Eurostat: EU household real income per capita up 22% since 2004

Between 2004 and 2024, household real income per capita in the EU grew by 22 per cent, the bloc’s statistics agency Eurostat said on November 25.

Income per capita grew steadily between 2004 and 2008, stagnated between 2008 and 2011 due to the global financial crisis and declined in 2012 and 2013, Eurostat said.

Since then, income resumed the steady growth until the year 2020 where it declined due to the global pandemic.

The year 2021 saw a rebound but income grew slowly in 2022 and 2023. The first data for 2024 show an acceleration of the growth of income.

Looking at the EU countries, Romania had the largest growth in household real income per capita from 2004 to 2024 (134 per cent), followed by Lithuania (95 per cent), Poland (91 per cent) and Malta (90 per cent).

Greece and Italy were the only countries where household income per capita declined during the last 20 years (-5 per cent and -4 per cent, respectively), while the lowest increases were found in Spain (11 per cent), Austria (14 per cent), Belgium (15 per cent) and Luxembourg (17 per cent).

The data did not include those for Bulgaria.

(Main photo: Miroslav Saricka)