Social welfare expenditures, fiscal year 1977.

In fiscal year 1978, social welfare expenditures under public laws reached $394.5 billion, a 9.1-percent increase over the previous year. When adjusted for price and population changes, the total was only 2.5 percent higher in "real" terms. Per capita real expenditures rose by 1 percent in 1978, compared with an increase of 2 percent in 1977. For the second successive year, social welfare expenditures declined as a proportion of the gross national product (GNP), falling from 20.4 percent in 1976 to 19.7 percent in 1977 and to 19.3 percent in 1978. With private social welfare expenditures included, total social welfare expenditures in 1978 rose to $548.9 billion, a figure that represented 26.9 percent of the GNP.