Purchasing Power Parities 2016-2018

Swedish households’ Actual Individual Consumption 8 percent above EU average

Statistical news from Statistics Sweden 2019-12-19 9.30

Swedish households’ Actual Individual Consumption (AIC) per capita was 8 percent above the average for the 28 EU countries in 2018. Sweden ranks twelfth in Europe.

Actual Individual Consumption (AIC) refers to all goods and services that are actually consumed by individual households, irrespective of whether these goods and services are purchased and provided by households, by the State or by non-profit organisations. In international comparisons, AIC is often preferred as an indicator of households’ material welfare.

AIC per capita varied among the 28 EU Member States, Norway, Iceland, and Switzerland, from 34 percent above the EU 28 average to 44 percent below the EU 28 average. Luxemburg tops the list with 34 percent above, followed by Norway, which recorded 26 percent above, and Switzerland which recorded 24 percent above the EU average. However, it should be noted that Norway, Switzerland and Iceland are not included in the EU 28 average.

Purchasing power parities 2016-2018 — Actual Individual Consumption in purchasing power standards (PPS), 2018 (EU28=100)

Source: Eurostat and SCB

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

In 2018, Sweden’s GDP per capita was 20 percent above the EU 28 average. Luxembourg had by far the highest GDP per capita, at 161 percent above the EU average. This high figure is due, in part, to the large share of foreign workers in the country, who contribute to GDP, but are not included in the population statistics. The lowest figure recorded in this comparison was 49 percent below the EU average, in Bulgaria.

Actual Individual Consumption (AIC) and Volume indices of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in PPS 2016, 2017 and 2018 EU28=100

	AIC volume index per capita, EU28=100			GDP volume index per capita, EU28=100
	2016	2017	2018	2016	2017	2018
Luxembourg	135	133	134	269	261	261
Norway	127	126	126	144	146	151
Switzerland	127	124	124	160	155	155
Germany	121	121	120	123	123	122
Iceland	114	116	118	129	129	130
Austria	119	118	117	128	127	127
Denmark	113	114	114	127	127	128
Belgium	114	113	113	119	118	117
Netherlands	111	112	113	127	128	129
United Kingdom	115	114	113	108	106	105
Finland	112	111	112	110	110	111
Sweden	112	111	108	123	122	120
France	110	108	107	105	103	104
EU-28	100	100	100	100	100	100
Italy	98	98	98	97	97	96
Ireland	95	94	95	176	181	189
Cyprus	92	93	94	87	88	89
Spain	90	91	90	91	92	91
Lithuania	85	87	89	75	78	80
Portugal	82	81	83	77	77	77
Czech Republic	79	81	82	87	89	91
Malta	78	78	80	95	97	98
Slovenia	77	78	79	83	85	87
Greece	77	76	77	68	67	68
Poland	74	75	76	68	69	70
Estonia	72	72	74	76	78	82
Slovakia	68	69	73	72	72	73
Romania	65	69	71	59	63	65
Latvia	66	67	69	64	66	69
Croatia	61	62	64	60	61	63
Hungary	62	63	64	68	68	71
Bulgaria	54	54	56	49	50	51

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 2018 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 to purchase 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.

Eurostat’s publishing of Purchasing Power Parities

Consumption per capita in purchasing power standards in 2018

The Eurostat website and database

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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.