Data extracted in April 2025.
Planned article update: April 2026.
Highlights
In 2021, domestic production contributed 87% of the total supply of goods and services in Italy; this was the highest share among EU countries. By contrast, the lowest share was reported by Ireland with 68%.
In 2021, intermediate consumption made up between 34% (Ireland) and 45% (Italy) of total product use in EU countries.
In 2021, Croatia recorded the largest increase among EU countries in consumer demand for accommodation and food services, up by 88%. This marked a considerable rebound following on from a fall of 55% in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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This article presents 2021 data from the supply and use tables of the European Union (EU), EFTA and enlargement countries. Eurostat collects these tables annually with a 3-year delay, in line with the European system of accounts (ESA 2010) transmission programme. By April 2025, Eurostat had collected and validated supply and use tables from EU countries for the time period 2010 to 2021.
Supply and use tables are the backbone of national accounts, offering a detailed view of how goods and services are supplied and used within an economy. By balancing data from different sources in a consistent framework, they make it possible to compile a single and coherent estimate of gross domestic product (GDP) based on production, expenditure and income. Supply and use tables are unique within national accounts in that they facilitate an integrated analysis of economic transactions across economic and institutional sectors using a single product classification.
The fundamental equations behind the supply-use system can be expressed as
- total supply = production + imports = intermediate consumption + final consumption + gross capital formation + exports = total use (this equation is satisfied for any given product category)
- value added = production – intermediate consumption = compensation of employees + gross operating surplus and mixed income + other taxes less subsidies on production (this equation is satisfied for any given economic activity).
This article focuses on the supply and use tables of individual countries. It is complemented by the article Supply and use tables for the European Union and the euro area that examines supply and use relationships in the EU and the euro area (EA) as a whole.
Supply table
In 2021, the share of domestic production in total supply varied across EU countries (Figure 1). Italy had the highest share (87%), whereas Ireland had the lowest share (68%); the latest data for Luxembourg are for 2020, when its share was marginally lower, at 67%. Consequently, the contribution of imports to total supply was lowest in Italy (13%) and highest in Ireland (32%) and Luxembourg (33%; 2020 data). Large EU countries such as Italy, Spain, France and Germany tend to be less reliant on imports than smaller EU countries such as Luxembourg, Ireland, Slovakia and Cyprus. Figure 1 presents data valued at basic prices and, therefore, doesn’t include trade and transport margins and taxes less subsidies on products. The sum of trade and transport margins over all products is zero. However, in 2021 taxes less subsidies made up 2% to 7% of the total supply in purchasers’ prices available to individual countries.
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The supply table describes how products enter the economy, either through domestic production or imports. It distinguishes 64 product categories by row and 64 industry categories by column. The supply table also includes data on trade and transport margins as well as taxes less subsidies by product to convert total supply from basic prices into purchasers’ prices. Products are classified according to the statistical classification of products by activity (CPA 2.1). Industries are classified according to the classification of economic activities (NACE Rev. 2).
Figure 2 depicts the composition of domestic supply, aggregated to 10 product categories. Industrial products (CPA Sections B to E), trade, transport, accommodation and food services (CPA Sections G to I) and public services (CPA Sections O to Q) accounted for the bulk of domestic supply in most countries. However, there were exceptions such as Luxembourg, Ireland and Cyprus where these 3 product categories together accounted for only 19% (2020 data), 22% and 43%, respectively, of the domestic supply. In Luxembourg, financial and insurance services (CPA Section K) alone contributed almost half to the domestic supply. The category of non-specified goods and services comprises confidential data and was particularly large for Ireland.
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The supply table also offers insights into primary versus secondary production activities. In other words, it distinguishes between products produced as the main characteristic output of an industry and those produced as a secondary (by-)product by industries principally producing other goods and services. Figure 3 illustrates the case of research and development (R&D) services. There were 4 countries in the EU where most R&D services were produced by the R&D sector (NACE Division 72) as a primary activity. In most EU countries, the bulk of R&D was produced as a secondary activity by, for example, the industrial sector (NACE Sections B to E), the public services sector (NACE Sections O to Q) or by the information and communication sector (NACE Section J). Often, imports made a substantial contribution to the supply of R&D services. In Ireland, they accounted for 80% of all supply of all R&D services, likely related to R&D services acquired by resident enterprises belonging to large multinational enterprise groups.
