Income per capita varied by 1 to 4 across EU countries

Household income per capita, corrected for price differentials among countries, varied substantially in Europe in 2010: in Luxembourg, Norway and Germany, it was more than 2.5 times higher than in Bulgaria, Romania and Latvia. In the US, income per capita was about 1/3rd above the euro area and EU averages. Between 2007 and 2010, the real gross adjusted disposable income decreased most in Latvia (-20%), Lithuania (-11%) and Greece (-11%), while the largest increases were recorded in Bulgaria (20.5%), Poland (12.4%) and Norway (12.3%).

In the EU, the highest gross saving rates were recorded in Germany, Belgium, Slovenia and France (all above 15%);the lowest in Lithuania (1.2%) and Latvia (4.2%). Euro area (13.9%) and EU (12.1%) had higher gross saving rates than the US (9.7%). Households invested a higher proportion of their disposable income in the euro area (9.1%) and the EU (8.4%) than in the US (5.5%). Between 2007 and 2010, the financial crisis impacted on the investment rate mostly in Ireland (-17.7 pp), Estonia (-7.9 pp) and Spain (-5.9 pp).

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