Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

E2: Environmental statistics and accounts; sustainable development

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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 'Production and consumption'.

Improvements in material productivity – the efficiency of material use – helps to reduce environmental pressure and impacts, but has grown much more slowly than labour and energy productivity.

The transition towards a circular economy contributes decoupling economic growth from resource use. The term decoupling refers to breaking the link between an environmental and an economic variable. As defined by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), decoupling occurs when the growth rate of an environmental pressure (for example, DMC) is less than that of its economic driving force (for example, GDP) over a given period.

Decoupling can be either absolute or relative. Absolute decoupling is said to occur when the environmental variable is stable or decreases while the economic driving force grows. Decoupling is said to be relative when the rate of change of the environmental variable is less than the rate of change of the economic variable.

The indicator is defined as the gross domestic product (GDP) divided by domestic material consumption (DMC). DMC measures the total amount of materials directly used by an economy. It is defined as the annual quantity of raw materials extracted from the domestic territory of the local economy, plus all physical imports minus all physical exports. It is important to note that the term 'consumption', as used in DMC, denotes apparent consumption and not final consumption. DMC does not include upstream flows related to imports and exports of raw materials and products originating outside of the local economy.

Because resource productivity is calculated as GDP divided over DMC, the units of measure are those of GDP over those if DMC. Eurostat uses GDP either in unit 'Euro 2015– based chain-linked volumes' - GDP in chain-linked volumes normalized to 2015 prices - or in unit 'PPS per kilogram' - GDP in current prices expressed in Purchasing Power Standard.

Consequently, the indicator is published in three different units:

i) in euro per kg, chain-linked volumes (2015). Volume figures show the development of aggregates excluding inflation; to be used when comparing over time (various years) one single country;

ii) in PPS per kg. Purchasing Power Standards are fictive 'currency' units that remove differences in purchasing power, hence eliminate differences in price levels across countries; to be used when comparing across countries at one point in time;

iii) as an index (2000=100) - based on GDP in chain-linked volumes normalized to 2010 prices, for comparing the values in different years to a previous value (year 2000).

Calendar year.

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)

Data set 1: Domestic Material Consumption (DMC)
Data provider: Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat), based on data reported by the countries
Link to the data source: Material Flow Accounts (env_ac_mfa)

Data set 2: Gross domestic product (GDP)
Data provider: Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat), based on data reported by the countries
Link to the data source: GDP and main components (nama_10_gdp)

Every year

Indicator is updated annually.

The release calendar can be consulted in the medatada file of the data set source.

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, the Republic of North Macedonia, 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 break is longer than 4 data points.

Eurostat is revising previously released estimates (of the circular material use rate) for the year 2020. The size of the revision is exceptional because the previous estimates were based on pre-pandemic information. The newly available waste statistics for the year 2020 reflect the shock of consumption and recycling patterns during the lockdown. The revised circular material use rate estimates for 2020 are revised downwards because the total amount of recycled waste dropped whereas the extractions of material resources did not reduce correspondingly. The revisions are bigger in some Member States than in others.

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

Link to Staff Working Document

See table cie_pc030

Eurostat dedicated section on Circular Economy.

Eurostat dedicated section on Material Flows and Resource Productivity

DG ENV, Implementation of the Circular Economy Action Plan.

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