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Source: Eurostat (naio_10_cp15)
Use table
At an aggregated level, the use table shows how products are used within an economy. Figure 4 indicates that the share of intermediate consumption in total use varied little across EU countries, ranging in 2021 between 34% in Ireland and 45% in Italy, with the 49% share in Luxembourg (2020 data) above this range. However, the shares of final uses had a wider degree of variation. Final consumption expenditure of households, general government and non-profit institutions serving households represented 9% of total use in Luxembourg (2020 data) compared with 39% in Greece. The share of gross capital formation in total use ranged in most EU countries between 11% in Hungary, Austria, Romania and Sweden and 7% in Cyprus and Slovakia; such share was lower in Luxembourg at 3% (2020 data). Exports accounted for 13% of total use in Italy, 14% in France and 15% in Spain, compared with 38% in Luxembourg (2020 data) and 46% in Ireland.
The use table shows how products are used in the economy, either for intermediate consumption by industries or for final uses. The latter are disaggregated into
- final consumption expenditure by households, general government and non-profit institutions serving households;
- gross capital formation;
- exports.
The use table comprises the same 64 product and industry categories as the supply table. However, next to depicting the intermediate consumption of products, it contains additional rows to show, for each industry, the gross value added, disaggregated into the compensation of employees, other taxes less subsidies on production, consumption of fixed capital, and net operating surplus and mixed income. Eurostat collects use tables in purchasers’ prices each year and use tables in basic prices every 5 years, for years ending with a ‘0’ or ‘5’.
The use table contains such a wealth of information that not all of it can be presented here. To provide a snapshot, this article focuses on i) the product mix used for intermediate consumption, ii) the contribution of intermediate consumption and value added to the total output of industries and, iii) the shares of households, general government and non-profit institutions serving households in total final consumption expenditure.
Intermediate consumption
Industrial products (CPA Sections B to E) accounted for the bulk of intermediate consumption in most EU countries in 2021 (Figure 5). This finding isn’t surprising as these products also tend to dominate domestic supply (Figure 2) and are typically goods whose production is relatively material intensive. Luxembourg (2020 data), Ireland and Cyprus were exceptions:
- In Luxembourg, financial and insurance services (CPA Section J) were the largest contributor to intermediate consumption.
- In Ireland, business services were the largest contributor, while the category of non-specified goods and services (which comprises confidential data) was particularly relevant.
- In Cyprus, several categories of services were quite large in terms of their share of intermediate consumption, notably information and communication services which had a larger share in Cyprus than in any other EU country.
After industrial products, the next largest product categories in terms of their shares of intermediate consumption were often business services (CPA Sections M to N) and/or trade, transport, accommodation and food services (CPA Sections G to I). While public services (CPA Sections O to Q) accounted for a substantial portion of domestic supply (Figure 2), they represented a much smaller share of intermediate consumption and mostly serve final uses instead.
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Production input
While Figure 5 shows the product mix of intermediate consumption, Figure 6 provides a broader view on the shares of the various types of inputs used for production purposes. Intermediate consumption of goods and services contributed 48% of production inputs in Greece in 2021, the smallest share among all EU countries. Most other EU countries recorded shares between 50% and 59%, although the share in Luxembourg (74%; 2020 data) was clearly above this range.
Alongside intermediate consumption, the remainder of the inputs used for production purposes was composed of value added. This comprises the compensation of employees, gross operating surplus and mixed income, and other taxes less subsidies on production. In 2021, the shares of these components varied between EU countries.
- The compensation of employees made up between 14% in Ireland and Luxembourg (2020 data) and 30% in Denmark (2020 data) of production inputs.
- The share of gross operating surplus and mixed income in total production inputs ranged from 11% in Luxembourg (2020 data) and 18% in Sweden to 36% in Ireland.
