Inflation-adjusted household consumption in the European Union rose 1.6% in 2025, with information and communication recording the fastest increase among the main spending categories, Eurostat said.
Spending on information and communication increased 3.3% from 2024. Recreation, sport and culture followed at 3.1%, while clothing and footwear rose 2.7%.
The figures, released on November 13, measure changes in household consumption after adjusting for price movements. They do not show that every company in those sectors increased sales or profit.
Growth continued at a slower pace
Overall real household consumption grew 1.8% in 2024. The 2025 increase was therefore 0.2 percentage points lower, according to Eurostat’s household spending release.
Adjusting for inflation helps distinguish changes in the volume of consumption from increases caused by higher prices. A business’s cash revenue can still move differently from the real measure, depending on what it sells and how its prices change.
Alcoholic beverages, tobacco and narcotics formed the only main category to decline. Consumption in that group fell 1.9% after a decrease in 2024. Eurostat’s headline release does not attribute the decline to a particular product, country or cause.
What the category figures tell retailers
Household spending categories bring together different products and services. An increase in information and communication consumption cannot by itself tell a telecom provider, device maker or software seller how its own customers behaved.
The figures also cover the EU as a whole. National demand, household budgets and changes in individual prices can differ from the aggregate picture. Businesses deciding where to invest still need information about the customers and markets they serve.
For retailers, inflation-adjusted consumption and sales revenue answer different questions. A higher volume of purchases can support revenue, but promotions, inventory costs, wages and returns influence how much of that revenue becomes profit.
In earlier coverage of employer pay and household spending, research linked differences in employers’ pay to patterns in consumption. The Eurostat release instead measures aggregate spending by purpose and does not identify the cause of each category’s change.
Reading the annual comparison
The 1.6% figure compares 2025 with the preceding year. It does not measure the pace of spending in every month of 2026, nor does it establish how households distributed purchases between physical stores and online channels.
For businesses planning inventory or marketing, the data are a broad reference point. They can identify categories that grew at different rates, but the release alone cannot predict how demand will develop in an individual market.
