The UK’s performance was also 16 per cent higher than the EU average last year, up from 15 per cent higher the year before.

The figures were based on calculations of Actual Individual Consumption, or AIC, per head of population around Europe in 2016.

AIC is often used to indicate households’ material welfare as it includes all goods and services consumed, whether they were bought and paid for by the individuals, by government or by other bodies, to account for differences in how countries deliver public services.

The UK’s fourth place for consumption per head is behind Luxembourg, Germany and Austria.  

Britain was in joint fourth place in 2015 and 2014, said the Office for National Statistics which collected UK figures for the EU’s Eurostat body to produce its comparisons around the Continent.

Bulgaria has the EU’s lowest AIC, at just 53 per cent of the bloc’s average.

On Gross Domestic Product per head, the UK remains in eighth place, which may be seen as further evidence of its long-standing struggle to boost its workers’ productivity.

Average prices in the UK last year were 22 per cent above the EU average, making it the fifth most expensive country in the bloc.

Denmark was the most expensive at 41 per cent above the average and Bulgaria the cheapest at 52 per cent below.