The Maltese spend a higher percentage of their household income on clothing and footwear than anywhere else in the EU, figures issued today by the EU statistics office show.
The figures, based on a 2005 household budgetary survey, show that 8.3 percent of household consumption in Malta goes for clothing and footwear. The Lithuanians come closest at 7.9 percent while the Bulgarians allocate just 3.1 percent of their spending for that purpose.
Malta also allocated the biggest amount of household consumption on transport – 16.6 percent. It was not clear whether that was related to domestic travel only or whether it included overseas travel but the latter is most likely since the Maltese are also among the biggest spenders on restaurants and hotels.
Eurostat, which compiled the figures, pointed out that households with the lowest income spend 60 percent of their expenditure on food and housing, compared to 45 percent for households with the highest income or overseas travel.
A study of household consumption expenditure on particular products shows that the Maltese are the biggest spenders in the EU on newspapers, books and stationery, at 2.4 percent of household consumption, well above Finland, ,Germany and the Netherlands, each on 1.9 percent.
Household consumption by consumption categories, 2005, in %
| Food, beverages & tobacco | Clothing & footwear | Housing | Health | Transp. | Comms | Recr. & culture | Educ. | Rest. & hotels | |
| EU27 | 19.4 | 5.7 | 33.1 | 3.4 | 11.9 | 3.3 | 8.4 | 1.0 | 5.3 |
| Bel | 15.7 | 4.7 | 30.9 | 4.7 | 12.9 | 2.9 | 9.5 | 0.5 | 6.3 |
| Bulg | 35.3 | 3.1 | 37.7 | 4.3 | 5.0 | 4.6 | 2.9 | 0.5 | 3.6 |
| Czech | 23.5 | 5.6 | 26.8 | 2.0 | 11.1 | 4.6 | 10.6 | 0.5 | 5.1 |
| Den | 15.2 | 4.9 | 36.0 | 2.7 | 13.8 | 2.4 | 11.4 | 0.4 | 4.0 |
| Ger | 12.9 | 4.8 | 35.0 | 3.6 | 13.3 | 2.9 | 11.1 | 0.8 | 4.3 |
| Est | 25.3 | 5.5 | 35.1 | 2.6 | 10.0 | 5.5 | 6.4 | 1.3 | 3.1 |
| Ire | 17.9 | 5.1 | 30.6 | 2.5 | 11.6 | 3.4 | 10.1 | 1.9 | 6.0 |
| Gre | 18.9 | 7.0 | 30.2 | 5.9 | 10.4 | 3.8 | 4.2 | 2.4 | 8.6 |
| Spn | 20.3 | 6.9 | 35.0 | 2.2 | 10.5 | 2.7 | 6.4 | 1.1 | 9.3 |
| Fra |
15.7 | 6.6 | 32.4 | 4.2 | 13.5 | 3.3 | 6.9 | 0.6 | 4.6 |
| It |
20.4 | 7.0 | 35.4 | 3.9 | 11.9 | 2.2 | 5.8 | 0.7 | 5.0 |
| Cyp |
17.0 | 7.7 | 27.5 | 4.7 | 14.6 | 3.4 | 6.0 | 4.0 | 8.3 |
| Latv |
32.3 | 7.3 | 22.3 | 3.7 | 10.9 | 5.8 | 6.3 | 1.4 | 5.3 |
| Lith |
37.3 | 7.9 | 23.1 | 4.7 | 8.1 | 4.6 | 4.3 | 1.1 | 4.6 |
| Lux |
11.0 | 6.4 | 37.2 | 2.6 | 16.2 | 2.2 | 7.5 | 0.4 | 7.9 |
| Hun |
26.2 | 5.0 | 24.1 | 4.1 | 14.1 | 6.5 | 8.5 | 0.8 | 3.2 |
| Malta | 24.0 | 8.3 | 19.8 | 3.0 | 16.6 | 2.9 | 10.1 | 1.2 | 7.1 |
| Neth |
12.6 | 5.8 | 32.0 | 1.3 | 10.9 | 3.1 | 10.9 | 1.0 | 5.6 |
| Aus |
15.8 | 5.6 | 28.5 | 3.1 | 16.1 | 2.6 | 12.6 | 0.8 | 5.5 |
| Pol | 28.0 | 4.6 | 36.0 | 4.6 | 8.1 | 4.8 | 6.3 | 1.3 | 1.7 |
| Port | 17.8 | 4.1 | 31.4 | 6.1 | 12.9 | 3.0 | 5.7 | 1.7 | 10.8 |
| Rom | 50.0 | 6.2 | 19.4 | 3.8 | 6.5 | 4.9 | 4.2 | 0.8 | 1.1 |
| Slov | 19.1 | 7.0 | 28.8 | 1.5 | 15.6 | 4.0 | 9.4 | 0.8 | 4.3 |
| Slova | 30.1 | 6.1 | 28.0 | 3.1 | 9.2 | 4.7 | 6.6 | 0.9 | 4.8 |
| Fin | 15.1 | 3.8 | 32.3 | 3.5 | 15.7 | 2.8 | 11.2 | 0.2 | 4.2 |
| Swe | 12.4 | 4.6 | 35.5 | 2.3 | 13.0 | 2.8 | 12.2 | - | 3.5 |
| UK | 12.3 | 5.0 | 36.1 | 1.2 | 13.5 | 2.7 | 12.3 | 1.4 | 8.0 |