Housing is the item that according to the EU has the most significant increase in spending

In 2016, households in the European Union (EU) spent nearly a quarter of their total consumption expenditure on “housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels”. This represents a total spending of nearly €2 000 bn (equivalent to 13.3% of EU GDP) and is by far the most significant expenditure of EU households.

Of all household expenditure main items, housing was the item that saw the most significant increase in spending over the last decade, rising from a share of 22.2% of total household expenditure in 2006 to 24.5% in 2016 (or +2.3 percentage points). Similar trends can be observed in the overwhelming majority of EU Member States, albeit to different extents.

A more complete overview of household final consumption expenditure, broken down by consumption purpose, is available in this interactive infographic.

Between 2006 and 2016, the share of “housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels” in total household expenditure grew in the vast majority of Member States. In particular, the highest increases over this 10-year time period were recorded in Portugal (from 14.3% of total household expenditure in 2006 to 18.8% in 2016, or a rise of 4.5 percentage points – pp), Spain (+4.3 pp), Finland (+4.1 pp) and Ireland (+3.8 pp), followed by Denmark and the Netherlands (both +3.1 pp), Greece and Italy (both +2.9 pp).

In contrast, the share of “housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels” in total household expenditure dropped slightly between 2006 and 2016 in Slovakia (from 26.7% in 2006 to 24.4% in 2016, or a decrease of 2.3 pp), Poland (-0.9 pp), Malta (-0.8 pp), Germany and Sweden (both -0.6 pp) as well as Estonia (-0.5 pp), while it remained largely stable in Hungary.