What Russians spend money on: expense structure by income groups
The poorest 10% of Russian households spend 48.9% of all consumer expenditures on food and non‑alcoholic drinks. The richest 10% allocate the same line item 18.9%. Expenditures on transport are the opposite: 7.1% for the lower group and 29.4% for the upper. Rosstat data for 2025, household budget survey.
Below is the expense structure for all major items, differences between the ten income groups, dynamics since 2018 and interactive charts.
Expense structure: poor and rich
Share of consumer expenditures, 2025, %.
| Item | Poorest 10% | Richest 10% |
|---|---|---|
| Food and non‑alcoholic drinks | 48.9 | 18.9 |
| including meat and meat products | 12.5 | 4.5 |
| including milk, dairy products, eggs | 7.7 | 2.7 |
| including bakery products and cereals | 7.2 | 2.0 |
| Housing, water, electricity, gas and fuel | 13.5 | 9.3 |
| Transport | 7.1 | 29.4 |
| including purchase and operation of a car | 5.7 | 26.3 |
| Clothing and footwear | 7.5 | 5.2 |
| Information and communication | 5.3 | 3.6 |
| Personal hygiene and other goods and services | 5.1 | 6.5 |
| Furniture, household appliances, home maintenance | 3.3 | 4.5 |
| Healthcare | 2.9 | 5.0 |
| Organization of leisure and cultural events | 2.1 | 9.5 |
| Alcohol and tobacco | 1.9 | 1.7 |
| Hotels, cafes and restaurants | 1.0 | 4.9 |
| Education | 1.0 | 0.8 |
These are shares, not rubles. The upper group spends 2.6 times less of its budget on food, but in absolute rubles buys more food. The full set for all ten decile groups since 2004 is available in the interactive dataset.
Engel's law works here too
A rule formulated in the 19th century: the poorer the family, the larger share of the budget it spends on food. Russian data confirm it almost literally.
- poorest 10%: 48.1% in 2018, 48.9% in 2025
- middle group: 39.5% and 40.6%
- richest 10%: 17.5% and 18.9%
Over seven years the shares hardly moved. The 2020 dip (44.3% for the lower group) is explained not by income growth but by closed cafés and cancelled trips: some habitual expenses disappeared, and the structure tilted for the year.
Within the food basket the gap is even clearer. Bread and cereals take up 7.2% of the budget of the poorest families and 2.0% of the richest. Meat 12.5% versus 4.5%.
The car as the main expense of the rich
The other side of the same arithmetic: for the upper group 29.4% of all expenditures go to transport, and almost all of that is the purchase and upkeep of a car.
- poorest 10%: 4.7% in 2021, 5.7% in 2025
- middle group: 6.9% and 7.5%
- richest 10%: 23.8% and 26.3%
The upper group increased the share of car expenses by 2.5 percentage points over four years. In expenditure statistics the car behaves not as transport but as a durable good: the purchase is recorded in a single month’s budget in full and strongly shifts the annual structure.
What only the rich buy
Five rows where the gap between groups is more than threefold:
- organization of leisure and cultural events: 9.5% versus 2.1%
- medical services: 3.4% versus 0.5%
- hotels, cafes and restaurants: 4.9% versus 1.0%
- equipment for information and communication: 2.1% versus 0.4%
- purchase and operation of a car: 26.3% versus 5.7%
And three rows where the picture is opposite:
- electricity, gas and fuel: 8.0% in the lower group versus 2.2% in the upper
- information and communication services: 4.9% versus 1.5%
- water supply and other utilities: 4.0% versus 1.5%
Utility payments hardly depend on income in rubles, so in the budget of a poor family they take three to four times larger share. The same mechanism works with mobile phone service and internet: one tariff for all.
Questions and answers
What percentage of income do Russians spend on food?
It depends on the group. On average for the fifth decile (the middle of the distribution) 40.6% of consumer expenditures in 2025. Among the poorest 10% almost half of the budget, among the richest less than a fifth.
Is this a share of income or of expenditures?
Of consumer expenditures. Savings, taxes and loan repayments are not included in this structure, so the shares are calculated from the total of purchases, not from salary.
Where does Rosstat get this data?
From a sample survey of household budgets: participants keep spending diaries, and based on these records the expenditure structure is built for each income group. It is a sample, not a continuous accounting, therefore the values have an error margin.
Why are mortgages and loans absent from the structure?
Loan repayment is not a consumer expense, but a financial operation. In the survey it is accounted for separately and does not enter the presented shares.
How has the structure changed over twenty years?
The classification of expenditures changed in 2018, so long comparisons should be made cautiously. Comparable series in the set start from 2018, individual rows from 2021.
Brief
The structure of consumer spending in Russia depends most strongly not on region or age, but on income. The poorest tenth of households spends almost half of its budget on food, while the richest fifth spends far less. However, in the upper group 29.4% of expenditures go to transport and 9.5% to recreation, whereas in the lower group the same categories account for 7.1% and 2.1%. Utility payments and communications weigh on poor budgets three to four times more, because their size hardly depends on income. Over seven years of observation the proportions have hardly shifted.