Contents
- Household spending on sport statistics: EU household spending levels and coverage
- Household spending on sport statistics: the EU spending mix
- Household spending on sport statistics: country differences in services and equipment
- Household spending on sport statistics: recreation durables and household budgets
- Household spending on sport: income patterns and Spain’s 2017 household survey
- Sources
Household spending on sport statistics: EU household spending levels and coverage
EU private households spent an estimated mean of 328 PPS on sporting goods and services in 2020. The corresponding mean for 2015 was 318 PPS. These are purchasing power standard (PPS) figures, an artificial unit used for cross-country comparisons rather than a currency amount. Eurostat’s Figure 1 caption identifies the measure as mean consumption expenditure per adult equivalent; the narrative describes the 2020 figure as the average for EU private households. [Eurostat, Household expenditure on sporting goods and services, pp. 1, 7–8]
The comparison covers 24 EU countries with available 2020 data. Ireland, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Austria each recorded mean household expenditure above 600 PPS. At the lower end of the named country figures, Poland recorded 95 PPS, Lithuania 87 PPS, Slovakia 66 PPS, and Bulgaria 24 PPS. The report identifies Ireland as the highest and Bulgaria as the lowest in the comparison. [Eurostat, Household expenditure on sporting goods and services, p. 1]
The 2015 country picture was not identical: Ireland, Finland, the Netherlands, and Sweden each had mean expenditure above 600 PPS. These historical figures describe the 2015 comparison; they should not be read as rankings for 2020. [Eurostat, Household expenditure on sporting goods and services, p. 1]
Eurostat’s aggregate is a selected set of COICOP/ECOICOP categories, grouped into broad areas that include sport and recreation services, equipment, and major durables. It does not measure every possible household expense connected with physical activity. The 2020 Household Budget Survey fieldwork took place from 2018 to 2023 in most EU Member States. Cyprus, Malta, and France used 2015 data repriced to 2020; Sweden’s 2020 survey data were unavailable, and detailed sporting categories were unavailable for Portugal and Romania. Eurostat also notes that pandemic restrictions could have affected data collection and spending patterns in some countries. [Eurostat, Household expenditure on sporting goods and services, pp. 1–2, 7–8]
Household spending on sport statistics: the EU spending mix
In 2020, recreational and sporting services made up 67% of EU household expenditure on sporting goods and services. Equipment for sport, camping, and open-air recreation accounted for 15.6%, while major durables for outdoor recreation accounted for 14.4%. The smaller reported categories were maintenance and repair of other major durables for recreation and culture, at 2.1%, and major durables for indoor recreation, at 0.9%. Each share below uses sporting-goods-and-services expenditure as its denominator. [Eurostat, Household expenditure on sporting goods and services, p. 2]
| EU household spending category | Share of sporting-goods-and-services expenditure, 2020 |
|---|---|
| Recreational and sporting services | 67% |
| Equipment for sport, camping and open-air recreation | 15.6% |
| Major durables for outdoor recreation | 14.4% |
| Maintenance and repair of other major durables for recreation and culture | 2.1% |
| Major durables for indoor recreation | 0.9% |
[Eurostat, Household expenditure on sporting goods and services, p. 2]
This mix describes the distribution within the selected sport-related aggregate. A separate comparison sets that aggregate against all household expenditure: sporting goods and services represented 1.2% of total EU household expenditure in 2020. Food and housing represented 48.6% of total household expenditure in the same comparison. Those figures use total household expenditure as the denominator, so they answer a different question from the category shares above. [Eurostat, Household expenditure on sporting goods and services, p. 5]
Household spending on sport statistics: country differences in services and equipment
The 67% EU-wide services share masks wide national differences. In 2020, recreational and sporting services ranged from 19.2% of sport-related household expenditure in Greece to 93.7% in Cyprus. Finland recorded 48.9%, Belgium 46.8%, and Denmark 43.7%; in each, services accounted for less than 50% of the selected sport-related expenditure. [Eurostat, Household expenditure on sporting goods and services, p. 3]