- Approximately 3 in 4 EU countries for which data are available had a negative contribution for other taxes less subsidies on production, meaning that, on average, the non-product specific subsidies received by industries exceeded the taxes they paid. This observation is remarkable and may be linked, at least in part, to governmental support during the second calendar year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Final consumption
The use table provides detailed data, by product category, on how final goods and services are consumed. As illustrated in Figure 7, households accounted for the majority of final consumption expenditure in every EU country, with shares ranging from highs of 75–77%, in Romania, Lithuania and Portugal down to 62% in the Netherlands and Sweden; Luxembourg (58%; 2020 data) was below this range. General government accounted for a share of final consumption expenditure ranging, among EU countries, from 22% in Romania to 38% in Luxembourg (2020 data). Non-profit institutions serving households represented a relatively small share of final consumption expenditure in all EU countries, ranging from less than 1.0% in Lithuania (0.3%), Italy (0.7%) and Romania (0.9%) to 2.9% in Austria, with Luxembourg above this range (4.4%; 2020 data).
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Source: Eurostat (naio_10_cp16)
Accommodation and food services during the COVID-19 pandemic
Supply and use tables serve as a valuable tool to analyse the impacts of exogenous events on the economy. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Europe, airlines, hotels and restaurants were severely affected.
Figures 8 to 10 convey a consistent picture of COVID-19 impacts for the supply and use dimensions of accommodation and food services, with falls in most countries in 2020 and partial rebounds in 2021.
A closer look at the supply and use of accommodation and food services reveals a stark decline in consumer demand in 2020 (compared with the previous year). In 2021, this was followed by a partial rebound in most EU countries. Figure 8 presents the annual change (compared with the previous year) in final consumption expenditure by households in 2020 and 2021 in constant price terms.
In 2020, Croatia, Greece and Cyprus witnessed falls in household consumption expenditure exceeding 50%, while Sweden (down 16%) and Slovakia (down 14%) recorded the smallest declines among EU countries. In 2021, household consumption expenditure increased by 88% in Croatia, 79% in Ireland and 65% in Cyprus. Austria (down 16%) and Finland (down 1%) were the only EU countries which did not report an increase in such expenditure in 2021. This may reflect, at least in part, their appeal as winter holiday destinations, with expenditure down in the first quarter of 2021 – with COVID-19 travel restrictions in place – unlike in early 2020, prior to the onset of the pandemic. Combining the rates of change for 2020 and 2021, Sweden and Ireland were the only EU countries (among those for which data are available) where the rebound in household consumption expenditure in 2021 was sufficient to bring the level of expenditure (in constant prices) back above its 2019 level. However, these changes should be interpreted with caution, as they may reflect differences between data vintages following the 2024 benchmark revision of national accounts (more information can be found here: revision national accounts data revision).
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Source: Eurostat (naio_10_cp16) and (naio_10_pyp16)
The decline in consumer demand for accommodation and food services was associated with a decrease in the supply of these services. Figures 9 and 10 present the annual change in domestic supply and imports in 2020 and 2021, expressed in constant prices.
In 2020, domestic supply of accommodation and food services fell in the EU countries by a percentage generally between 23% in Sweden and 54% in Croatia; the fall in Slovakia was considerably smaller, down 6%. Nearly all EU countries observed a rebound in domestic supply in 2021, with Finland (down 5%) and Austria (down 21%) the only exceptions. The largest increase in 2021 was in Cyprus (up 63%), followed by Croatia (up 55%), Ireland (up 45%), Spain (up 39%) and Greece (up 35%).
Although none of the EU countries recorded a full rebound in 2021 – as all recorded a lower level of domestic supply of accommodation and food services in 2021 than in 2019 – the situation varied greatly between countries. In Slovakia, domestic supply in 2021 was roughly similar to 2019 while in Austria it was 48% lower.
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Source: Eurostat (naio_10_cp15) and (naio_10_pyp15)
In 2020, decreases in imports of accommodation and food services were generally larger than for domestic supply, reaching more than 70% in Cyprus, Finland and the Netherlands. Greece was an exception, as its 7% increase in imports was one of only 2 increases recorded in 2020 among the EU countries; the other was an exceptional increase in Sweden (by more than a factor of 100) as imports in 2019 were almost 0. In 2021, 4 EU countries recorded a decrease in imports - Sweden, Finland, Czechia, and Latvia. The largest increases were observed in Italy (up 65%), Slovenia (up 93%) and Ireland (up 209%).
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Source: Eurostat (naio_10_cp15) and (naio_10_pyp15)
Source data for tables and graphs
Data sources
Supply, use and input-output tables are part of national accounts as defined in the European system of accounts (ESA 2010). The concepts and definitions in ESA 2010 are fully consistent with the United Nation’s system of national accounts (SNA 2008).
