ELDERLY AND NON‐ELDERLY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION: A COMPARISON OF LIVING STANDARDS

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Abstract
The paper compares the living standards of the elderly vis‐a‐vis the rest of the population in EU countries in the late 1980s using the data of Household Budget Surveys. Elderly and non‐elderly are compared in terms of consumption expenditure, income and non‐monetary indicators of welfare. The results show that in all EU countries the non‐elderly are better‐off than the elderly. In some countries the differences in the living standards of the two groups are marginal, whereas in others they are substantial. These differences tend to be larger in the Southern European EU countries (with the exception of Spain) and smaller in the Northern European EU countries (with the exception of the U.K.).