Cross-border shopping not widespread yet

Publication date: 29 June 2009

Cross-border shopping not widespread yet

In 2008, one fourth of the EU population (over age 15) had made a crossborder purchase in another member state, according to consumer data published, on 26 June, by Eurostat1. The percentage varies widely from one state to the next: the highest shares of persons making cross-border purchases in another member state were observed in Luxembourg (68%) and Sweden (59%) and the lowest in Bulgaria and Portugal (both 9%).

This new publication presents a wide range of statistics (generally for 2007) on consumption patterns, for example:

- 46% of EU households lived in flats, 30% in detached houses and 22% in semi-detached houses

- 65% of EU households owned their dwelling, 21% paid rent at market rate, 8% paid rent at a reduced rate and 7% occupied free accommodation.

In all the member states (apart from Germany), more than half of households owned their dwelling

- EU households consumed 285 million tonnes of oil equivalent of energy. Of this total, 40% came from natural gas, 24% from electrical energy, 15% from petroleum products, 12% from renewable energy, 7% from district heating and 3% from solid fuels

- 16% of consumers made a formal complaint in the last 12 months to a seller or provider; just over half (51%) of those making a complaint were satisfied with the way it was treated.

Eurostat Press release available here: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/eurostat/home/

Source: Europolitics