The Reference Series is a subset of the OECD Social Expenditure Database (SOCX) database, has been developed in order to serve a growing need for indicators of social policy.It provides a unique tool for monitoring trends in aggregate social expenditure and analysing changes in its composition while including estimates of the net total social spending for 2007 for the 27 OECD countries. Data is divided per country with core variables such as GDP in million terms, Gross National Income, PPP, exchange rates, total general government expenditure and more. Data are presented from 1980 onwards.