The data present the selection of Census topics and breakdowns of the 2021 EU population and housing census, as defined by Regulation (EC) 763/2008 and its three implementing regulations for the 2021 round of censuses: Regulation (EU) 2017/543; Regulation (EU) 2017/712 and Regulation (EU) 2017/881.
The 2021 data presented in the tables for BE, BG, CZ, DE, DK, EE, IE, EL, ES, FR, HR, IT, CY, LV, LT, LU, HU, MT, NL, AT, PT, SI, SK, FI, SE, IS, LI, NO, CH are taken from a broader collection of data composed of 119 hypercubes (organized into 41 groups) mandated by Annex I to the Regulation (EU) 2017/712. These hypercubes provide a highly detailed dataset, aligning with the key census features of individual enumeration, simultaneity, universality, availability of small-area data, and defined periodicity. This structure allows detailed cross-tabulation of demographic, socioeconomic, and housing characteristics across various geographic levels (National, NUTS 1, NUTS 2 and NUTS 3).
The census data presented here adhere to the same definitions, technical specifications, and breakdowns as the detailed hypercubes, which can be accessed via the Eurostat Census Hub.
The tables presented here provide key breakdowns and cross-tabulations.
The data tables are structured based on a 2021 CensusHub data topic design, where each table represents a multidimensional breakdown of census data.
The 2021 Census data offer a statistical overview of population, households, families, and dwellings. Datasets are organized around three core areas:
1.Population Characteristics:
Comprehensive demographic details, including sex, age, marital status, and family structures.
Socioeconomic indicators such as education, employment, occupation, and activity status.
Migration-related characteristics, covering citizenship, country of birth, year of arrival, and previous residence. Geographical breakdowns are offered at NUTS 2 in 23 tables and NUTS 3 levels in 12 tables.
2.Families and Households:
Household composition and family structures.
Features family nucleus size, tenure status, and household composition and size.
These tables are primarily provided for NUTS 3 geographical regions in the 3 tables.
3.Dwellings:
Dwelling characteristics, including ownership status, building types, occupancy, and construction periods among others.
Geographical detail, with data split between NUTS 2 in one table and NUTS 3 in 4 tables.
The statistical data are supplemented by national metadata files that facilitate interpretation of the numerical data, including country-specific definitions, information on the data sources and on methodological issues.
‘Usual residence’ is the place where a person normally spends the daily period of rest, regardless of temporary absences for purposes of recreation, holidays, visits to friends and relatives, business, medical treatment, or religious pilgrimage.
The following persons alone are usual residents of the geographical area in question:
(i) those who have lived in their place of usual residence for a continuous period of at least 12 months before the reference date
(ii) those who arrived in their place of usual residence during the 12 months before the reference date with the intention of staying there for at least one year
Where the circumstances described in point (i) or (ii) cannot be established, ‘usual residence’ means the place of legal or registered residence.
This definition differs for AT, BG, CZ, EE, FR, FI, IT, HU, LU, NO, SE, SK. Details can be found in the national metadata files under Concept 3.4.1.
‘Sex’ refers to the biological characteristics at birth that defines persons as male or female.
‘Age’, reached in completed years at the reference date.
Unless otherwise stated in the national metadata files.
‘Marital status’ is defined as the (legal) conjugal status of an individual in relation to the marriage laws (or customs) of the country (that is the de jure status).
A person is classified according to his/her most recently acquired legal marital status at the reference date.
In Member States where legislation includes provisions for married partners or partners in registered partnership to be ‘legally separated’, such ‘legally separated’ persons are classified under ‘Married or in registered partnership’.
Unless otherwise stated in the national metadata files.
‘Family nucleus’ is defined in a narrow sense; that is as two or more persons who belong to the same household and who are related as husband and wife, as partners in a registered partnership, as partners in a consensual union, or as parent and child. Thus, a family comprises a couple without children or a couple with one or more children, or a lone parent with one or more children. This family concept limits relationships between children and adults to direct (first-degree) relationships, that is, between parents and children.
