The ratio of public social spending to the gross domestic product in Korea was the second lowest among OECD countries with 9.4 percent, a report showed on Wednesday.

Mexico was the lowest with 8.2 percent while social spending amounted to 22.1 percent of GDP on average in the OECD area in 2009, OECD said in its recent report.

Korea, however, experienced the fastest increase in real social spending between 2007 and 2012 at 37 percent, far exceeding the OECD average of 10 percent, it added.

The report also showed that Korea will be the only country that will see the growth of public pension spending outpacing the growth of the population aged 65 and over.

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)