Europe’s vital statistics

Date: 22/12/05

Gucci, Lacoste and Louis Vuitton should perhaps open more stores in Athens, since recent Eurostat data indicates that people in Greece are spending a higher percentage of their household budget on fashion than the citizens of any other EU country.

The Eurostat Yearbook 2005, released on 15 December, says Greeks spend 10.1% of their household costs on clothing and footwear. Italy ranks second with 9.0%, followed by Latvia with 8.4% (although the Latvia number is taken from 2002 and the others from 2003). Stereotypes might suggest that the French were very fashion conscious but they devoted only 4.5% of their budget on style, putting them ahead of only Slovakia (3.7%), Hungary (4.2%) and Poland (4.4%).

The yearbook is meant to provide a snapshot of European life, as it includes statistics ranging from household budget costs to more serious topics such as health, education and enterprise.

Mostly the data on household spending is drawn from 2003 although yearbook data up to 29 April 2005 is included for some subjects.

Member states themselves collect the data for each indicator, so the accumulation of statistics varies widely. Eurostat harmonises this data to make sure that each country is calculating statistics according to the same parameters, a spokeswoman said, and then Eurostat makes aggregate calculations for the EU15 and EU25.

While Greece tops the EU for the proportion of income sacrificed on the altar of fashion, it falls in the middle in the amount spent on food and non-alcoholic beverages. Top of the table here is Lithuania, with 28.0%. Other new member states come next, with Latvia at 24.2% and Slovakia at 21.3% of household spending. The UK spends the least on food, at 9.1% of household costs, followed by Ireland (9.6%) and Luxembourg (9.8%).

Danish homes have the greatest access to the internet at 69% of households, according to 2004 figures, with Germany (60%), Luxembourg (59%) and the Netherlands (also 59%) not far off. Although the UK is ranked among the top five countries in percentage of households with internet access at 56%, its businesses do not fare as well. Only 44% of UK enterprises with more than ten employees have access to broadband internet. This figure is less than the EU25 average of 52% and far less than Denmark's top mark of 80%. Greece has the smallest proportion of businesses with broadband access at 21%.

Germany welcomed an EU-high 46 million tourists in 2003, calculated by the number of visitors who stay at least one night in collective or private accommodation. This figure far outpaces second-place France, which saw 29.5 million tourists, and Italy, which had 24.5 million. New member state Estonia had only 258,000 tourists, fewer even than tiny Luxembourg, which welcomed 421,000 guests and Slovenia with just shy of 962,000. Sweden and Greece did not submit their tourist numbers.

Article reports the publication in November 2005 of Eurostat's latest Yearbook.

Eurostat: Statistical Books: Europe in figures - Eurostat yearbook 2005 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/3217494/5662531/KS-CD-05-001-EN.PDF

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