How much are Europeans left with at the end of the month?

To save or not to save, that is the question. Last year, Europeans chose to save 1/8 of their income, according to the latest data released by Eurostat, the EU's statistical office.

In 2022, households in the EU saved on average 12.7% of their disposable income, while the rate for the euro area was higher, at 13.7%.

Household disposable income is what households have available for spending and saving after taxes and transfers, as defined by Eurostat.

"If households earn €100, they spend €78.30  and are left with €12.70 to spend," chief economist at Astères, Sylvain Bersinger, explained. "It’s a normal figure. Most countries in the EU have a household saving rate between 10% and 15%," he added.

A much higher figure than in the United States, where residents only saved 3.4% of their income in September 2023, according to Statista.

In the EU, Germany reached the top podium spot with the highest gross saving rate (19.91), the Netherlands earned the silver medal (19.44) and Luxembourg the bronze (18.14).

Two countries are in the red, with negative saving rates: they spend more than they earn. What they are earning is not enough to finance their consumption so they borrow or use savings they have accumulated in the past. These two countries are Poland and Greece.

However, European households can’t be summed up in one profile. Large differences exist in saving behaviours in Europe, "as much as across families," Luigi Guiso, research fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) explained. "There are some who spend it all and those who save a large chunk of their income but it’s difficult to understand why."

Wealth is certainly one factor to account for systematic disparities in household saving rates. "We see that