SPANISH residents spend €1,311 per head every year in restaurants, including in coffee shops and bars that serve food, according to the most recent report on the subject by the ministry of agriculture.
This works out at €25.11 per week, or €109.25 per month.
A total of 68.2% of this - €894.10 per year, or €17.19 per week – is spent on actual food, and around a quarter of the full sum is spent on cold drinks.
The most popular food consumed outside the domestic environment or the workplace includes cakes and pastries, ice-cream and general 'nibbles' or small snacks, accounting for 45% of the total spend.
Eating out at night costs residents €305.46 per head per year, or €25.44 – 23.3% of the overall spend – whilst 16.2% of the total goes on breakfast or elevenses.
According to the report, eating between meals – something not often seen in Spanish culture – is an increasing habit, having risen by 13.2% in the past year.
One in three get their food and drinks consumed outside the home or workplace from bars, cafés and breweries, whilst fast-food outlets only account for 15.7%.
And for every 10 times a person consumes food or drink whilst out, one of these will involve snacks or beverages from petrol stations, corner shops, sweet shops or vending machines.
When going out to a restaurant, family members remain the most common companions – on 37.4% occasions, dining partners will be relatives – compared with friends, romantic partners or spouses 20% of the time.
Dining alone is something the average Spanish resident does 13.4% of the time, the report claims.
Per year, every Spanish resident eats 14.26 kilos of fruit and vegetables, six kilos of bread, 5.66 kilos of meat, 4.01 kilos of fish, 1.6 kilos of cakes and pastries, and 9.8 kilos of small starter snacks.
Since the end of 2016, the number of people who go out for drinks has increased, with consumption rising by 0.2% in terms of volume and 1.5% per capita, which works out at around 60 litres of drink per year at an additional cost of 1.3% per head, rising to a total of €260.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com