DS Microdata > PPP > Block 1 > EN

Information on data details relevant for research project proposals

  • Data: Purchasing Power Parities (PPP) – average annual national prices per expenditure category and per basic heading
  • Reference area: countries
  • Currency unit: national currency
  • Reference period: annual
  • Price concept: national annual average prices collected and validated in the PPP framework
  • Classification detail: data available by expenditure category and by basic heading. Basic headings are the lowest level of aggregation in the PPP expenditure classification for which expenditures can be defined and for which PPPs are calculated.
  • Time detail: reference year of the survey
  • Country coverage: EU and EFTA countries who gave their consent to include their data in the files
  • Confidentiality treatment: only aggregated annual national prices are provided; if requested by a country, specific basic headings or data for a whole expenditure category are omitted

Description of the data collection

Scope of the data

Purchasing Power Parities (PPPs) are currency conversion rates that remove differences in price levels between countries. They are used to compare the volume of gross domestic product and its expenditure components across countries in real terms.

These data are intended to support analysis of price levels and cross-country comparisons within the PPP framework.

Data collection

The PPP programme collects price information for a broad range of goods and services used in household consumption, government consumption, and gross fixed capital formation, in accordance with the European and international PPP methodology.

National statistical authorities collect price observations for specified products and services following common survey lists, harmonised concepts, and validation procedures. The individual price observations are checked and validated at national and international level. On this basis, annual national average prices may be derived for dissemination purposes at the level of basic headings and expenditure categories.

Statistical unit

The data do not relate to persons, households, or enterprises as statistical units. They relate to aggregated price information compiled at country-year-basic heading level within the PPP framework.

Reference period

The reference period is the calendar year. The data represent annual national averages.

Data may be available for a sequence of reference years in the database and subsequently in the research files, subject to dissemination policy and data availability. The files are updated annually.

Users should note that methodological improvements, changes in product lists, revisions to expenditure classifications, and country participation may affect comparability over time.

Coverage

The data files include EU and EFTA countries participating in the Eurostat-OECD PPP Programme for the relevant reference year, subject to data availability and dissemination restrictions.

Coverage may differ across years. For some countries or years:

  • data may be unavailable
  • some basic headings or expenditure categories may not be disseminated
  • breaks in series may occur due to methodological or organisational changes

Among all EU and EFTA countries, data are not available for Bulgaria, Ireland, Malta, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Iceland, as the national authorities did not allow the data to be disseminated. In addition, construction survey prices are not disseminated for Latvia, while postal services and fixed telecommunications are not disseminated for Germany.

Important comparability considerations

Users should take into account the following points when working with PPP average annual national prices:

  • The data are produced for the purpose of international price and volume comparison.
  • Comparability may differ across expenditure categories, especially for services, government expenditure, and construction (due to the higher share of labor input into these categories and the high dispersion of wages across countries).
  • The composition of representative items underlying a basic heading may vary over time and across countries.

Available microdata

The scientific use files on PPP average annual national prices include, for each available reference year:

  • one record per country × expenditure category × basic heading
  • the average annual national price
  • the reference year
  • identifiers for the PPP expenditure classification
  • country code
  • basic heading code and label
  • flags for non-publishable data

DS Microdata > Purchasing Power Parities > See also > EN