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.

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

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
	2014	2015	2016	2014	2015	2016
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.