Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

E2: Environmental statistics and accounts; sustainable development

e-mail contact : ESTAT-SDI-EU2020-INDICATORS@ec.europa.eu

The indicator is part of the EU Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicator set. It is used to monitor progress towards SDG 16 on peace, justice and strong institutions and SDG 11 on making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

SDG 16 calls for peaceful and inclusive societies based on respect for human rights, protection of the most vulnerable, the rule of law and good governance at all levels. It also envisions transparent, effective and accountable institutions, which promote non-discriminatory laws and policies, combat corruption, bribery and organised crime and prevent violence, terrorism and crime. SDG 11 aims to renew and plan cities and other human settlements so that they offer opportunities for all, with access to basic services, energy, housing, transportation, green public spaces and others, while improving resource use and reducing environmental impacts.

Indicator can be considered as similar to global SDG indicator 16.1.4 "Proportion of population that feel safe walking alone around the area they live".

The European Agenda on security sets out the main actions envisaged to ensure an effective EU response to terrorism and security threats in the European Union over the period 2015-2020. The Agenda identified three priorities: tackling terrorism and preventing radicalisation, disrupting organised crime, and fighting cybercrime. Other areas of EU intervention include the fight against trafficking in human beings and firearms, the fight against corruption, financial crime and counterfeiting crime.

Safety is a crucial aspect in people’s lives. Insecurity of any kind is a source of fear and worry, which negatively affect quality of life. Physical insecurity includes all the external factors that could potentially put the individual’s physical integrity in danger. Criminal actions are one of the most obvious  auses of insecurity. Analyses of physical insecurity usually combine both subjective and objective aspects – the subjective perception of insecurity and the objective lack of safety as measured by crime statistics. This indicator therefore complements the indicator on homicide rates by focussing on the perception of insecurity.

The indicator shows the share of the population who reported that they face the problem of crime, violence or vandalism in their local area. This describes the situation where the respondent feels crime, violence or vandalism in the area to be a problem for the household, although this perception is not necessarily based on personal experience.

% of population
i. total
ii. below 60% of median equivalised income
iii. above 60% of median equivalised income

Calendar year

From 2005 onwards EU-SILC is based on a common framework defined by harmonised lists of primary and secondary variables, common concepts, a recommended design, common requirements (such as imputation procedures, weighting, sampling errors calculation) and classifications aiming at maximising comparability of the information produced. Details can be found in the metadata of the source datasets (see link to related metadata).

ESS (SILC)

Data source: Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (SILC)

Data provider: Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, based on data reported by the countries.

Every year

Indicator is updated annually in November.

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 Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey.

All EU MS

Data are comparable between all EU Member States respectively other presented countries.

5 to 10 years

Presented time series (including EU aggregates) starts in 2007.

> 4 data points

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

Analysis of indicator is presented in Eurostat's annual monitoring report on Sustainable development in the EU (progress towards SDGs in the EU context).

See table sdg_16_20

Eurostat dedicated section on SDGs: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/sdi/overview

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