
According to the data published by the Institute of Statistics, for the family budget survey for the year 2023, it turns out that an Albanian family consisting of an average of 3.7 people spends an average of 1.1 million ALL per year. Meanwhile, all Albanian families spent 831 billion ALL per year. The 2023 census data says that there are a total of 755,950 families in Albania.
"Scan Intel" has analyzed the figures to understand how much Albanian families spend and how these expenses are divided? What is spent more, but less? In fact, Albanian families have a clear orientation towards spending on basic needs, where the category of food and non-alcoholic drinks dominates. With a total expenditure of nearly 329 billion ALL or 3.3 billion euros per year, this category of expenditure occupies the largest part of the budget of Albanian families.
In the ranking, the expenses for the apartment follow, with about 80 billion lek or about 800 million euros, which includes rents (if any) as well as utility expenses such as electricity bills, water bills, etc. Transport, ranked next with an expenditure of 56.55 billion ALL, and health with 35.76 billion ALL, represent categories that are increasing their weight in the family budget.
Categories such as clothing and shoes with an expenditure of 41.58 billion ALL, and furnishing and maintenance of the apartment, which amounts to 54.89 billion ALL, are lower expenses compared to food and housing. On the other hand, education and entertainment occupy a smaller part of the budget of Albanian families. The expenses for these categories are 29.11 billion ALL and 21.62 billion ALL, respectively.
The figures show an interesting behavior of Albanian families in the management of the family budget where expenses for "vese", or alcoholic beverages and tobacco significantly exceed those for education and health. Specifically, the expenses for alcoholic beverages and tobacco amount to about 34.93 billion ALL or about 350 million euros, while the expenses for restaurants and hotels are about 61.54 billion ALL or about 620 million euros.
When we compare the spending figures for restaurants and "vices" with those for education and health, where for the latter families spend 29.11 billion ALL and 35.76 billion ALL respectively, we understand that Albanians have a higher priority for luxury than for education or health services.