Unless otherwise stated in the national metadata files.
‘Household status’ - private households are identified using the ‘housekeeping concept’ or, if not possible, using the ‘household-dwelling concept’.
1) Housekeeping concept
According to the housekeeping concept, a private household is either: (a) a one-person household, that is a person who lives alone in a separate housing unit or who occupies, as a lodger, a separate room (or rooms) of a housing unit but does not join with any of the other occupants of the housing unit to form part of a multi-person household as defined below; or (b) a multi-person household, that is a group of two or more persons who combine to occupy the whole or part of a housing unit and to provide themselves with food and possibly other essentials for living. Members of the group may pool their incomes to a greater or lesser extent.
According to the national metadata files, the housekeeping concept is applied by BE, BG, CY, CZ, IE, SI, SK.
2) Household-dwelling concept
The household-dwelling concept considers all persons living in a housing unit to be members of the same household, such that there is one household per occupied housing unit.
The household dwelling concept is applied by: DK, AT, EE, EL, FR, FI, HR, HU, IS, LI, LU, LV, MT, NO, PT, SE, CH.
For NL, the housekeeping concept was primarily used but, when not possible, the household-dwelling concept was instead applied.
‘Current activity status’ is the current relationship of a person to economic activity, based on a reference period of one week, which may be either a specified, recent, fixed, calendar week, or the last complete calendar week, or the last seven days prior to the reference date.
Unless otherwise stated in the national metadata files.
Persons aged below 15 years are recorded as being outside of the labour force and below the minimum age for economic activity, unless otherwise stated in the national metadata files.
‘Occupation’ refers to the type of work done in a job. ‘Type of work’ is described by the main tasks and duties of the work.
Persons are classified according to the occupation they had during their most recent employment. The categories included in the breakdown 'occupation' correspond to the major groups of the ISCO-08 (COM) classification.
Persons under the age of 15 years, as well as persons aged 15 or over that were:
- not economically active during the reference week, or
- unemployed, never worked before (i.e. they have never been employed in their lives)
are classified under 'not applicable'.
The allocation of a person within the breakdowns of the topics 'Occupation', 'Industry' and 'Status in employment' is based on the same job.
Unless otherwise stated in the national metadata file.
An ‘employee’ is a person who works in a ‘paid employment’ job, that is a job where the explicit or implicit contract of employment gives the incumbent a basic remuneration, which is independent of the revenue of the unit for which he/ she works.
An ‘employer’ is a person who, working on his or her own account or with a small number of partners, holds a ‘self-employment’ job and, in this capacity, on a continuous basis (including the reference week) has engaged one or more persons to work for him/her as ‘employees’.
Unless otherwise stated in the national metadata file.
‘Industry’ (branch of economic activity) refers to the kind of production or activity of the establishment or similar unit in which the job of an employed person is located.
Persons doing more than one job are allocated an industry (branch of economic activity) based on their main job, which is identified according to the time spent on the job or (if not available) the income received.
The breakdown by industry is available for persons aged 15 or over that were:
- employed during the reference week, or
- unemployed during the reference week, but have ever been in employment
Persons are classified according to the industry they worked in during their most recent employment. The categories included in the breakdown 'Industry' list the 21 sections of the NACE Rev. 2 classification and appropriate aggregates.
‘Location of the place of work’ is the geographical area in which a currently employed person does his/her job.
The place of work of those mostly working at home is the same as their usual residence. The term ‘working’ refers to work done as an ‘employed person’ as defined under the topic ‘Current activity status.’ ‘Mostly’ working at home means that the person spends all or most of the time working at home, and less, or no, time in a place of work other than at home.
Information on persons who do not have a fixed place of work but who report to a fixed address at the beginning of their work period (for example bus drivers, airline crew, operators of street market stalls that are not removed at the end of the workday) refer to that address. This group may also include individuals who travel to work, on a regular basis, across the border to a neighbouring country. The breakdown ‘No fixed place of work (inside or outside the Member State)’ includes all persons without fixed place of work but will also refer to persons such as sailors, fishers, and offshore workers for whom it may not be possible to allocate the place of work.
