Retail trade volumes and household demand
- Eurostat dataset
- sts_trtu_a
- Reference period
- 2025
- Unit of measure
- volume index, 2021 = 100
Key estimates
- Highest value: Türkiye at 181.8 volume index, 2021 = 100; lowest: Finland at 91.7 volume index, 2021 = 100.
- Cross-country mean 109.7 volume index, 2021 = 100, standard deviation 17.2, coefficient of variation 15.7% across 34 reporting countries.
- Aggregate change 2014→2025: +22.8% on a constant panel of 32 countries.
How has real retail demand evolved across Member States? Eurostat dataset sts_trtu_a reports retail trade volumes and household demand for 34 reporting countries, with 2025 as the most recent period carrying broad coverage. Deflated retail turnover is the closest monthly proxy available for real household consumption.
The five highest values in 2025 are recorded by Türkiye (181.8), Luxembourg (137.3), Montenegro (137.3), Albania (124.6), Cyprus (124.5), all expressed in volume index, 2021 = 100. At the opposite end of the distribution sit Finland (91.7), Estonia (92.8), Belgium (93.1), Norway (95.3), Sweden (96.5). The ratio between the highest and the lowest observation is 1.98, while the median country reports 103.2 volume index, 2021 = 100 against a mean of 109.7 volume index, 2021 = 100.
Dispersion is moderate: the standard deviation across countries is 17.2 volume index, 2021 = 100, giving a coefficient of variation of 15.7%. The mean sits above the median, which indicates that the distribution is pulled by the upper tail rather than being symmetric. Any European average quoted for this indicator therefore describes a synthetic country that few Member States resemble.
Between 2014 and 2025 the summed value across the 32 countries reporting in both periods moved by +22.8%. The largest relative increases are observed in Türkiye (+148.7%), Romania (+100.5%), Montenegro (+98.7%); the largest decreases, or the smallest increases, in Luxembourg (-66.3%), Italy (-0.5%), Belgium (+3.0%). Because the panel is held constant, this change is not an artefact of countries entering or leaving the sample.
Higher values are the policy-preferred direction for this indicator, so the countries listed at the bottom of the distribution mark the effective size of the European gap: closing it to the level of the fifth-ranked country would require the lowest performer to move by 32.8 volume index, 2021 = 100. The estimates above are reproducible: the dataset identifier, filter dimensions and reference period are stated in the methodological note, and the series can be re-downloaded from the Eurostat dissemination API at any time.
Methodological note
Source: Eurostat, dataset sts_trtu_a ('Turnover and volume of sales in wholesale and retail trade - annual data'), extracted from the Eurostat dissemination API (JSON-stat 2.0) on the dataset update of 2026-07-28. Filter dimensions: indic_bt=VOL_SLS; nace_r2=G47; s_adj=NSA; unit=I21. Unit of measure: volume index, 2021 = 100. Reference period: 2025. Geographic perimeter: national reporting units with two-character geo codes (34 countries with a non-missing observation); European and euro-area aggregates are excluded from the cross-country statistics and reported separately. Descriptive statistics (mean, median, population standard deviation, coefficient of variation) are computed unweighted over reporting countries. Change over time is computed on a constant panel: only countries with a non-missing observation in both the base and the reference period enter the calculation, which removes composition effects but may differ from the officially published aggregate. No imputation, seasonal adjustment or re-scaling has been applied beyond what Eurostat performs at source. Flagged provisional and estimated observations are retained as published.
Source data
The underlying series can be inspected and re-downloaded from the Eurostat data browser.