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Purchasing Power Parities:

Swedish households’ Actual Individual Consumption 10 percent above EU average

Statistical news from Statistics Sweden 2017-12-18 9.30

Swedish households’ Actual Individual Consumption (AIC) per capita is 10 percent above average for the 28 EU countries in 2016. 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 between the 28 EU countries and Norway, Iceland and Switzerland, ranges from 33 percent above to 47 percent below the EU 28 average. Norway tops the list with 33 percent above, followed by Luxembourg which is 32 percent above and Switzerland which is 28 percent above the average. However, it should be noted that Norway, Switzerland and Iceland is not included in the EU 28 average.

Actual Individual Consumption in purchasing power standards (PPS), 2016 (EU28=100)

Chart

Note: Sorted firstly by value and secondly alphabetically.

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

Sweden’s GDP per capita is 23 percent above the EU 28 average in 2016. Luxembourg has by far the highest GDP per capita, at 158 percent above the EU average. The relatively high figure is partly due to a large number of foreign residents working in the country and thus contributing to the GDP, while not being included in the population statistics. Bulgaria has the lowest figure in this comparison with 51 percent below the average for the EU countries.

Actual Individual Consumption (AIC) and Volume indices of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in PPS 2014, 2015 and 2016 EU28=100
 AIC volume index
per capita, EU28=100
  
GDP volume index
per capita, EU28=100
 201420152016201420152016
Norway 135 135 133 176 161 148
Luxembourg 138 135 132 270 267 258
Switzerland 131 131 128 165 166 161
Germany 124 122 122 126 124 123
Austria 122 121 119 130 130 128
United Kingdom 115 115 116 109 108 107
Finland 114 114 114 111 109 109
Iceland 113 112 114 119 123 128
Denmark 115 115 113 128 127 124
Belgium 115 114 112 119 119 118
France 112 111 111 107 105 104
Netherlands 113 112 111 130 129 128
Sweden 112 112 110 124 125 123
EU-28 100 100 100 100 100 100
Italy 97 97 98 96 95 97
Ireland 94 96 96 137 181 183
Cyprus 89 91 91 81 82 83
Spain 87 89 89 90 91 92
Lithuania 81 83 85 75 75 75
Portugal 81 82 82 77 77 77
Malta 79 81 81 90 93 96
Czech Republic 78 78 78 86 87 88
Greece 80 79 77 72 69 68
Slovenia 76 76 76 82 82 83
Slovakia 76 76 76 77 77 77
Poland 74 74 74 67 68 68
Estonia 69 71 72 76 75 75
Latvia 65 65 67 64 64 65
Hungary 62 63 63 68 68 67
Romania 56 58 61 55 56 58
Croatia 59 59 59 59 59 60
Bulgaria 51 53 53 47 47 49

Source: Eurostat and SCB Source: Eurostat and SCB. Note: Norway, Iceland and Switzerland are not EU-members and are therefore not included in the EU28 average. Sorted firstly by AIC in 2016 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

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.