In 2019, households in the EU spent €117 billion (equivalent to 0.8% of EU GDP) on ‘alcoholic beverages’. This represents 1.6% of their total consumption expenditure. It should be noted that this does not include alcoholic beverages paid for in restaurants and hotels.
Among EU Member States, the share of total consumption expenditure spent on alcoholic beverages was the highest in three Baltic States: Latvia (4.8%), Estonia (4.7%) and Lithuania (3.7%). In contrast, the figure was below 1% in Greece and Italy (each 0.9%).
Source dataset: nama_10_co3_p3
Lithuania - highest decrease in alcohol expenditure, Romania the highest increase
Between 2009 and 2019, the share of total household expenditure on alcohol decreased in 13 EU Member States with available data. The largest decrease was recorded in Lithuania (from 5.5% of total household expenditure in 2009 to 3.7% in 2019, -1.8 percentage points (pp)), followed by Latvia (-1.5 pp), Bulgaria (-1.3 pp) and Estonia (-1.1 pp).
In contrast, household expenditure on alcohol increased in seven EU Member States with the largest increases recorded in Romania (from 2.1% of total household expenditure in 2009 to 2.6% in 2019, +0.5 pp) and Portugal (from 1.1% of total household expenditure in 2009 to 1.4% in 2019, +0.3 pp).
In six EU Member States - Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Slovenia - this share remained stable.
Would you like to know more about household consumption expenditure?
A more complete overview, broken down by consumption purpose, is available in the Statistics Explained article and the interactive infographics.
Notes:
- This article shows the situation before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which might impact the 2020 data to be published next year.
- The European Union (EU) includes 27 EU Member States. The United Kingdom left the European Union on 31 January 2020. Further information is published here.
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