Romanians, Lithuanians, heaviest EU spenders on food, and non-alcoholic beverages

In 2018, households in the European Union (EU) spent 12.1% of their total consumption expenditure on food and non-alcoholic beverages, with Romanian, Lithuanian and Estonian household topping the list, according to data published on Monday by the European Statistical Office (Eurostat). 

In 2018, households in the European Union (EU) spent over 1,047 billion (equivalent to 6.6% of EU GDP) on food and non-alcoholic beverages, the third largest category of household expenditure after housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, which accounted for 24.0% of household expenditure, and transport, which accounted for 13.2%. 

Households in Romania spent around a fifth of total household consumption expenditure on food and non-alcoholic beverages (27.8%). The next highest shares were in Lithuania (20.9%) and Estonia (19.6%). In contrast, the figure was below 10% in four EU member states: the United Kingdom (7.8%), Ireland (8.7%), Luxembourg (9.1%) and Austria (9.7%). 

Between 2008 and 2018, the share of total household expenditure on food decreased or remained stable in most EU member states where 2018 data is available. 

The largest decrease was recorded in Lithuania (from 24.8% of total household expenditure in 2008 to 20.9% in 2018, or a fall of 3.9 percentage points), followed by Poland (-3.4%) and Malta (-3.0%). 

In contrast, household expenditure on food increased in 10 EU member states where 2018 data is available. The largest increase was recorded in the Czech Republic and Slovakia (both +1.4pp), the Netherlands (+1.0pp) and Hungary (+0.8pp).