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Purchasing Power Parities:

Swedish households’ Actual Individual Consumption 11 percent above EU average

Statistical news from Statistics Sweden 2016-12-16 9.30

Swedish households’ Actual Individual Consumption (AIC) per capita was 11 percent above the average for the 28 EU countries in 2015. Sweden ranks tenth in Europe.

Actual Individual Consumption (AIC) consists of goods and services that are consumed by the individual, irrespective of whether these goods and services are purchased and paid for by households, by the government or by non-profit organisations. In international comparisons, AIC is often seen as the preferable indicator for households’ actual standard of living.

The dispersion in AIC per capita among the 28 EU countries and Norway, Iceland and Switzerland ranges from 37 percent above to 47 percent below the EU-28 average. Luxembourg tops the list with 37 percent above, followed by Norway, which is 33 percent above, and Switzerland, which is 28 percent above the average. However, it should be noted that Norway, Switzerland and Iceland are not included in the EU-28 average.

Actual Individual Consumption in purchasing power standards (PPS), 2015 (EU28=100)

Note: Sorted firstly by value and secondly alphabetically.

GDP per capita is mainly an indicator of economic activity in a particular country.

In 2015, Sweden’s GDP per capita was 24 percent above the EU-28 average. Luxembourg had by far the highest GDP per capita, at 164 percent above the EU average. The high figure is in part due to the large number of foreign residents who work in the country and thus contribute to the GDP, although they are not included in the population statistics. Bulgaria has the lowest figure in this comparison - 53 percent below the average for the EU countries.

Actual Individual Consumption (AIC) and Volume indices of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in PPS 2013, 2014 and 2015, EU28=100
 AIC volume index per capitaGDP volume index per capita
 201320142015201320142015
Luxembourg
 145 143 137 261 267 264
Norway
 135 134 133 184 175 160
Switzerland
 133 131 128 164 163 162
Austria
 123 122 119 131 130 128
Germany
 123 124 123 124 125 124
Denmark
 116 115 115 128 127 127
Netherlands
 115 113 111 134 131 128
Belgium
 115 115 114 120 120 119
Finland
 114 114 114 113 111 109
France
 114 112 112 109 107 106
United Kingdom
 114 115 114 107 109 108
Sweden
 113 112 111 125 124 124
Iceland
 112 113 113 117 118 123
EU-28
 100 100 100 100 100 100
Italy
 100 98 99 99 97 96
Ireland
 95 94 96 133 137 177
Cyprus
 89 89 90 84 81 82
Spain
 86 87 88 90 90 90
Portugal
 81 81 82 77 77 77
Greece
 80 79 77 72 70 68
Malta
 79 79 80 86 86 88
Lithuania
 79 81 83 73 75 75
Czech Republic
 76 78 78 84 86 87
Slovenia
 75 76 77 77 77 77
Slovakia
 75 76 75 81 83 83
Poland
 74 74 74 67 68 69
Estonia
 68 69 71 75 76 75
Latvia
 64 65 66 62 64 64
Hungary
 62 62 63 67 68 68
Croatia
 59 59 58 59 59 58
Romania
 54 56 59 55 55 57
Bulgaria
 49 51 53 46 46 47

Source: Eurostat and SCB Norway, Iceland and Switzerland are not EU Member States and are therefore not included in the EU-28 average. Sorted firstly by AIC in 2015 and secondly in alphabetical order.

Definitions and explanations

Purchasing power parities (PPP) are currency conversion rates that are applied in order to convert economic indicators from national currency to artificial common currency, called Purchasing Power Standard (PPS), which equalises the purchasing power of different national currencies and enables meaningful volume comparison between countries.

PPP is the ratio between the amount in the countries’ domestic currency that is needed in order to buy the same basket of goods and services.

GDP is first calculated in the domestic currency and later converted with an artificial currency, Purchasing Power Standard (PPS). GDP per capita adjusted with purchasing power reflects the difference in volume in real terms between countries.

Information on Eurostat revision of PPP time series

Eurostat publishes a revised time series of Purchasing Power Parities (PPP), on 13 December. The revision starts from 1995. The revision was undertaken for three main reasons:
• to incorporate the latest national accounts data that was produced under ESA2010 by all Member States and other countries;
• to harmonise, to the maximum extent, the methodology used to calculate the PPPs for all reference years; and
• to introduce, for all reference years, the latest classification of expenditures.

For more detailed information

Purchasing Power Parities

Eurostat’s publishing of Purchasing Power Parities
For more informatio, see Eurostat´s newsrelease 
The Eurostat website and database

Next publishing will be

The next statistical news will be published on 18 December 2017 at 09:30. 

Statistical Database

More information is available in the Statistical Database

Feel free to use the facts from this statistical news but remember to state Source: Statistics Sweden.