Household expenditure on sporting goods and services

Data extracted in April 2025

Planned article update: February 2028

Highlights

Ireland had the highest mean expenditure of private households on sporting goods and services in 2020.

At the EU level in 2020, 1.2% of total household expenditure was spent on sporting goods and services.

This article provides an overview of key figures for household expenditure on sporting goods and services. The data are collected through the household budget survey (HBS), a national survey carried out by the EU countries and some candidate countries collecting data primarily on households’ consumption expenditure on goods and services. Eurostat publishes HBS data with 5-year intervals, the most recent reference year being 2020.

Household expenditure on sporting goods and services – level and structure

Ireland had the highest and Bulgaria the lowest mean household expenditure on sporting goods and services in 2020

Figure 1 shows the average level of household expenditure on sporting goods and services in 2020 among the EU countries, measured in purchasing power standards (PPS). The PPS is an artificial currency unit, which makes it possible to produce meaningful indicators required for cross-country comparisons, truly reflecting the differences in the purchasing power of households.
In 2020, private households in the EU spent, on average, an estimated amount of 328 PPS on sporting goods and services, slightly more than in 2015 (318 PPS). Among the 24 EU countries for which data are available, Ireland, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Austria had the highest levels of mean household expenditure on sporting goods and services – more than 600 PPS. At the other end of the scale, average household expenditure was less than 100 PPS in Poland (95 PPS), Lithuania (87 PPS), Slovakia (66 PPS) and Bulgaria (24 PPS).
Looking back at the previous data collection in 2015, Ireland, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden had the highest levels of mean expenditure on sporting goods and services. The average household expenditure in these countries was higher than 600 PPS. By contrast, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Romania were the EU members with an average household expenditure lower than 100 PPS.

Figure 1: Mean consumption expenditure per adult equivalent on sporting goods and services, household budget survey 2020 and 2015
Source: Eurostat (sprt_pcs_hbs)

For household expenditure, the aggregate covering sporting goods and services is defined in terms of the classification of individual consumption by purpose (COICOP) and comprises 8 different items that may be grouped into the following 5 broad categories

major durables for outdoor recreation: camper vans, caravans and trailers, aeroplanes, microlight aircraft, gliders, hang-gliders and hot-air balloons, boats, outboard motors and fitting out of boats, horses, ponies and accessories and major items for games and sport
major durables for indoor recreation: billiard tables, ping-pong tables, pin-ball machines, gaming machines, etc.
maintenance and repair of other major durables for recreation and culture: laying up for winter of boats, camper vans, caravans, etc.; hangar services for private planes; marina services for boats; and veterinary and other services for horses and ponies purchased for recreational purposes
equipment for sport, camping and open-air recreation: e.g. gymnastic, physical education and sport equipment; parachutes and other sky-diving equipment; firearms and ammunition for hunting, sport and personal protection; fishing rods and other equipment for fishing; equipment for beach and open-air games; camping equipment; repair of equipment for sport; camping and open-air recreation; game-specific footwear; protective headgear for sports; and articles for artistic expression and creation
recreational and sporting services: services provided by sports stadiums, horse-racing courses, motor-racing circuits, velodromes, etc. for the attendance of a sportive or recreational event; fairgrounds and amusement parks; playground facilities for children; games for adults other than games of chance (e.g. bingo, lottery); ski slopes, ski lifts and the like; hire of equipment and accessories for sport and recreation; out-of-school individual or group lessons in bridge, chess, aerobics, dancing, music, skating, skiing, swimming or other pastimes; services of mountain guides, tour guides, etc.; navigational aid services for boating; and hire of game-specific footwear.

On average, EU households allocated about two thirds of their expenditure on sporting goods and services to recreational and sporting services

In 2020, on average 67% of EU household expenditure on sporting goods and services went on recreational and sporting services, 15.6% on equipment for sport, camping and open-air recreation, 14.4% on major durables for outdoor recreation and 2.1% on maintenance and repair of other major durables for recreation and culture, leaving the remaining 0.9% for major durables for indoor recreation.

Figure 2 shows the structure of household expenditure on sporting goods and services from the 2015 and 2020 HBSs. Expenditure shares for equipment for sport, camping and open-air recreation and maintenance and repair of other major durables for recreation and culture remained relatively stable between the 2 surveys. Compared with the 2015 survey, in 2020 a higher share of expenditure went on major durables both for indoor and outdoor recreation, while a smaller portion was spent on recreational and sporting services.

