Definition: household consumption is measured by using the concept of actual individual consumption which refers to all goods and services that are actually consumed, which corresponds to category P41 in the ESA2010-nomenclature (European Union, 2013). It includes consumer goods and services purchased directly by households and services provided by non-profit institutions and the government for individual consumption (such as in the health and education sectors). This consumption is expressed per inhabitant and in thousands of chained euros (which makes it possible to measure consumption by removing the effect of price changes). To compare Belgium and the EU on the basis of the same reference year (i.e. 2010), the data used here are obtained from Eurostat.

Goal: there is no goal related to the household consumption level in Belgium. But overall, this consumption must become more sustainable.

The Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs adopted by the UN in 2015 include target 8.4: “Improve progressively, through 2030, global resource efficiency in consumption and production and endeavour to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation, in accordance with the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production, with developed countries taking the lead”.

International comparison: between 2000 and 2021, the EU27 average rise from 15,250 to 18,380 euro per capita. During this period, the value for Belgium has always been higher than that of the EU27. However, the growth of this indicator was stronger in the EU27 than in Belgium. Data also show that consumption in Belgium was more resistant to the 2008 financial and economic crisis than in the EU27.

UN indicator: the selected indicator does not correspond to any monitoring indicator for the SDGs but is related to target 8.4. This target addresses the decoupling of economic growth from environmental degradation in consumption and production patterns.

Sources

• General

  • SDGs, Sustainable Development Goals: United Nations (2015), Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 25 September 2015, document A/RES/70/1.

  • Indicators: United Nations (2017), Work of the Statistical Commission pertaining to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 6 July 2017, document A/RES/71/313.

  • UN Sustainable Development: https://sdgs.un.org/ (consulted on 18/01/2023).

  • UN Sustainable Development Goal indicators website: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/ (consulted on 18/01/2023).

• Specific

  • European Union (2013), European system of accounts, ESA2010, https://ec.europa.eu (consulted on 24/09/2020).

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