Eurostat collects, validates and publishes supply, use and input-output tables for EU, EFTA and enlargement countries some 3 years after the end of the reference period. The scope and modalities of the data collection are defined in the ESA 2010 transmission programme. Countries transmit data on a mandatory basis each year for i) the supply table at basic prices including transformation into purchasers’ prices and ii) the use table in purchasers’ prices. Every 5 years (years ending with a ‘0’ or ‘5’), the transmission also includes i) the use table at basic prices ii) a table for trade and transport margins iii) a table for taxes less subsidies on products and iv) input-output tables. All tables have to be delivered no later than 3 years after the reference period. Eurostat welcomes voluntary data transmissions and publishes data as they become available.
The tables distinguish 64 product and industry categories according to CPA 2.1 and NACE Rev. 2; all transactions are valued in monetary units.
Context
Supply and use tables are matrices that depict monetary transactions within the economy presented by product (in rows) and industry (in columns). The supply table captures domestic production or output (by product and industry) and imports (by product). It also includes data on trade and transport margins and taxes less subsidies on products such that supply data can be transformed from basic prices into purchasers’ prices. The use table reveals how domestic production and imports are used for intermediate consumption (analysed by product and industry) and final uses (analysed by product and disaggregated for final consumption expenditure, gross capital formation and exports). The use table also provides information on gross value added by industry (disaggregated into the compensation of employees, consumption of fixed capital, other net taxes on production, net operating surplus and mixed income).
Supply and use tables are central to national accounts. They adhere to a common set of definitions for all products, activities and institutional sectors to show a consistent picture of how goods and services are brought into the economy, how they are used and how value is created in the process. Supply and use tables respect the following identities
- total supply = total use – for each product, the supply of goods and services, either through domestic production or imports, must be equal to the use of goods and services, either through intermediate consumption, final consumption, gross capital formation or exports
- total output = total input – for each industry, the output of goods and services must be equal to intermediate and primary inputs, that is intermediate consumption, compensation of employees, other taxes less subsidies on production, consumption of fixed capital, and net operating surplus and mixed income.
Supply and use tables help determine a single and consistent estimate of GDP, based on 3 approaches considering production, expenditure and income within an economy
- production approach – GDP is the sum of the gross value added of all industries, plus taxes less subsidies on products (which aren’t allocated to industries)
- expenditure approach – GDP is the sum of final uses of goods and services (including final consumption expenditure by households, general government and non-profit institutions serving households, gross capital formation and exports) minus imports of goods and services
- income approach – GDP is the sum of income earned by individuals and businesses (including the compensation of employees, consumption of fixed capital, taxes on production and imports less subsidies, net operating surplus and mixed income).
Supply and use tables provide the basis for input-output tables that capture the supply and use of products in a single matrix. Input-output tables are obtained by transforming either the products in the rows into industries or the industries in the columns into products. The transformation involves several assumptions and results in a symmetric, intermediate consumption matrix, showing only products or industries in both rows and columns. Input-output tables thereby depict the supply and use of goods and services with a single classification (either analysed by product or by industry).
Together, supply, use and input-output tables help determine input-output coefficients and multipliers for Leontief-type input-output modelling. They underpin a wealth of macro-economic and econometric analyses, for example, general equilibrium models. Supply, use and input-output tables capture the value chains of goods and services produced and consumed within an economy as well as import and export flows from and to other countries. Supply, use and input-output tables can be extended to trace the economic impacts of specific domains (for example, tourism, the digital industry or the space economy) or environmental impacts (for example, resource use, deforestation or emission footprints).
National supply and use tables also provide the building blocks for multi-regional or inter-country supply, use and input-output tables. Such tables capture transactions and value chains at a regional or global scale. Examples include the FIGARO tables (full international and global accounts for research in input-output analysis) published by Eurostat as official European statistics since 2021 and the inter-country input-output tables produced by the OECD. The supply and use tables for the EU and the euro area are derived from the FIGARO tables and are presented in a separate article.
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Database
- Supply, use and Input-output tables - current prices (naio_10_cp)
- Supply, use and input-output tables - previous year's prices (naio_10_pyp)