Cypriots spent €274 million on alcohol in 2017

Cypriots spent €270 million or 1.8% of their total household consumption expenditure (1.4% of GDP) on alcohol in 2017, a Eurostat study found.

The amount was slightly lower than 2016 and 2015 when Cypriots spent €275.8 million (2% of total household expenditure) and 275.2 (2% of total household expenditure) on alcohol, respectively.

However, according to the study, Cypriots have upped their drinking game since a decade ago (2007) when they spent €202.2 million on alcohol (1.6% of total household expenditure).

The 2017 percentage was close to the E.U. average of 1.6% of total household consumption expenditure on alcohol.

The total expenditure of European households on alcohol in 2017 was over €130 billion, equivalent to 0.9% of E.U. GDP or over €300 per EU inhabitant. It should be noted that this does not include alcoholic beverages paid for in restaurants and hotels.

Baltic E.U. Member States spend highest share of household expenditure on alcohol, Spain spends least
In the E.U. in 2017, the share of total consumption expenditure spent on alcoholic beverages was the largest in three Baltic States: Estonia (5.2%), Latvia (4.9%) and Lithuania (4.0%). They were followed by Poland (3.5%), Czechia (3.3%), Hungary (3.0%) and Finland (2.8%).

At the opposite end of the scale, Spain (0.8%), Greece and Italy (both 0.9%) spent the lowest proportions of household spending on alcoholic beverages, ahead of Germany, Austria and Portugal (all 1.4%).

Highest amount spent in U.K, Germany and France
The countries boasting the largest economies in the E.U. spent the most money on alcohol, Eurostat found.

The Germans were in first place with €23.715 billion spent on alcohol in 2017, the British were in second place with €22,584 billion and the French in third with €21.389 billion.

Italy and Spain, the countries with the fourth the fifth largest GDPs in the EU recorded a total household consumption expenditure on alcohol of €9.264.4 billion and €5.563 billion, respectively.

This explains why they are in the last two places in the share of alcoholic beverages in total household expenditure graphs for 2017.

Share of expenditure on alcohol increased mainly in Romania and Portugal
Between 2007 and 2017, the share of alcoholic beverages in total household expenditure remained roughly stable in the vast majority of Member States. The highest increases over this 10-year period were recorded in Romania (from 2.3% of total household expenditure in 2007 to 2.7% in 2017, or a rise of 0.4 percentage points (pp)) and Portugal (+ 0.3 pp, from 1.1% to 1.4%).

In contrast, between 2007 and 2017, the share of alcoholic beverages in total household expenditure fell significantly in Bulgaria (from 3.0% in 2007 to 1.7% in 2017, or a decrease of 1.3 pp), Lithuania (- 0.7 pp, from 4.7% to 4.0%), and Finland (- 0.5 pp, from 3.3% to 2.8%).

A more complete picture of household final consumption expenditure, broken down by consumption purpose, is available in this interactive infographic.

The source dataset is accessible here.