In 2021, ‘Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels’ represented a quarter (25.0%) of EU household expenditure, down by 0.5 percentage points (pp) compared with 2020. ‘Food and non-alcoholic beverages’ (-0.5 pp) also decreased among household expenditure categories, representing 14.3% of total expenditure in 2021.

Last year, ‘Transport’ ranked third in household expenditure categories, representing 12.1% of the total expenditure, up 0.5 pp. This increase is related to the phase-out of COVID-19-related control measures that affected mobility all through the EU. The same tendency was noted in the ‘Recreation and culture’, ‘Restaurants and hotels’, ‘Health’ and ‘Clothing and footwear’ categories; their total expenditure share increased to 8.0%, 6.6%, 4.7% and 4.2% in 2021 (compared to 7.8%, 6.0%, 4.6% and 4.1% respectively in 2020). The shares of ‘Furnishings and household equipment’ as well as ‘Education’ costs were stable, representing 6.0% and 0.9% of the total expenditure, the same as in 2020.

Total expenditure shares of ‘Alcoholic beverages, tobacco and narcotics’, and ‘Miscellaneous goods and services’ went down by 0.2 pp for both categories, while for ‘Communications’ by 0.1 pp.

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