In Two EU Countries, Households Spend More Than They Earn
Silver Data Lab Research Desk · Statistical analysis · Published on 30 July 2026
- Data source
- Eurostat
- Reference period
- 2024
- Last updated
- 30 July 2026
Key estimates
- EU households saved 14.5% of their gross disposable income in 2024.
- In Greece the rate was −2.5% and in Romania −0.9%: households in both spent more than they received.
- Germany recorded the highest rate at 20.0%, ahead of Czechia at 19.7% and Hungary at 19.0%.
- The distance between Germany and Greece is 22.5 percentage points of household income.
- Data cover 26 of 27 Member States; Bulgaria publishes no figure for this indicator.
The one economic indicator that can go below zero
Most of the ratios used to compare European economies are bounded below by zero. An employment rate cannot be negative, a debt ratio cannot be negative, an inflation rate rarely is. The household saving rate can, and two Member States recorded it in 2024.
The rate measures what is left of household income after consumption, expressed as a share of gross disposable income. A negative value is not a statistical artefact. It means households in aggregate spent more than they received over the year, funding the difference by drawing down savings, borrowing, or selling assets.
The Union's average, and the two countries below zero
EU households saved 14.5% of gross disposable income in 2024. Greece recorded −2.5% and Romania −0.9%.
The distinction matters because these two countries are otherwise very differently placed. Greece runs a budget surplus and carries the Union's highest public debt; Romania runs the Union's largest deficit with modest public debt. Household behaviour is not tracking the public finances in either case, which is a useful reminder that the household sector is a separate balance sheet with its own pressures.
Latvia at 4.9% and Cyprus at 5.6% sit closest to them, so the bottom of this ranking is a group of four rather than an isolated pair.
Where saving is highest
Germany records the highest rate at 20.0%, followed by Czechia at 19.7% and Hungary at 19.0%. Malta and Sweden follow at 18.8%, France at 17.9% and Austria at 17.3%.
The gap between the top and bottom of the ranking is 22.5 percentage points of household income — larger, in proportional terms, than the spread this site has measured on employment, inflation or minimum wages. Households across the Union differ more in how much of their income they retain than in almost anything else that can be compared between them.
What a saving rate is not
A high saving rate is not straightforwardly good news, and a low one is not straightforwardly bad. Saving rises when households are uncertain about the future and postpone spending, which is a symptom rather than an achievement; it falls when consumption is strong, which can reflect confidence as easily as strain.
What a negative rate does establish is narrower and firmer: over the year in question, the household sector as a whole did not cover its consumption out of its income. That is a fact about the composition of the year, and it survives whichever interpretation of saving behaviour is applied to it.
Gross household saving rate, 2024
| Country | % of gross disposable income | Gap to EU averagepercentage points, derived |
|---|---|---|
| Germany | 20.0 | +5.5 |
| Czechia | 19.7 | +5.2 |
| Hungary | 19.0 | +4.5 |
| European Unionaggregate | 14.5 | — |
| Latvia | 4.9 | −9.6 |
| Romania | -0.9 | −15.4 |
| Greece | -2.5 | −17.0 |
What these figures cannot tell you
- This is the household sector in aggregate, not a typical household
- The rate is computed for all households together, so a small number of high-income households saving heavily can lift a national figure while most households save nothing. A negative national rate likewise does not mean every household dissaved. Distributional questions cannot be answered from sector accounts.
- Gross, not net of depreciation
- This is the gross saving rate: it does not deduct the consumption of fixed capital, principally the depreciation of owner-occupied housing. Net saving rates are lower everywhere, and by different amounts depending on how much housing households own, so the two measures should not be mixed in one comparison.
- One Member State is missing
- Bulgaria publishes no value for this indicator, so the ranking covers 26 of 27 Member States. It is an absence in the source rather than a zero, and the EU aggregate is computed by Eurostat on the countries that do report.
- 2024, not 2025
- At the extraction date only nine Member States had published a 2025 figure, too few to rank. This study therefore uses 2024, the most recent year with near-complete coverage, and its figures are not comparable with the 2025 indicators published elsewhere on this site.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the household saving rate?
- The share of gross disposable income that households do not spend on consumption. Eurostat publishes it for the household sector as a whole, so it describes the aggregate rather than a typical family. EU households saved 14.5% of their income in 2024.
- Can a saving rate be negative?
- Yes, and two Member States recorded one in 2024: Greece at −2.5% and Romania at −0.9%. A negative rate means households in aggregate spent more than they received over the year, funding the gap by drawing down savings, borrowing or selling assets.
- Which EU country saves the most?
- Germany, at 20.0% of gross disposable income in 2024, followed by Czechia at 19.7% and Hungary at 19.0%. The distance between Germany and Greece is 22.5 percentage points.
- Is a high saving rate a good sign?
- Not necessarily. Saving rises when households are uncertain and postpone spending, and falls when consumption is strong, so the level alone does not distinguish confidence from caution. A negative rate is the one reading with an unambiguous meaning: consumption exceeded income.
Methodological note
The gross household saving rate is published in Eurostat's sector accounts as gross saving divided by gross disposable income, adjusted for the change in pension entitlements, for the households and non-profit institutions serving households sector combined.
The reference year is 2024. The more recent 2025 vintage was available at the extraction date but covered only nine Member States, which is too few to support a ranking; the choice of year is a coverage decision and is stated rather than left implicit.
The 22.5 point distance between the highest and lowest rate is derived by Silver Data Lab by subtraction from the two published values.
Source data
The underlying series can be inspected and re-downloaded from the Eurostat data browser. The filters below are the ones applied.
Key indicators for sector accounts — annual data
nasa_10_ki
- Filters applied:
- freq=A · sector=S14_S15 · na_item=SRG_S14_S15 · unit=PC · time=2024
- Extracted:
- 2026-08-11
- Source last updated:
- 2026-07-27
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