Romanians’ household expenditure dropped from 25.2% of total household expenditure in 2009 to 17.7% in 2019, which translates into a decline of 7.5 percentage points).
In 2019, households in the European Union spent over EUR1,700 billion (equivalent to 12.3% of EU GDP) on ‘housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels’. This represents nearly a quarter (23.5%) of their total consumption expenditure and is by far the EU’s largest household expenditure item, ahead of ‘Transport’ (13.1%), ‘Food and non-alcoholic beverages’ (13.0%), ‘Restaurants and hotels’ as well as ‘Recreation and culture’ (both 8.7%).
Between 2009 and 2019, the share of housing in total household expenditure decreased or remained stable in a majority of the EU Member States. In contrast, this share increased in 11 EU Member States: Ireland (from 22.0% in 2009 to 25.4% in 2019, or a rise of 3.4 pp) and Finland (from 25.4% in 2009 to 28.8% in 2019, or a rise of 3.4 pp as well), ahead of the Netherlands (+2.1 pp), Belgium, Luxembourg and Portugal (all +1.4 pp).
In the vast majority of EU Member States, ‘housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels’ represents the most substantial item of household expenditure.
In 2019, the share of household expenditure devoted to housing was largest in Finland (28.8%), Slovakia (28.4%) and Denmark (27.9%), followed by Czechia (26.4%), France (26.2%), Sweden (25.8%) and Ireland (25.4%).
In contrast, Malta (12.3%), Lithuania (14.9%), Cyprus (15.6%) and Croatia (16.2%) recorded the lowest shares of household expenditure on housing.