Press Statement

Preasráiteas

21 June 2017

Household Expenditure up 4.3%

Go to release: Household Budget Survey 2015-2016

The Central Statistics Office today (21^st June 2017) published detailed results of the 2015-2016 Household Budget Survey (HBS) which was undertaken between February 2015 and February 2016 inclusive, covering 6,839 households.

Commenting on the results, Claire Burke, Statistician said: “The estimated average weekly expenditure in 2015-2016 for all households in the State was €845.12.  This was 4.3% higher than the €810.61 figure recorded five years earlier.

The proportion of total household expenditure relating to Food dropped from 16.2% in 2009-2010 to 14.6% in 2015-2016 whereas the proportion related to Housing increased from 18.2% to 19.4% over this five year period.

Expenditure on Transport increased by nearly 7% from €116.31 per week in 2009-2010 to €124.39 in 2015-2016.  This was due to an increase in expenditure on car purchases; however there was a 7.1% percent decrease in expenditure on Transport when expenditure on car purchases was excluded.

Expenditure on Alcoholic drink and tobacco decreased by 29.1% from €39.48 per week to €28.00.  The proportion of total alcohol expenditure on Alcohol consumed at home increased from over 41% in 2009-2010 to over 51% in 2015-2016.

The proportion of total expenditure on Food has shown a steady decline over the past thirty five years, from 27.7% to 14.6%, whereas most of the proportional increase on Housing occurred during the period 1999-2000 to 2015-2016.  During this period the proportion of total expenditure relating to Housing increased from 9.6% to 19.4%.

The proportion of expenditure for Miscellaneous goods, services and other expenditure increased from 20.5% in 1980 to 34.2% to 2015-2016.  Expenditure categories in this group include health, childcare, education, pensions and telephone.

In 1980, medical related expenditure (e.g. expenditure on doctors, dentists, medicines and health insurance) accounted for 1.8% of total household expenditure in contrast to 5.9% thirty five years later.

Go to Table 1.2  Changes in distribution of total household expenditure, 1980 to 2015-2016

The average gross weekly household income for the state in 2015-2016 was €1,097.04, which was 6.8% higher than the €1,026.77 figure recorded five years earlier.

Total weekly direct income increased by just over 11% from €809.56 to €899.87. This rise is due to an increase in employee and self-employed income.  The percentage of household members self-classifying themselves as working has increased from 36.7% in 2009-2010 to 40.7% in 2015-2016.

Average weekly household disposable income (which is arrived at after the deduction of income tax and social insurance from gross income) increased by nearly 3% from €885.72 to €909.25 over the five year period. 

In 2015-2016, less than 66% of households had a fixed telephone.  This is a drop of twenty percentage points from ten years earlier when just under 86% of households had a fixed landline.

Almost 73% of households indicated they had internet access in 2015-2016, compared with just under 66% five years earlier.

In 2015-2016, nearly 81% of all households reported having at least one Home computer, compared with 77.3% and 56.2% five and ten years previously.  In 2015-2016, just over half (50.9%) of all households indicated having Two or more home computers".

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