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Consumption

• Household expenditure
  • By category
  • Total expenditure

Household consumption expenditure by category

Total household consumption expenditure is reported against the following nine expenditure categories:

• food and beverages
• clothing and footwear
• housing
• household goods and services
• transport
• hotels and restaurants
• recreation and education
• health and medical
• other goods and services.

By monitoring patterns in household consumption expenditure across these nine categories, changing pressures on the environment from consumption can be better understood. For example:

• changes in transport expenditure can indicate changing air quality and greenhouse gas emissions
• changes in food and beverage expenditure can indicate changes in pressures on the environment from packaging waste.

Current situation

The top three categories for real household consumption expenditure for the year ending March 2008 were food and beverages (16.7 per cent), housing (16.3 per cent), and transport (15 per cent). In Europe, these three consumption categories are identified as causing the greatest environmental impacts when their full life cycle is considered.

Real household consumption expenditure (year ending March 2008, 1995/96 prices)

Note: Due to rounding, figures do not add up to 100 per cent.
Source: Statistics New Zealand.

Long-term trend

Between 1992 and 2008, household consumption expenditure in New Zealand increased across all categories. During this time, food and beverages, housing and transport have consistently been the top three expenditure categories. In 2006, the food and beverage category overtook the housing category for the top place, where it has remained since. This trend may reflect greater discretionary income and an increase in expenditure beyond that of basic necessity to ‘luxury’ food and beverage items. It may also reflect increased incomes in low income households, enabling increased expenditure on basic necessity food and beverage items.

Real household consumption expenditure per person by category, 1992 and 2008 (year ending March, 1995/96 prices)

Source: Statistics New Zealand.

There has been a shift in expenditure patterns across the household consumption categories between 1992 and 2008. The volume of expenditure in some categories has grown at a faster rate than others. For example, between 1992 and 2008, expenditure per person increased by:

• 83 per cent on household goods and services (eg, electricity, home appliances, furniture)
• 65 per cent on clothing and footwear
• 56 per cent on hotels and restaurants (eg, restaurant meals and hotel accommodation).

Real household consumption expenditure per person by consumption category, 1992–2008 (year ending March, 1995/96 prices, 1992 = 100)

Source: Statistics New Zealand.

The proportion of household consumption expenditure in some categories also changed from 1992 to 2008:

• in 1992, housing accounted for 23 per cent of household consumption expenditure per person; by 2008 it had dropped to 16 per cent
• in 1992, household goods and services accounted for 10 per cent of household consumption expenditure per person; by 2008 it had risen to 13 per cent
• there was also a 3 per cent increase in the share of expenditure per person in the combined ‘recreation and education’ and ‘health and medical’ categories (from 12 per cent in 1992 to 15 per cent in 2008).

The share of household consumption expenditure for the other five categories (food and beverages, clothing and footwear, transport, hotels and restaurants, and other goods and services) remained largely the same between 1992 and 2008.

The shifts in expenditure patterns across the consumption categories over this period may reflect higher levels of income and therefore higher levels of discretionary expenditure (eg, on hotels and restaurants and certain household goods and services, such as non-essential appliances).

Recent trend

Between 2006 and 2008, total household consumption expenditure increased across all consumption categories. In these same two years, household consumption expenditure per household and per person increased in all except two categories – hotels and restaurants and transport.

The rate of per household and per person expenditure on hotels and restaurants slowed in the year ending March 2007 compared to the previous five years. In the following year (ie, the year ending March 2008), per household and per person expenditure on hotels and restaurants dropped very slightly.

In the year ending March 2007, per household and per person expenditure on transport fell. This fall in expenditure on transport is reflected in the decrease in the distance travelled (also known as vehicle kilometres travelled, or VKT) per person by road in the 2006 calendar year.

However, per household and per person expenditure on transport increased in the year ending March 2008. In the 2007 calendar year, VKT per person also increased.

Last updated: April 2009