Private social welfare expenditures, 1972-85

This article updates the private social welfare expenditures series with complete data for 1985 and information for most categories through 1986. In the United States, private sector expenditures play a substantial role in the provision of social welfare services. This article presents private social welfare expenditures in terms of the four major categories--health, education, welfare and related services, and income maintenance that includes private pensions, sickness and disability benefits, and group insurance. The private expenditures, which totaled $429.3 billion in 1985, are distributed by major category beginning in 1972 and are also related to public social welfare expenditures and gross national product.