In 2019, households in the EU spent €175 billion (equivalent to 1.3% of EU GDP) on ‘communications’ such as postal services, telephone and telefax equipment and services. This represents 2.4% of total household consumption expenditure.
Households in Bulgaria spend the highest share, Luxembourg spends the least
In 2019, the share of communication-related household expenditure was highest in Bulgaria (4.7%), followed by Croatia (4.0%), Greece (3.9%) and Romania (3.4%).
At the other end of the scale, households in Luxembourg spent the lowest share of household expenditure on communications (1.3%), followed by households in Denmark and Austria (both 1.9%).
Source dataset: nama_10_co3_p3
Estonia - highest decrease in communications expenditure, Romania the highest increase
Out of all the main items of household expenditure, spending on communications saw the most significant decline over the last decade in the EU. It fell from 3.0% of total household expenditure in 2009 to 2.4% in 2019 (or -0.6 percentage points (pp)).
Between 2009 and 2019, the share of total household expenditure on communications decreased in a vast majority of the EU Member States. The largest decrease was recorded in Estonia (from 4.0% of total household expenditure in 2009 to 2.3% in 2019, -1.7 pp). Estonia was followed by the Netherlands (-1.1 pp), France (-1.0 pp), Ireland and Poland (both -0.9 pp).
In contrast, household expenditure on communications increased in three EU Member States: Romania (from 2.3% in 2009 to 3.4% in 2019, +1.1 pp), ahead of Croatia (+0.3 pp) and Sweden (+0.2 pp).
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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