Development of a Household Sustainable Consumption Index and Its Application to EU‐28

The purpose of this paper is to present the construction of the Household Sustainable Consumption Index (HSCI). The index is based on existing data from reputable institutions, which allows us to form a broad perspective on all three aspects of sustainability for 28 EU countries for the years 2005 and 2010. HSCI is a composite index developed in line with statistical principles using parallel analysis to select the appropriate number of factors, and factor analysis for calculation of weights. In both years, HSCI rankings have placed Scandinavian and Benelux countries at the top of the table, while Baltic countries, Romania and Bulgaria have been placed at the bottom. The explanatory power of HSCI is confirmed by linking the index to GDP per capita. The analysis brings a novel and first statistically developed tool to empirically simultaneously follow the changes in household sustainable consumption.