In 2024, Finland had the highest price level for alcoholic beverages in the EU, at 110% above the EU average, while Ireland was the most expensive for tobacco, at 159% above the EU average. This article focuses primarily on price levels for food, beverages and tobacco in 36 European countries. The country groups included in the analysis are the 27 European Union (EU) countries, 3 EFTA countries (Iceland, Norway and Switzerland) and 6 candidate countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Türkiye).

Overview
Price levels for food, beverages and tobacco vary considerably across the EU countries. In 2024, the prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages in Luxembourg were 25% above the EU average, while in Romania they were 24% below the EU average. Non-alcoholic beverages were most expensive in Ireland at 40% above the EU average and least expensive in Italy at 18% below. Alcohol was priced in Finland at 110% above the EU average, while in Italy it was at 16% below. For tobacco, the highest prices were observed in Ireland (159% above the EU average), while the lowest were recorded in Bulgaria (51% below).

Table 1 shows the price level indices for 4 important groups: food, non-alcoholic beverages, alcoholic beverages and tobacco. These groups represented on average 16%, 2%, 2% and 2% of household expenditure respectively. For reference, the price level indices of total household final consumption expenditure (HFCE) are also presented. The highest and lowest price level indices per product group among the 27 EU Member States are marked in bold. The shaded fields indicate the highest and lowest price level indices among all 36 participating countries. At the bottom of the table, coefficients of variation are provided for the euro area / (EA-20), the current composition of the EU (27 countries) and the group of all countries participating in the programme (all 36). The coefficient of variation is defined as the standard deviation of the price level indices of the respective group of countries as a percentage of their average price level index. The higher the coefficients of variation, the higher is the price dispersion in the respective product group.

Switzerland was the most expensive country for food, Ireland for non-alcoholic beverages and for tobacco and Iceland for alcoholic beverages within the group of 36 participating countries. Amongst the EU countries, Luxembourg was the most expensive country for food and Finland for alcoholic beverages. The least expensive countries of all 36 were North Macedonia for food and for non-alcoholic beverages, Italy for alcoholic beverages and Türkiye for tobacco. Among the EU countries, the lowest prices for food were observed in Romania, for non-alcoholic beverages in Italy and Bulgaria for tobacco....