Unless otherwise stated in the national metadata file.
‘Educational attainment’ refers to the highest level successfully completed in the educational system of the country where the education was received. All education which is relevant to the completion of a level is considered even if this was provided outside schools and universities.
Persons are classified according to the ISCED-11 classificatory unless otherwise stated in the national metadata files.
‘Size of the locality’
A locality is defined as a distinct population cluster that is an area defined by population living in neighboring or contiguous buildings.
Such buildings may be either:
(a) form a continuous built-up area with a clearly recognizable street formation; or
(b) though not part of such a built-up area, comprise a group of buildings to which a locally recognized place name is uniquely attached; or
(c) though not meeting either of the above two criteria, constitute a group of buildings, none of which is separated from its nearest neighbour by more than 200 meters.
‘Place of Birth’ is collected according to the place of usual residence of the mother at the time of the birth, or, if not available, the place in which the birth took place, based on international boundaries existing on 1 January 2021.
For reporting countries that are EU Member States, the sub-category under the category 'other EU Member State' that refers to their Member State does not apply. For reporting countries that are not EU Member States, the category 'Other EU Member State,' is read as 'EU Member State'.
The category Other” covers those persons whose country of birth existed at the time of the birth, but no longer exists at the time of the census, and who cannot be allocated uniquely to one country existing at the time of the census, i.e. according to currentborders.
Unless otherwise stated in the national metadata files.
‘Country of Citizenship’ - citizenship is defined as the legal bond between an individual and his/her State, acquired by birth or naturalization, whether by declaration, option, marriage, or other means according to the national legislation. A person with two or more citizenships is allocated to only one country of citizenship, determined in the following order of precedence:
1. reporting country
2. if the person does not have the citizenship of the reporting country: other EU Member State
3. if the person does not have the citizenship of another EU Member State: other country outside the European Union.
'EU Member State' means a country that is a member of the European Union on 1 January 2021. The list of countries in the breakdown 'Country of citizenship' only applies for statistical purposes.
For reporting countries that are EU Member States, the sub-category of the category 'citizenship not of reporting country, but other EU Member State' that refers to their Member State does not apply. For reporting countries that are not EU Member States, the category 'citizenship not of reporting country, but other EU Member State' is changed to 'citizenship of an EU Member State'.
The ‘Year of arrival in the country’ is the calendar year in which a person most recently established usual residence in the country.
The data for 2021 refer to the time span between 1 January 2021 and the reference date.
‘Residence one year before’ defines the relationship between the current place of usual residence and the place of usual residence ‘one year prior to the census.’
For all persons that have changed their usual residence more than once within the year prior to the reference date, the previous place of usual residence is the last usual residence from which they moved to their current place of usual residence.
Unless otherwise stated in the national metadata file.
The topic ‘Housing arrangements’ covers the entire population and refers to the type of housing in which a person usually resides at the time of the census. This covers all persons who are usual residents in several types of living quarters, or who do not have a usual residence and stay temporarily in some type of living quarters, or who are roofless, sleeping rough or in emergency shelters, when the census is taken.
'Other housing units' are huts, cabins, shacks, shanties, caravans, houseboats, barns, mills, caves, or any other shelter used for human habitation at the time of the census, irrespective if it was designed for human habitation.
'Collective living quarters' are premises that are designed for habitation by large groups of individuals or several households and which are used as the usual residence of at least one person at the time of the census.
'Occupied conventional dwellings', 'other housing units' and 'collective living quarters' together represent ‘living quarters'. Any 'living quarter' must be the usual residence of at least one person.
The sum of occupied conventional dwellings and other housing units represents housing units.
The ‘homeless’ (persons who are not usual residents in any living quarter category) can be persons living in the streets without a shelter that would fall within the scope of living quarters (primary homelessness) or persons moving frequently between temporary accommodation (secondary homelessness).
