Barbara Chmielewska

Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics - National Research Institute, Warszawa, Poland

Email: barbara.chmielewska@ierigz.waw.pl

ORCID 0000-0003-1609-4809

Household expenditures as an indicator of living standards

Łukasz Chmielewski

Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics - National Research Institute, Warszawa, Poland

Email: lukasz.chmielewski@ierigz.waw.pl

ORCID 0000-0002-9558-6328

Sarolta Horváthné Szabó

Széchenyi István University, 

Gyor, Hungary

Email: szabo.sarolta@sze.hu

Abstract. Expenditures are one of the fundamental indicators of living standards and quality of life. According to Maslow, human needs can be divided into basic and higher-order needs. The structure of expenditures and its changes allow for the identification of economic and social differences between social groups. The study covered the period 2004–2023. The main indicators are the level, structure and relations of expenditures. Households of basic socio-economic groups and by place of residence (rural and urban) were compared. The study showed convergence of the stand-ard of living of rural and urban inhabitants and of farmers and other groups of households. Convergence was primarily the result of a higher dynamics of growth of expenditure of rural in-habitants than of urban inhabitants and of farmers compared to other groups of households. However, significant differences in the expenditure structure remained, with agricultural households characterized by a higher share of basic expenditures, such as food.

Received: December, 2024

1st Revision: October, 2025

Accepted: December, 2025

DOI: 10.14254/2071-789X.2025/18-4/11

JEL Classification: D1, D71, J24

Keywords: standard of living, household expenditure