Mapping social protection statistics

Monitoring welfare systems requires investigating several aspects of social protection activities such as the amount, kind and quality of services delivered, or the features of the demand coming from people. The geographical area where beneficiaries live, represents a further key dimension which must be considered since, in some countries, local governments are assigned managing and, sometimes, legislative competencies on social protection areas. This chapter explores the availability of comparable statistics on social protection at the sub-national level in Europe and in Italy with a special focus on social protection expenditure. The objective is assessing the possibility to derive quantitative indicators to characterize the European and Italian welfare systems at the local level. An empirical analysis of some aspects concerning social protection services, delivered by municipalities in Italy, in 2012, is here reported.