Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

E2: Environmental statistics and accounts; sustainable development

2920 Luxembourg LUXEMBOURG

e-mail contact: ESTAT-CIRCULAR-ECONOMY@ec.europa.eu

The indicator is part of the Circular Economy indicator set. It is used to monitor progress towards a circular economy on the thematic area of 'Global sustainability and resilience'.

The 'material import dependency' is the extent to which an economy relies upon imports in order to meet its material needs. It is very important to control and decrease import dependency, specially fossil energy materials.

This indicator is calculated as the ratio of imports over direct material inputs (DMI) in percentage.

Material import dependency cannot be negative or higher than 100 %. Values equal to 100 % indicate that there are no domestic extractions during the reference year.

Percentage

Calendar year

The indicator is produced according to the high-level quality standards of European Statistics. Details on accuracy can be found in the metadata of the source datasets (see link in "Related metadata").

ESS

Data source: European Statistical System (ESS), Economy-wide material flow accounts (EW-MFA) based on Regulation (EU) 691/2011 on European Environmental Economic Accounts.

Data provider: Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat) based on data reported by the countries:
Material import dependency - (env_ac_mid)

Every year

Indicator is updated annually in March.

T+1 year

New data points are disseminated within one year after the reference year.

All EU MS

Data are presented for all EU Member States plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom (up to 2019), the Republic of North Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Turkey and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The EU aggregate is also available.

All EU MS

Data are comparable between all EU Member States.

> 10 years

Presented time series (including EU aggregates) starts in 2000.

> 4 data points

Length of comparable time series without methodological breaks is longer than 4 data points.

Analysis of indicator is presented in Commission Staff Working Document.

Eurostat, Statistics Explained: Resource productivity statistics

Eurostat, Statistics Explained: Material flow accounts and resource productivity

Eurostat, Statistics Explained: Physical imports and exports

See table cei_gsr030

Eurostat dedicated section on Circular Economy.

Glossary: Direct material input (DMI)

Eurostat dedicated section on Material Flows and Resource Productivity

DG ENV, Implementation of the Circular Economy Action Plan.