Ever Wondered Where your Money Goes?

Today sees the publication of a brand new book World Consumer Lifestyles Databook: Key Trends from market research and business publisher, Euromonitor. It has a huge range of valuable, but hard to find lifestyle data for 70 countries, including eating and drinking habits, spending patterns and lifestyle choices. There are world rankings, cross-country comparisons as well as detailed country specific data to give a clear picture of similarities and differences between nationalities 71.1% of the population in the UK have a mobile phone, but we’re 5th in Europe behind behind Austria (93.3%), Norway (74%), Italy (73.9%) and Finland (72.1%).

• Our annual personal disposable income has risen from £7,306 per capita in 1990 to £10,730 per capita in 2000. Is it any surprise that the amount we spend on leisure and recreation, as a % of total consumer expenditure, in the highest in the 70 countries surveyed. We spent £908 million on packaged holidays in 2000, £181 per capita on books, newspapers and magazines and took an average of 2.6 cinema trips per year (up 86% from 1990).
• 26.9% of the population age 15+ are smokers in the UK, down from 30% in 1990. Our lungs are healthier than the Germans (27.8%), the Spanish (32.59%) and the French (46.5%). However, we are spending more on our habit than our European compatriots. In the UK we spent E322 per capita on tobacco in 2000, compared to E221 in Germany, E193 in France and E152 in Spain.

New Lifestyle Research Unit

World Consumer Lifestyles Databook: Key Trends is the second product to be published by Euromonitor’s Lifestyle Research Unit, a new team set up earlier this year. The Lifestyle Unit was conceived as a response to customer demand for background information on consumers and how we live our lives. So far, all of the information published is statistical, however, there are plans for lifestyle reports for all 70 countries later in the year. These reports will provide the story behind the numbers, complementing the statistical data.

The World Consumer Lifestyles Databook: Key Trends is published by Euromonitor and is available through our website.