Household real consumption per capita decreases in both euro area and EU

Notes for users

Revisions and timetable

A first release, focusing on data for household saving and investment rates in the euro area, is published around 94 days after each quarter. Compared with that News Release of 3 July 2025 on the euro area aggregate, the seasonally adjusted household saving rate of the first quarter of 2025 was revised downwards from 15.4% to 15.2%. The investment rate remained unrevised at 9.1%.

Compared with the News Release of 28 April 2025, the growth rate of household adjusted gross income per capita in real terms for the fourth quarter of 2024 was revised from 0.3% to 0.2% for the euro area and from 0.6% to 0.3% for the EU. The real growth rate of actual household consumption was left unrevised at 0.4% both for the euro area the EU.

Methods and definitions

Household real income per capita is defined as the adjusted gross disposable income of households, in nominal terms, divided by the total population (source: National Accounts concept) and by the deflator (price index) of household final consumption expenditure.

Household real consumption per capita is defined as the actual final consumption expenditure of households, in nominal terms, divided by the total population (source: National Accounts concept) and by the deflator (price index) of household final consumption expenditure.

The compilation of the European sector accounts follows the European System of Accounts 2010 (ESA2010) and covers the period from the first quarter of 1999 onwards. The data come from a detailed set of seasonally adjusted quarterly European sector accounts released by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union and the European Central Bank (ECB).

Institutional sectors bring together economic units with broadly similar characteristics and behaviour, namely: households (including non-profit institutions serving households), non-financial corporations, financial corporations, government and the rest of the world. In the latter, to measure the external transactions of the euro area / European Union, it is necessary to remove cross-border flows within the area concerned.

Eurostat’s database includes detailed annual and quarterly sector accounts of Member States of the European Economic Area and derived key indicators published around 120 days after each quarter (which also cover annual indicators such as debt-to-income ratios). A subset of quarterly key indicators is published around 94 days after each quarter.

Due to the conversion to euro, the growth rates of European Union aggregates may be affected by movements in exchange rates.

Geographical information

The euro area (EA20) consists of 20 Member States: Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland, plus the European Central Bank, the European Stability Mechanism and the European Financial Stability Facility.

The European Union (EU27) includes Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland and Sweden plus the EU institutions.