Final consumption expenditure of households on housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, as a percentage of overall final consumption expenditure of households. Data refer to aggregate expenditure at national level. The indicator helps to understand the relative importance of housing-related expenditures within consumer spending and facilitates comparison with other household budget items, across countries as well as over time. The data in this indicator are mainly taken from the OECD Annual National Accounts Database on Final consumption expenditure of households, along the categorization in the Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose (COICOP).

Housing-related expenditure constituted the single highest household expenditure item in OECD countries in 2013, at on average 22.9% of final household consumption expenditure. The spending on food and non-alcoholic beverages (14.1%) and transport (13%) are next two spending items of importance. The OECD national Accounts suggests that smaller items of household consumption expenditure include: miscellaneous goods and services, recreation and culture (10.8), restaurants and hotels (7.6%), furnishings, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house (5.1%), alcoholic beverages, tobacco and narcotics (4.5%), clothing and footwear (4.4%), health (4.7%), communications (2.8%) and education (1.6%). Malta, Chile, Lithuania, Turkey, Estonia and Mexico are the only countries where food and non-alcoholic beverages constitute the largest share of household consumption expenditure while in the United States the spending on health was the largest item of household consumption expenditure.