Household Distributional Accounts 2023

Household Consumption

This chapter presents distributional information on household consumption consistent with the Annual National Accounts.

Consumption is more equally distributed than income. Figure 2.1 shows that the top quintile consumed 1.9 times more than the bottom quintile in 2023. This ratio is down from a peak of 2.3 in 2015.

Figure 2.2 shows the distribution of domestic final consumption expenditure by quintile.

Figure 2.3 provides a breakdown of domestic final consumption expenditure per quintile in 2023. The figure shows that Restaurants & Hotels and Recreation & Culture become a larger share of expenditure for higher quintiles of the income distribution. While Housing & Energy and Food & Beverages become relatively less important for higher quintiles.

Figure 2.4 shows that expenditure on Food & Beverages and Housing & Energy is a larger share of domestic final consumption for the bottom 20% of households in the income distribution than for the top 20% of households. However, Recreation & Culture and Restaurants & Hotels expenditure makes up a larger share of the total for the top 20% of households.

Figure 2.5 provides a breakdown of domestic final consumption expenditure by tenure status in 2023. Food & Beverages and Housing & Energy are a larger share of expenditure for households which either rent or live rent free in their dwelling.