Questions and facts

Is the EU’s population increasing or decreasing? Is the average age still growing? How does each country live? Are the welfare systems very different? Which labour markets seem to be more dynamic? How much waste is produced and collected from Estonia to Malta, from Greece to the United Kingdom, through Hungary? The 2008 Statistics Yearbook published by Eurostat answers hundreds of questions and facts. Available in three languages (English, French and German), it is becoming increasingly relevant to the law- and decision-making processes of the European Union. Figures, tables and politics. “Statistics play a key role in modern society”, explains Hervé Carré, General Manager of Eurostat. “Unbiased and objective information” is by now essential “to be able to take well-grounded political decisions”. In particular, Carré states, “within the EU, statistics are playing an increasingly important role for the development, assessment and monitoring of the EU policies”. This is after all the institutional task of the EU Commission’s Statistics Office which has published the Yearbook for the twelfth time; add to this many industry and economic surveys also available on the website, web www.epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu. A comparison between different editions of the Yearbook shows how Europe has developed, what changes are going on, how continental figures compare with those of the USA and Japan, which are monitored by Eurostat all the time.Europe gets a makeover. “The 2008 Yearbook includes fifteen sections – explains Eurostat’s experts – dealing with as many statistic areas. The first section is about population changes”, while the others concern economy, education, health, living conditions and welfare, the labour market, industry and services, agriculture, forestry and fishing, international trade, transport, environment, energy science and technology, regions. “The last section is focussed on relations between the EU statistics and policies”. Probably the first and foremost fact suggested by the 575 pages of the book, full of tables and diagrams, is the increased “diversity” of the EU, due to the geographical expansion of the Union as well as the dynamic nature of the present age. Ireland has grown the most. One of the most interesting sections, the one on population, shows some significant statistics and differences. Over the last ten years (1997-2007), the 27 member states have risen from a population of 479 million to the current 495 million, which means 3.4% up. But figures about birth rates, death rates and migration outline a very uneven picture. “Ireland – state Eurostat’s experts – is the country that has grown the most”, at an overall 18% rate, followed by Cyprus (+16.9%), Luxembourg (14.2 %) and Spain (+12.5 %), the first large country. “Instead the population has decreased in eight countries, and the one where it has decreased most is Bulgaria (-7.9%)”, followed by Latvia and Lithuania.Germany first…. Turkey second. The most populated country is still Germany, with its 82 million people, followed by France (63 million), the United Kingdom (60), Italy (59), Spain (44) and Poland (38). Far down the list, Romania (21) and the Netherlands (16). Three countries have a population of less than one million: Cyprus, Luxembourg and Malta. Of the countries which have applied for membership, the one with the largest population is clearly Turkey which, with its 73 million people (and rising…), would come second of this special list. An interesting comparison can be made between the EU and the world populations, the latter having reached 6.5 billion: it was just 3 billion back in 1960. In less than 50 years, the population of the 27 EU member states has become half the planet’s total population, from 13.3% in 1960 to the current 7.5%.House owners; labour costs. Some curious facts suggested by Eurostat’s experts. In the 27 member states, two thirds of the families own the house in which they live, the others are renting. The highest number of house owners can be found in some Eastern countries, such as Estonia and Lithuania (88% house owners), followed by Hungary, Spain and Slovenia. Conversely the highest number of tenants can be found in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Poland. If instead we look at the labour costs paid by companies, we can find some abysmal distances. In Sweden one hour’s work costs a company 32 euros on average, over 31 euros in Denmark, Belgium and Luxembourg, over 30 euros in France, 27 in Germany, the Netherlands and Finland, 26 in Austria, 24 in the United Kingdom and 21 in Italy. Within the EU, the average cost of one hour’s work is 20.35 euros. But there are countries in which labour costs just 1.65 euros per hour, for instance in Bulgaria, or 2.68 in Romania.