Social expenditure plays an important role in European Union (EU) countries. It improves the lives of citizens whose welfare is endangered due to poverty or illness. However, social expenditure represents a considerable share of the budgets of EU member states. Despite evident similarities in their levels of development, EU countries show apparent differences in social expenditure levels. Therefore, this work aims to determine the similarities and differences between EU countries in this regard. The analysis uses clustering methods, such as hierarchical cluster analysis and the k-means, to divide countries into homogeneous groups. The research demonstrates significant differences between EU countries in the years 2008–2018, which resulted in a low number of objects (countries) in the identified groups. In the case of 6 out of 28 countries, it was not possible to assign them to any group. The research proves that EU countries should take more care when organising their social policy, taking into consideration cultural and social factors.

社会支出在欧盟 (EU) 国家中发挥着重要作用。它改善了因贫困或疾病而受到威胁的公民的生活。然而，社会支出占欧盟成员国预算的很大一部分。尽管发展水平明显相似，但欧盟国家在社会支出水平上表现出明显差异。因此，这项工作旨在确定欧盟国家在这方面的异同。该分析使用聚类方法，例如层次聚类分析和 k 均值，将国家划分为同质组。研究表明，2008-2018 年欧盟国家之间存在显着差异，这导致确定的群体中的对象（国家）数量很少。就 28 个国家中的 6 个国家而言，不可能将它们分配给任何组。研究证明，欧盟国家在组织社会政策时应更加谨慎，同时考虑文化和社会因素。