Europeans Spend €14,739 per Person in 2019

Europeans have an average of €14,739 per person available for spending and saving in 2019, according to GfK. But disposable net income among the 42 studied countries varies significantly: Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Luxembourg have the highest average purchasing power, while Moldova, Kosovo and Ukraine have the lowest.

Europeans have just under €10 trillion at their disposal in 2019. Per capita purchasing power grew by approximately 3.5 percent in 2019, which is significantly higher than last year’s value. This corresponds to an average per capita purchasing power of €14,739. The rankings show substantial differences between the studied countries with respect to the amount available to Europeans for food, living, services, energy, private pensions, insurance, vacation, mobility and consumer purchases.

Liechtenstein takes first place again with a per capita purchasing power of €67,550. This far exceeds the values of the other countries and is more than 4.5 times the European average. With €42,067 per person, Switzerland comes in at second place, as was the case last year. All other countries in the top-ten rankings also have significantly above-average per capita purchasing power.

Luxembourg makes it into the top three this year with a per capita purchasing power of €35,096, ousting Iceland from third to fourth place. Sweden switches places with Finland, falling from ninth to tenth place.  Sixteen of the countries considered by the study have above-average per capita purchasing power, while twenty-six fall below the European average. Ukraine takes last place with a per capita purchasing power of €1,830.

“GfK Purchasing Power Europe is an important benchmark of the economic strength of a given region, as there are major differences in per capita purchasing power both within and between European countries,“ explains Simone Baecker-Neuchl, expert in GfK´s Geomarketing solution area.

“It’s therefore crucial that we calculate our international data using consistent quality standards. This makes it possible for companies from all industries to carry out meaningful comparisons between these countries and identify the European regions with the highest purchasing power. These insights offer indispensable support for business decisions related to international location planning and evaluation as well as outside sales management and marketing.“