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Annual expenditure. By composition of the household

Average annual expenditure. By composition of the household Catalonia. 2023
Average expenditure
Per household (euros) Per person (euros) Per unit of consumption (euros) Total expenditure (milions of euros)
Person alone (< 65 years) 21,890 21,890 21,890 11,690.2
Person alone (65 years or more) 22,698 22,698 22,698 7,011.9
Couple without children 34,617 17,308 23,078 30,449.5
Another type of household without children 41,173 12,629 19,341 15,965.6
An adult with children 27,908 10,803 16,632 2,280.6
Couple with one dhildren 35,443 11,814 18,907 10,861.0
Couple with two dhildren 45,890 11,473 20,171 15,619.3
Partner with three or more children 42,291 7,932 15,293 3,168.9
Another type of household with children 47,120 8,996 15,869 10,172.1
Total 34,259 13,592 20,147 107,219.2
Source: Idescat, based on the INE Household Budget Survey (base 2016).

Last update: October 24, 2024.

Methodological note

These statistics are conducted upon the basis of the Family Budget Survey carried out each year by the INE. Idescat processes this data in detail on a yearly basis, expanding the results for Catalonia.

Household expenditure consists of the entire flow of money that household economies devote to the acquisition of consumer items, plus supplies, self-consumption goods, or any salary in kind, despite these last items not implying any monetary flow.

The expenditure can be calculated per person in the household and unit of consumption in the household. In order to obtain the units of consumption we use the so-called equivalence scales, which turn household members into units of consumption. These equivalence scales are applied because economies of scale are generated when a household shares certain goods and services, which means that the needs of a household with n persons are sometimes lower than the needs of a household with just one person.

In this case we use the modified OECD scale, which gives the following values to each member of the household:

  • Main provider: 1
  • Adult other than 13: 0,5
  • Child 13 and under: 0,3

The total expenditure of a household is divided by the number of units of consumption in the household and we thus obtain the equivalent expenditure per unit of consumption. Each member of a household is assigned the equivalent expenditure of his or her household.

Expenditure is presented classified according to the Classification of the Functions of Individual Consumption (COICOP/HBS) until 2015. From 2016 onwards, the European Classification of the Functions of Individual Consumption (ECOICOP) is used. These two classifications are not entirely comparable.

From 2024 onwards, it has been included the new United Nations International Classification of Consumption known as COICOP 2018 (European Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose), which replaces the classification that had been used since 2016.

For further information about these statistics, you may check the methodology.