Available income in 2021 amounted to 3,510.1 lei on average for one person per month. Half (50.8%) are salaries. Consumption expenses amounted to 3039.5 lei. Most of the money (41.9%) was spent on food, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
Average revenues increased by 13.4% compared to the previous year. Adjusted for the average annual consumer price index, revenues increased by 7.8%. The next source of income after salaries are welfare benefits, which on average constitute 18.5% of the available income of the population. Self-employed activities contributed to the formation of revenues with a share of 15.5%. Income from individual agricultural activity represents 8.1% of self-employed activities.
Remittances remain a significant source for household budgets, representing on average 12.5% of revenues, but are down 0.4 points compared to 2020. In villages people are more dependent on transfers from abroad than in cities, with the shares being 15.4% in rural areas and 9.5% in the case of the urban population.
Consumer spending in 2021 was 8.9% higher than in the previous year. In real terms, adjusted for the consumer price index, the increase is 3.6%. After food, the biggest expenditures were utility bills – 15.2%, and clothing and footwear - 9.1%. Other expenses were directed for the payment of transport services (6.5%), furniture and home expenses (5.7%), health care (5.7%), telecommunications (4.5%).
Depending on the area of residence, the consumption expenditures of households in urban areas are 1.5 times higher than the expenditures of the rural population.
The expenses are also strongly marked by the size of the family. Whereas in single-person households the average monthly expenses amounted to 3968.2 lei, for those consisting of 5 and more people the expenses are 1.9 times lower (2054.4 lei). The same situation is observed in the case of households with children: a household with only one dependent child spends on a person on average 1.5 times more than a household with 3 or more children.
