Data on government expenditure by sector (central, local government, etc.), function (e.g. agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, waste management, environment protection, etc.) and type of expenditure (on the basis of ESA 2010 transactions, e.g. subsidies, social transfer, gross capital formation, etc.), expressed in millions of Euro, millions of national currency units (euro-fixed where appropriate) and as a percentage of GDP.

COFOG data can be used for analysing the quality of public expenditure, especially trends in government expenditure on particular functions or purposes over time and inter-country comparisons (allowing however for the differences in the composition of government sector and in the institutional arrangements in different countries).

The collection of the data is carried out with the use of the relevant reporting table of the ESA 2010 transmission programme (COFOG), completed by national authorities. Once data are compiled by national authorities in the reporting format, they are transmitted via SDMX to Eurostat as well as to OECD.