Poland has overtaken Spain and is almost equal with Ireland in an index used by the European Union to assess the material wealth of households in member states.
The measure, called actual individual consumption (AIC), calculates the value of all goods and services consumed by households, both those purchased directly as well as those provided by the government (such as health and education) and nonprofit organisations.
Eurostat, an EU agency, notes that this measure is preferable to gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, which is an indicator of the economic welfare of a country but not necessarily of consumers in that country.
Source: Eurostat
In its latest data for AIC per capita, taking into account price level differences between countries (known as purchasing power parity, or PPP), Eurostat finds that in 2022 Poland (which is at 86% of the EU average) overtook Spain (85%) and was just behind Ireland (87%).
The highest levels of household wealth were found in Luxembourg (138%), Germany (119%) and Austria (118%), while the lowest were in Bulgaria (67%), Hungary (72%) and Slovakia (73%). Other “old” EU countries Poland has overtaken are Portugal (85%) and Greece (78%).
Other indices have shown Poland making similar progress in recent years. In 2015, Poland surpassed Greece in terms of GDP per capita at PPP, followed by Portugal in 2021. On that measure, it still remains behind Spain, however.
Figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) also show that, in terms of average wages adjusted for working hours and the cost of living, Poland is ahead of Portugal and Greece though behind Spain.
Poles purchased almost 3,000 residential properties in Spain last year, a record figure and annual rise of 160%.
We visited the Costa Blanca to look at what is behind this trend and how the growing Polish presence is being felt https://t.co/FBoqmvyHe8
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) June 6, 2023
Main image credit: Jacek Dylag/Unsplash
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
