evaluated socio-economic indicators (poverty or social exclusion, GDP, income inequality) on the other. The findings demonstrate the significance of social protection policies in EU countries in connection to the tackling of social risks.