Figure 2: Distribution of mean household expenditure on sporting goods and services, by expenditure purpose, EU, 2020 and 2015
Source: Eurostat (sprt_pcs_hbs)

In 2020, in most EU countries, the highest share of average household spending on sporting goods and services was on recreational and sporting services

Figure 3 provides an analysis of mean household expenditure on sporting goods and services for the 5 broad categories. In 2020, in almost all the EU countries with available data, the highest share of spending in the field was on recreational and sporting services. The only exception was Greece where the highest share was devoted to major durables for outdoor recreation. Regarding the 3 main broad categories of mean household expenditure on sporting goods and services, the shares were distributed as shown in the following list

The share of household spending on recreational and sporting services ranged from 19.2% in Greece to 93.7% in Cyprus. In addition to Greece, only in Finland (48.9%), Belgium (46.8%) and Denmark (43.7%) did this share account for less than 50% of mean household spending on sporting goods and services
Average expenditure on equipment for sport, camping and open-air recreation represented the second highest share of household budgets in 15 of the EU countries with available data. This share ranged from 2.6% in Ireland to 42.3% in Slovakia
Main household expenditure on major durables for outdoor recreation ranged from 0.4% in Hungary to 69.0% in Greece. This was the second largest item in household budgets for recreational and sporting services in Belgium (36.7%), Denmark (33.7%), Luxembourg (29.2%), Lithuania (27.2%), Malta (19.3%), the Netherlands (18.1%), France (16.5%) and Ireland (8.1%).

Figure 3: Mean household expenditure on sporting goods and services, by broad expenditure purpose, 2020
Source: Eurostat (sprt_pcs_hbs)

Table 1 presents a more detailed picture of average household expenditure on sporting goods and services. It shows how the nature of sporting expenditure differed across the EU countries in 2020 for each of the 8 items identified. The recreational and sporting services category can be divided into 2 subcategories – participation and attendance. In 2020, in all EU countries Luxembourg, the highest share of mean household spending on recreational and sporting services was directed towards participation, with the highest value in Estonia (91.7%) and the lowest value in Greece (16.5%). For mean household spending on attendance, shares ranged from 0.7% in Poland to 42.5% in Luxembourg.

The category ‘equipment for sport, camping and open-air recreation’ can be split into 3 sub-categories: i) equipment for sport; ii) equipment for camping and open-air recreation; iii) repair of equipment for sport, camping and open-air recreation.

Of these, in 2020, in all EU countries except Ireland the highest share of mean household expenditure was recorded for equipment for sport, followed by equipment for camping and open-air recreation.

Table 1: Distribution of mean household expenditure on sporting goods and services, by expenditure purpose, 2020
Source: Eurostat (sprt_pcs_hbs)

Sporting goods and services compared to other household expenditure

The higher the mean household expenditure on food and housing, the lower the mean expenditure on sporting goods and services

This section analyses the average expenditure on sporting goods and services in relation to total household expenditure compared to other types of goods considered essential for households, such as food and housing.

The vertical axis in Figure 4 represents the sporting expenses as a percentage of total household expenditure, while the horizontal axis represents the percentage for food and housing.

The chart shows that in 2020, all the countries with at least 1% of sports expenditure spent below 50% for food and housing (except Estonia). At EU level, 1.2% of household expenditure was spent on sporting goods and services, while 48.6% went on food and housing. From the chart, the inverse relation between essential goods and sporting expenditure is clear: the higher the percentage of food and housing, the lower the percentage of sporting expenditure.

Furthermore, the dimension of the circles in the chart represents the ratio between the 2 categories of expenditure: the bigger the circle, the larger the gap between food and housing expenditure and sporting expenditure. For 5 EU countries, the mean household expenditure on food and housing was more than 100 times higher than the mean expenditure on sporting goods and services. In particular, Bulgaria’s ratio was 323, followed by Hungary (141), Slovakia (127), Lithuania (114) and Poland (104). In all these countries, the mean household expenditure on food and housing covered more than half of the total household expenditure.

On the other hand, in 10 EU countries, the mean household expenditure on food and housing was up to 30 times higher than the mean expenditure on sporting goods and services. These countries were characterised by a mean household expenditure on food and housing equal to or lower than 45% of the total household budget and a mean household sporting goods and services expenditure of at least 1.3% of the total.

Figure 4: Ratio between mean household expenditure on food and housing and mean household expenditure on sporting goods and services, 2020
Source: Eurostat (hbs_exp_t121) and (sprt_pcs_hbs)

Household expenditure on sporting goods and services – impact of household income

Household expenditure on sporting goods and services was greatly affected by levels of income in most of the EU countries

Figure 5 shows that the average household expenditure on sporting goods and services rose as a function of income. Out of the 22 EU countries with available data for quintiles in 2020, in Denmark, Bulgaria, Latvia, Hungary and Lithuania the mean expenditure on sporting goods in the highest income quintile group was at least 3 times higher than the average expenditure on sporting goods and services of all households. At the other end of the range, in Malta the level of mean expenditure on sporting goods and services among households in the fifth quintile was only 1.5 times as high as that for all households (low reliability of data by quintile for Lithuania, Malta and Cyprus).

