COICOP

COICOP stands for the Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose. It is an internationally recognized framework for classifying household expenditure by the purpose of the spending. Developed to enable cross-country comparisons of consumer behavior, COICOP is used to organize data from household budget surveys and to support economic indicators such as consumer price indices and national accounts.

The classification is hierarchical and supports detailed analysis through subcategories. At its top level, COICOP comprises 12 divisions, which cover broad areas of consumption. The twelve divisions are: 01 Food and non-alcoholic beverages; 02 Alcoholic beverages and tobacco; 03 Clothing and footwear; 04 Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels; 05 Furnishings, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house; 06 Health; 07 Transport; 08 Communications; 09 Recreation and culture; 10 Education; 11 Restaurants and hotels; 12 Miscellaneous goods and services. Subdivisions can be coded with five-digit levels for more detailed analysis.

COICOP is maintained by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) in cooperation with international partners, including Eurostat and the OECD. It is used to classify expenditures in household budget surveys, as well as in the construction of consumer price indices and some national accounts, enabling consistent cross-country comparisons of consumer behavior over time.

The framework is periodically revised to reflect evolving consumption patterns and the emergence of new goods and services. Countries map their own expenditure classifications to COICOP levels to maintain comparability, while preserving the flexibility needed for national data collection and reporting.