Unless otherwise stated in the national metadata files.
"Type of family nucleus’ is defined in a narrow sense; that is as two or more persons who belong to the same household and who are related as husband and wife, as partners in a registered partnership, as partners in a consensual union, or as parent and child. Thus, a family comprises a couple without children or a couple with one or more children, or a lone parent with one or more children. This family concept limits relationships between children and adults to direct (first-degree) relationships, that is, between parents and children.
Child (son/daughter) refers to a blood, step- or adopted son or daughter (regardless of age or marital status) who has usual residence in the household of at least one of the parents, and who has no partner or own children in the same household. Foster children are not included. A son or daughter who lives with a spouse, with a registered partner, with a partner in a consensual union, or with one or more own children, is not considered to be a child. A child who alternates between two households (for instance if his or her parents are divorced) shall consider the one where he or she spends most of the time.. Where an equal amount of time is spent with both parents the household shall be the one where the child is found at the reference date.
The term couple shall include married couples, couples in registered partnerships, and couples who live in a consensual union.
Registered partnerships are reported only by those countries where registered partnerships are recognised within the national legal framework.
‘Size of family nucleus’
The definition of the term ‘family nucleus’ provided for the topic ‘Family status’ also applies to the topic ‘Size of family nucleus’.
‘Type of private household’
The specifications for the household concepts provided for the topic ‘Household status’ also apply to the topic ‘Type of private household’.
‘Couple households’ shall include married couple households, registered partnership households and consensual union couple households.
‘Size of private household’
The specifications for the household concepts provided for the topic ‘Household status’ also apply to the topic ‘Size of private household’.
The topic ‘Tenure status of households’ refers to the arrangements under which a private household occupies all or part of a housing unit.
“Occupancy status of conventional dwellings” - ‘Occupied conventional dwellings’ are conventional dwellings which are the usual residence of one or more persons at the time of the census. ‘Unoccupied conventional dwellings’ are conventional dwellings which are not the usual residence of any person at the time of the census.
Dwellings reserved for seasonal or secondary use, vacant dwellings, as well as conventional dwellings with persons present but not included in the census are classified under the category ‘Unoccupied conventional dwellings’.
‘Type of ownership’ refers to the ownership of the dwelling and not to that of the land on which the dwelling stands. It shows the tenure arrangements under which the dwelling is occupied.
'Owner-occupied dwellings' are those where at least one occupant of the dwelling owns parts or the whole of the dwelling. 'Cooperative ownership' refers to ownership within the framework of a housing cooperative.
'Rented dwellings' are those where at least one occupant pays a rent for the occupation of the dwelling, and where no occupant owns parts or the whole of the dwelling.
The ‘Number of occupants’ of a housing unit is the number of people for whom the housing unit is the usual residence.
‘Useful floor space and/or Number of rooms of housing units’ Useful floor space is defined as:
- the floor space measured inside the outer walls excluding non-habitable cellars and attics and, in multi-dwelling buildings, all common spaces; or
- the total floor space of rooms falling under the concept of ‘room’.
A ‘room’ is defined as a space in a housing unit enclosed by walls reaching from the floor to the ceiling or roof, of a size large enough to hold a bed for an adult (4 square metres at least) and at least 2 metres high over the major area of the ceiling.
The Member States report on the ‘useful floor space’ or, if this is not possible, on the “number of rooms”.
‘Density standard’ - the topic ‘Density standard’ relates the useful floor space in square meters or the number of rooms to the number of occupants, as specified under the topic ‘Number of occupants’. Member States report on the density standard measured by the ‘useful floor space’, or, if not possible, by the ‘number of rooms’.
‘Dwellings by type of building’ - the topic ‘Dwellings by type of building’ refers to the number of dwellings in the building in which the dwelling is placed.
A building is considered as a Non-residential building when its purpose is predominantly non-residential (commercial building, office building, factory) but contains very few dwellings, e. g. for the property caretaker or an employee dwelling.
