People spent less on food and non-alcoholic beverages but significantly more on education and on restaurants and hotels in 2015, according to a Household Budgetary Survey, just published by the National Statistics Office. 

The NSO said that in 2015 expenditure share on food and non-alcoholic beverages decreased from 2008 (by 2.7 percentage points), but remained the category on which households spent the largest share of their expenditure on.

The categories which experienced the largest average per week expenditure increases were Education (an increase of 82.4 per cent) and restaurants and hotels (an increase of 34.5 per cent). 

Family

65.1 per cent of the total population in 2015 was composed of households without dependent children, with the remaining (34.9 per cent) being households with dependent children.

Households which were considered to be elderly households (where the reference person was aged 65 and over) spent less than half as much as households of all other age groups, on average.

Housing

70.9 per cent of households were homeowners. Of the remainder, 16.5 per cent were paying rent on their main dwelling, while the rest had an alternative arrangement.

Households who owned their main dwelling generally registered a higher expenditure on all categories, with the notable exception of Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels; as well as Alcoholic beverages and tobacco.

Income

The majority (76.0 per cent) of disposable income received by households in 2015 was sourced from employment, whereas the remainder (24.0 per cent) was received from other sources, such as social benefits, allowances, and interests and dividends.

After deducting the average annual expenditure from disposable income, it was observed that households whose reference person was aged between 55 and 64 generated the highest amount of savings (€6,686), despite not being the group of households who had the highest income.

Regional

In 2015, the Northern Harbour Area remained the district with the largest number of households residing in it (51,035 households). Gozo and Comino remained the district with the least number of households  (12,195 households).

On average, households in the Western district spent the most in 2015; about €3,400 more than the national average. Households in the Southern Harbour spent the least, almost €3,500 less than the national average.

Read the full report on pdf below.