The expenditure per consumption unit of households whose main breadwinner is 65 years or older has evolved notably over the last two decades. In 2006 it was 20% below the average, while in 2025 it is already above the average, while households with heads of family in middle ages have been losing relative weight.
Inequality in expenditure or consumption among Spanish households has remained practically unchanged in these twenty years, unlike income inequality, which has shown greater fluctuations. In this context, the most relevant change is linked to the age of the main breadwinner, according to a note from Funcas based on the 2025 data from the Family Budget Survey (EPF) of the INE.
Funcas specialists detail that the relative increase in expenditure in households of older people has occurred in two stages. The first, in which most of the improvement was concentrated, coincided with the crisis of 2008-2013. In those years, the income of older households remained or even advanced, thanks to the strong protection of pension revaluation, while the income of households of working age fell sharply due to the collapse of employment.
The second phase, of a more gradual nature, corresponds approximately to the last five years, in a scenario where pensions have recorded increases higher than wages, which continue to be the predominant source of income for the rest of households.
Given that age is closely related to the situation in the labor market, the comparison between households whose main breadwinner is retired and the rest shows a clear improvement for the former. Their relative expenditure index advances 21 percentage points, moving from 86 to 107 in the analyzed period.
Thus, their level of expenditure ceases to be below the average and clearly moves above it, with phases of advancement that coincide with those observed for the entire older population. Conversely, the expenditure of households headed by employed or unemployed people loses 8 and 7 percentage points, respectively, in relative terms.
The researcher of the Social Studies Department of Funcas, Juan Carlos Rodríguez, emphasizes that, while income inequality responds intensely to the economic cycle, "it rises with the crisis and falls with the recovery," expenditure inequality shows much more contained fluctuations. "This confirms that households tend to cushion their income fluctuations by trying to maintain their consumption level by saving (or dis-saving), or going into debt," he pointed out.
Gaps by origin and socioeconomic level
The Funcas study also identifies persistent differences linked to origin and socioeconomic position, which barely vary throughout the considered period.
Households headed by people born in Spain maintain a clearly higher expenditure than those whose main breadwinner was born abroad. Between 2011 and 2025, the average distance remains around 27%, with no significant changes.
A similar pattern is observed when classifying by the occupation of the main breadwinner. Those in high-level occupations present a much higher expenditure than those with low-level jobs, with the relative order not changing appreciably since 2012.
For Juan Carlos Rodríguez, at least three key ideas for the public debate on inequality emerge from this exercise. The first is that a discussion focused almost exclusively on income gains complexity by incorporating consumption, as material well-being is distributed less unequally, and with fewer changes over time, than what income figures reflect.
The second consideration links to the debate on intergenerational balance, in light of the better relative positioning of older individuals, and the third refers to the expenditure gap based on the country of birth of the main breadwinner.
"Despite the fact that in these three decades the immigrant population has gone through different phases of the migratory cycle, there is no convergence of their consumption levels with those of native households, which suggests that neither the passage of time nor economic growth is enough, by itself, to close that gap," he pointed out.