
Which Europeans saved and spent the most in 2021?
N26 data indicates that Spanish customers saved more in 2021 than their European counterparts—and European women were better at saving than men. For more saving and spending insights, read on.
14 min read
If you’ve ever struggled to stick to a savings goal, you may already suspect that the human brain is not hardwired for savings success. “Our brains have not developed for the purpose of making clever financial decisions,” explains Professor Dr. Mira Fauth-Bühler, neuroscientist and professor of economic psychology and neuroeconomics at FOM University of Applied Sciences for Economics and Management in Stuttgart, Germany. This is not to say that saving money requires going against human nature—but Prof. Dr. Fauth-Bühler suggests that we need to conceive of saving in a way our brains respond to. “We are wired to seek rewards,” she says. “The question is whether we are willing to wait for […] an incentive that’s big enough to cover the cost of waiting.”Of course, your incentive to save may vary depending on any number of factors—your age, your gender, even the country you live in. And this was perhaps never more true than in 2021, the second year of a global pandemic that posed new and unique challenges for every demographic to navigate. To get to the bottom of how consumers in Europe’s biggest economies saved and spent money in 2021 we analyzed N26 consumer data from the four largest European markets we do business in: Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. Our findings suggest that customers in Spain were the most efficient European savers in 2021, and that European women were generally better at saving than men.Read on to see the key takeaways from our study and explore more insights about how different Europeans saved in 2021.The following insights are based on an analysis of spending and saving habits of N26 customers¹ from January 2021 to December 2021:
Key study takeaways
- Spanish savers were more efficient than their counterparts in Germany, Italy, and France in 2021. The average monthly share of savings to overall income for Spain was 23%, compared to 18% for Germany, 16% for Italy, and 6% for France.
- N26 customers in Barcelona and Madrid saved an average of 21% of their monthly income—more than residents of any other major city in our study. Customers in Munich came in third place with 20% of their monthly income stashed away in savings.
- French customers overall saved less than half of what other European customers saved. This trend was most prominent in the city of Marseille, where customers saved just 2% of their monthly income on average.
- Even though men earn more than women on average, women in most age groups outshine men when it comes to monthly savings. This is particularly notable in the age group 30-34, where women save on average 32% more than men (€75.96), while earning a whopping 26% (€368.42) less.
- Spending on average was highest in December and November, while the majority of users saved the most money in March. An uptick in shopping over the holidays may explain why spending ticked upward to close out the year.