How much do households save and invest?
For the first time, Eurostat is publishing annual key indicators relating to households’ accounts for most of the EU Member States.
This new publication complements the existing set of annual key indicators, which combine households and non-profit institutions serving households, such as sports clubs and churches.
Household savings rate highest in Luxembourg, Sweden and Germany
In 2016, among EU Member States, Luxembourg (20.8%) had the highest household savings rate, followed by Sweden (18.8%), and Germany (17.2%).
At the opposite end of the scale, the lowest savings rates were recorded in Cyprus (-1.0%), Lithuania (-0.4%) and Latvia (2.0%).
The household savings rate is defined as household’s gross savings divided by the household’s gross disposable income, with the latter being adjusted for the change in pension entitlement of households. Gross savings is the remainder of the household’s gross disposable income which has not been spent as final consumption expenditure. Therefore, the savings rate increases when gross disposable income grows at a higher rate than final consumption expenditure.
Household investment rate highest in Luxembourg, Netherlands and Finland
Household investment mainly consists of the purchase and renovation of dwellings. In 2016, the household investment rate was highest In Luxembourg (11.4%), the Netherlands (11.3%) and Finland (10.8%), followed by Belgium (10.1%) and Germany (9.3%). Portugal (4.4%) and Latvia (4.5%) recorded the lowest household investment rates in the EU in 2016.
Data for Greece, Croatia, Hungary, Malta, Romania and the United Kingdom are not available
The source dataset can be found here
Source: eurostat – How much do households save and invest?
