The indicator shows the changes in the structure of household consumption expenditure with regard to the average annual budget for an individual group of goods or services, thus enabling the tracking of the changes in consumption patterns.

With the growth of income, consumption expenditure has also increased. Owing to abundance, consumption by the majority of the European population has been higher than required for basic needs. Consumption of some products and services has been even higher than their usefulness, and in many cases even higher than environmental sustainability allows. Household consumption patterns are shaped by an array of interdependent economic, social, cultural and political driving forces. The following are among the most important in Europe: growing income and well-being, globalisation of the economy through opening of markets, increasing individualism, new technologies, targeted marketing and advertising, smaller households, etc.

Households represent an important part of the production-consumption chain, as household consumers play an important role in their daily selection of goods and services. Although the environmental impact of each household is relatively small compared to that of large industrial plants, numerous households are major contributors to environmental problems. As individuals or households, we affect the environment through the choices we make about where and how to live, where to work, how to spend our leisure time, and which means of transport to use. Most often, our choices are made with certain boundaries conditioned by historical developments and past policy decisions, for example, urban planning, transport infrastructure and available housing. However, even within the existing framework, it is possible to find a more balanced way of life.

According to the data provided by the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, a household member in Slovenia spends, on average, most funds on transport and communication (19%), somewhat less on food and soft drinks (14%), even less on recreation, culture, education, restaurants and hotels (13%), and the least on dwelling, electricity and other fuels (11%). While the expenditure of household members on food and drink has decreased by 4.4% and on clothing and footwear by 1.2%, the expenditure on dwellings has increased by 0.9%, on communication by 1.5% and on recreation and culture by 0.7%. In 2009, the total average expenditure per household member in Slovenia amounted to EUR 8,023, which was 87% more than in 2000, when consumption expenditure amounted to 4,295 EUR.

In the EU-25, expenditures on transport and communication, dwellings (including utility payments), recreation, health, and education is growing the fastest. In the EU-15, recreation presents the second largest area of household consumption. Consumption patterns of the EU-10 are moving closer to those of the EU-15, showing that lifestyles are changing and, in general, incomes are rising. Similar to Slovenia, the EU-25 has also noted a decrease in household expenditures on food, despite the rising incomes. Between 1995 and 2005, the share dropped from 14.4% to 12.5%.

In the last fifty years, people have used more goods and services than the entire planet's population had ever before. Our enormously productive economy has led to consumption becoming our way of life and shopping a ritual that provides relief from our personal problems; shopping centres have become places to meet and spend time with friends and acquaintances. With the development of excessive consumption, we have contributed to the existing situation in which the economy has been producing increasing quantities of various products. The increasing trend in purchasing power and the growth of funds earmarked for advertising have created a never-ending circle of shopping and consumption. Consequently, the distinction between the interdependent phenomena of consumption and production is becoming increasingly blurred.