BUCHAREST, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Romanians have the highest share of total household expenditure on food and non-alcoholic beverages in the European Union (EU), double the EU average, showed the latest data released on Monday by Eurostat, the European statistical office.

According to the office, the Romanian households spent 27.8 percent of the total consumption expenditure on food and non-alcoholic beverages in 2018, followed by Lithuania with 20.9 percent and Estonia with 19.6 percent, while at the opposite end, four EU countries have percentages below 10 percent, namely the United Kingdom with 7.8 percent, Ireland with 8.7 percent, Luxembourg with 9.1 percent and Austria with 9.7 percent.

The consumption on food and soft drinks in EU countries averaged 12.1 percent of total household expenditure last year, being the third largest category of household expenditure after housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, which accounted for 24 percent of household expenditure, and transport, 13.2 percent.

In 2018, EU households spent over 1.047 billion euros (1.159 billion U.S. dollars), or 6.6 percent of EU GDP, for food and non-alcoholic beverages, according to Eurostat.