How much food do households throw away in each EU country?

Eurostat published its food-waste figures for 2024 at the end of September 2026. Most "food waste by country" rankings online still use older global estimates. This page uses the EU's own measured figures and keeps the footnotes that matter: which numbers are estimates, and which countries measure differently.

How much food does each EU country throw away at home?

Food waste per person in 2024, edible and inedible together ^[1]:

Country	At home, kg	All sectors, kg	Homes' share	Note
Portugal	105	161	65%	estimate
Italy	103	137	75%
Denmark	87	261	33%
Greece	87	208	42%	estimate
Latvia	86	134	64%
Malta	86	136	63%	estimate
Luxembourg	81	130	62%
Cyprus	78	295	27%	estimate
Poland	70	130	54%	estimate
Austria	69	128	54%
EU average	69	129	54%
Belgium	65	137	48%
France	62	145	43%	estimate
Czechia	60	101	59%
Hungary	60	87	69%
Finland	60	104	57%	different definition
Sweden	60	132	46%	estimate
Croatia	55	122	45%	estimate
Netherlands	51	129	40%
Slovakia	49	72	68%
Estonia	48	101	48%
Ireland	41	131	31%
Lithuania	37	68	54%
Slovenia	35	79	44%
Spain	24	54	44%	different definition
Norway (not EU)	72	137	53%
Iceland (not EU)	54	127	42%

Bulgaria, Germany and Romania had not sent 2024 figures. In 2023 their households threw away 41, 76 and 103 kg per person. For the EU average, Eurostat fills such gaps with the latest year available ^[2].

Download the table as CSV

Which countries waste the most and the least?

At home, the most: Portugal (105 kg, an estimate) and Italy (103 kg), then Denmark and Greece (87 kg each) and Latvia and Malta (86 kg each).

The least: Spain reports 24 kg, but under a different definition, so we would not call it the winner. After Spain come Slovenia (35 kg), Lithuania (37 kg), Ireland (41 kg) and Estonia (48 kg).

One caution for the bottom of the table. Lithuania and Estonia reported far less in 2024 than in 2023 (37 against 86 kg, 48 against 78 kg). A change that big in one year more likely reflects new measurement than new habits.

Why does Denmark waste a lot at home but show a low household share?

Danish homes threw away 87 kg per person, as much as Greek ones. But Denmark's total across all sectors is 261 kg, so homes are only a third of it. Eurostat notes that small countries that export a lot of food can show high totals ^[2]. Cyprus has the highest total of all, 295 kg.

So to compare households, compare kilograms per person at home, not shares.

Can you compare countries at all?

Mostly. EU countries measure under the same EU rules, and Eurostat rates comparability as good, and high since 2020 ^[3]. But some figures are estimates, Spain and Finland flag a different definition, and past figures get revised: the 2026 release corrected 24 of them for 2020–2023 ^[2]. All figures include inedible parts; there is no EU-wide figure for edible food only.

Is food waste in Europe going down?

Not clearly. For countries that reported every year, Eurostat puts EU food waste at 128–129 kg per person in every year from 2020 to 2024, and calls it stable ^[2].

The EU has set targets for the end of 2030: cut food waste by 10% in processing and manufacturing, and by 30% per person across shops, restaurants and homes combined, against the 2021–2023 average (Directive (EU) 2025/1892) ^[4].

Why do other rankings show different numbers?

Many rankings use the UN's Food Waste Index. Its 2024 report gives 79 kg per person in homes worldwide, from 2022 data, and for most countries the figures are modelled rather than measured ^[5]. Some ranking sites mix figures from the UN's 2021 and 2024 reports. They are not wrong in themselves; they answer a global question with older data.

For France in detail, see How much food does a French household throw away in a year?, and for why the figures differ between sources, Why do food-waste numbers never match?

How we built the table

• Data: Eurostat dataset env_wasfw, unit kg per inhabitant, households (HH) and all sectors (TOT), reference year 2024, dataset updated 28 September 2026, retrieved 9 November 2026 ^[1].
• Homes' share: household tonnes ÷ all-sector tonnes, rounded.
• Notes copy Eurostat's own flags: "estimate" and "different definition".
• Norway and Iceland are not EU members but report to Eurostat.