The topic ‘Dwellings by period of construction’ refers to the year when the building in which the dwelling is placed was completed.
Persons, Families, Households and Dwellings.
Persons enumerated in the 2021 census are those who were usually resident in the territory of the reporting country at the census reference date.
Reference area covers the European Union Member States (27) and EFTA countries (4).
Data are available at various levels of geographical detail: National, NUTS 2 and NUTS 3.
For data on LAU level, please use Census Hub.
Data for Extra-Regio NUTS classification, according to the Annex (m) of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/543, refer to the national military, naval and diplomatic service personnel, and their families. Where the duration of residence outside of the country can be established for national military, naval and diplomatic service personnel and their families located outside the country if they are residing abroad for at least 12 months or if they are not intending to return to the place of departure (although returning in the country within a 12-month period). In these cases, they are e attributed to a ‘virtual place’ (extra-region) of the country of departure.
For Greece, Extra-Regio NUTS classification refers to the population of Agion Oros (Mt Athos) as a self-administrative part of Greece.
Data refer to the situation in the reporting country at the following reference dates:
| Country | Reference dates |
|---|---|
| Belgium | 01 January 2021 |
| Bulgaria | 07 September 2021 |
| Czechia | 26 March 2021 |
| Denmark | 01 January 2021 |
| Germany | 31 December 2021 |
| Estonia | 31 December 2021 |
| Ireland | 03 December 2021 |
| Greece | 22 October 2021 |
| Spain | 01 January 2021 |
| France | 01 January 2021 |
| Croatia | 31 August 2021 |
| Italy | 31 December 2021 |
| Cyprus | 01 October 2021 |
| Latvia | 01 January 2021 |
| Lithuania | 01 January 2021 |
| Luxembourg | 08 November 2021 |
| Hungary | 31 December 2021 |
| Malta | 21 November 2021 |
| Netherlands | 01 January 2021 |
| Austria | 31 October 2021 |
| Poland | 31 March 2021 |
| Portugal | 19 April 2021 |
| Romania | 01 December 2021 |
| Slovenia | 01 January 2021 |
| Slovakia | 01 January 2021 |
| Finland | 01 January 2021 |
| Sweden | 31 December 2021 |
| Iceland | 01 January 2021 |
| Liechtenstein | 01 January 2021 |
| Norway | 01 January 2021 |
| Switzerland | 31 December 2021 |
Countries have provided Quality Hypercube No1 for a coverage assessment of their census population bases at national level, evaluating the incidence of record imputations and deletions, as well as the estimated resulting over- and under-coverage. Quality Hypercube No 2 is also delivered focusing on the degree to which the information on a census topic is based on real observations. Quality hypercube No. 2 presents an evaluation of the sources of the census data, ensuring consistency and reliability across demographic groups and topics. The quality hypercubes are available in the Census Hub at CensusHub.
In addition to quantitative data, Member States provided qualitative metadata as part of the 2021 Population and Housing Census. These files are attached to the national metadata files, providing information on coverage of statistical units for each census, and countries’ declarations about inconsistencies between the data transmitted in the different datasets defined in Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/712.
Number of persons, households, families and dwellings.
Data are compiled by National Statistical Institutes based on a variety of different data sources and methods – as explained under 18.1 above.
The data sources and basic census methodologies differ between countries and between different census rounds.
Member States produced census statistics according to the Article 4(1) Regulation (EC) 763/2008 by conducting:
(a) conventional census;
(b) register-based census;
(c) conventional census + sample survey;
(d) register-based census + sample survey;
(e) register-based census + conventional census;
(f) register-based census + sample survey + conventional census;
(g) rolling census.
Data from the population and housing censuses are disseminated every decade.
The complete census 2021 data delivered by 31st March 2024.
Data are comparable at national, NUTS3, NUTS2 and NUTS 1 levels unless otherwise stated in the national metadata files.
Over time, countries have made changes to the census methodologies and data sources, as well as to the basic concepts and definitions used. These changes have an impact on the comparability of data over time.