Equipment for sport, camping, and open-air recreation ranged from 2.6% in Ireland to 42.3% in Slovakia. It was the second-largest sport-related expenditure category in 15 EU countries with available data. That ranking is within the sport-related household budget, rather than within total household spending. [Eurostat, Household expenditure on sporting goods and services, p. 3]
Major durables for outdoor recreation show another marked contrast: they ranged from 0.4% in Hungary to 69.0% in Greece. In Belgium, this category was the second-largest item and accounted for 36.7% of sport-related expenditure; in Denmark it was also second-largest, at 33.7%. The same second-place ranking applied in Luxembourg (29.2%), Lithuania (27.2%), Malta (19.3%), the Netherlands (18.1%), France (16.5%), and Ireland (8.1%). [Eurostat, Household expenditure on sporting goods and services, p. 3]
| Country and category | Share of sport-related household expenditure, 2020 | Reported comparison |
|---|---|---|
| Greece — recreational and sporting services | 19.2% | Lowest end of reported range |
| Cyprus — recreational and sporting services | 93.7% | Highest end of reported range |
| Ireland — sport, camping and open-air recreation equipment | 2.6% | Lowest end of reported range |
| Slovakia — sport, camping and open-air recreation equipment | 42.3% | Highest end of reported range |
| Hungary — major durables for outdoor recreation | 0.4% | Lowest end of reported range |
| Greece — major durables for outdoor recreation | 69.0% | Highest end of reported range |
[Eurostat, Household expenditure on sporting goods and services, p. 3]
The shares are not a household-level shopping profile. They compare the composition of mean expenditure across the selected categories, and the report’s country coverage varies with data availability. The large country ranges indicate that a single EU average cannot describe every national mix. [Eurostat, Household expenditure on sporting goods and services, pp. 2–3]
Household spending on sport statistics: recreation durables and household budgets
The category figures also sit within household budgets that include food and housing. In Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, Lithuania, and Poland, mean household expenditure on food and housing was more than 100 times mean expenditure on sporting goods and services in 2020. Eurostat gives the ratios for each named country: Bulgaria 323, Hungary 141, Slovakia 127, Lithuania 114, and Poland 104. These are ratios between mean expenditure categories, not percentages of household budgets. [Eurostat, Household expenditure on sporting goods and services, p. 5]
| Country | Food-and-housing expenditure relative to sport-related expenditure, 2020 |
|---|---|
| Bulgaria | 323 times |
| Hungary | 141 times |
| Slovakia | 127 times |
| Lithuania | 114 times |
| Poland | 104 times |
[Eurostat, Household expenditure on sporting goods and services, p. 5]
These comparisons put the scale of the selected sport-related categories in context, while the category mix shows where that spending went. Neither measure alone describes affordability, participation, or the reasons households chose particular goods and services; the reported figures are expenditure observations and comparisons. [Eurostat, Household expenditure on sporting goods and services, pp. 2–5]
Household spending on sport: income patterns and Spain’s 2017 household survey
Eurostat reports income-quintile data for 22 EU countries in 2020. For Malta, the mean sport-related expenditure of households in the fifth income quintile was 1.5 times the mean for all households. The report flags Malta’s quintile data as having low reliability, so that comparison warrants particular care. It is one country-specific observation, not a complete picture of how spending varied across all income groups or countries. [Eurostat, Household expenditure on sporting goods and services, p. 6]
Spain’s national report presents a separate 2017 estimate based on its Survey Family Budget and a specific selection of goods and services related to sport. It reports total expenditure of €5,686.5 million, equal to 1.1% of household spending on goods and services. Average household expenditure on the selected items was €307.2, and average expenditure per person was €123.4. These are Spain figures for 2017, not current-year estimates, and the report’s selected categories need not match the Eurostat aggregate exactly. [ESSA-Sport, National Report: Spain, p. 35]
Within that Spanish 2017 expenditure, recreational and sporting services accounted for 79.2%. This provides a point of comparison with the EU’s 67% services share in 2020, but the dates, survey sources, and category definitions differ. The figures establish each report’s stated scope; they do not support treating the difference as a like-for-like change over time. [ESSA-Sport, National Report: Spain, p. 35; Eurostat, Household expenditure on sporting goods and services, p. 2]