The biggest difference in the average level of expenditure on sporting goods and services among neighbouring income quintile groups was generally observed between households in the fourth and fifth quintiles. This indicates that the households in the highest income group spent much more on average on sporting goods and activities compared to all the other income groups, not just the households at the lowest end of the income distribution.

Figure 5: Mean household expenditure on sporting goods and services, by income quintile, 2020
Source: Eurostat (sprt_pcs_qnt)

Source data for tables and graphs

Household expenditure on sporting goods and services: tables and figures

Data sources and methodology

Eurostat compiles data on expenditure on sporting goods and services from the Household budget survey (HBS).

Household consumption expenditure on sporting goods and services reflects the level of participation in sporting activities and may be influenced by a range of factors, including household spending, age, wealth/income, the availability of sporting facilities and price structures. Data on household consumption expenditure are available in national currencies, euro and PPS; the latter is used to eliminate price level differences between countries (the use of data in PPS terms ensures that information is valued at a uniform price level and therefore reflects only volume differences in the economy, as opposed to price-level differences). As an example of the order of magnitude of the PPS, data on mean consumption expenditure per household and per adult equivalent are available in different units of measure, including PPS, the national currency and the euro, which can be compared by country.

Data are collected using national surveys in each participating country. The collection process involves a combination of one or more interviews and diaries or logs maintained by households and/or individuals, generally on a daily basis (recording their spending over time). Most commonly, the HBS is carried out approximately every 5 years, the most recent reference year being 2020. The fieldwork for the 2020 HBS data collection took place between 2018 and 2023 for EU Member States, except for Cyprus, Malta and France where data were collected between 2015 and 2017. For these countries, HBS data for the year 2020 have been produced by converting the respective HBS data for the year 2015 to 2020 reference year prices using the 2020 HICP coefficient. For Sweden, data for the 2020 survey were not available. For Portugal and Romania, data for the detailed categories on sporting goods and services were not available. The data collection and expenditure patterns of households in some Member States could have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions.

The classification of individual consumption by purpose (COICOP) was developed to classify and analyse individual consumption expenditures incurred by households, according to their purpose. The European version of this classification — ECOICOP — is extended to 5 digits to better respond to the need for more detailed data on household budgets and consumer price indices. The ECOICOP 2013 was used for the 2020 HBS data collection and dissemination of results.

Sporting items are classified under the COICOP heading 09 ‘Recreation and culture’. The list of sporting-related goods and services identified in the classification is limited to the articles and services that are considered as sport or are related to sporting activities. From the HBS, the data for the following sport-related categories are available according to ECOICOP

CP0921 - Major durables for outdoor recreation
CP09222 - Major durables for indoor recreation
CP0923 - Maintenance and repair of other major durables for recreation and culture
CP0932 - Equipment for sport, camping and open-air recreation
CP09321 - Equipment for sport
CP09322 - Equipment for camping and open-air recreation
CP09323 - Repair of equipment for sport, camping and open-air recreation
CP0941 - Recreational and sporting services
CP09411 - Recreational and sporting services – Attendance
CP09412 - Recreational and sporting services – Participation.

Context

The multiannual work programme (EU Work Plan for Sport for 2024-2027) agreed by the EU Council, sets the priorities and principles for cooperation on sport between the European Commission and the Member States.

Several expert groups have been set up to achieve concrete results. Among them, the Expert Group on the Economic Dimension of Sport (XG ECO) and the Expert Group on Health-Enhancing Physical Activity (XG HEPA) play a key role in implementing evidence-based policies in the sports sector. XG ECO, for example, has developed an economic definition of sport ('Vilnius definition'), and made progress towards developing Sport Satellite Accounts in some EU countries. XG HEPA is working on implementing the Council recommendations on physical activity adopted in 2013. These include a monitoring framework with indicators both for the level of physical activity and for policies to promote physical activity in EU countries. Eurostat comparable data on international trade, employment in sport, participation in sporting activities, etc. make a valuable contribution to the monitoring and development of the EU's policies in this area.

Explore further

Database

Private households expenditure on sport (sprt_exp), see:

Mean consumption expenditure of private households on sporting goods and services by COICOP consumption purpose (sprt_pcs_hbs)

Mean consumption expenditure of private households on sporting goods and services by income quintile (sprt_pcs_qnt)

Thematic section

Sport

Publications

Methodology

Private households expenditure on sport (sprt_exp) (ESMS metadata file — sprt_exp_esms)
Consumption expenditure of private households (hbs) (ESMS metadata file — hbs_esms)
Vilnius definition of sport
Description of data transmission for HBS (Reference Year 2020)

External links

Legislation