Frequently asked questions
General
Eurostat is the statistical office of the European Union. Its mission is to provide high quality statistics and data on Europe. By harmonising statistics from the European statistical system (ESS) using a single methodology, the statistics are made comparable. For more details, please consult the about us section.
Microdata are confidential data which contain information about individual statistical units, for example individual persons. The current legal framework enables access to anonymised microdata available at Eurostat for scientific purposes only.
More information can be found on the page access to microdata.
Details are outlined on our copyright webpage.
When a country joins or leaves the European Union or the Euro area, this has an impact on the European statistical aggregates. Eurostat has guidelines it follows on how to deal with the relevant issues arising from such a change.
Brexit
A new Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom has been concluded and applies on a provisional basis as from 1 January 2021. It includes a provision on statistical cooperation that foresees the establishment of a specific arrangement (see Article UNPRO.5.2 on Statistical cooperation).
Until this arrangement on statistical cooperation is established, addressing in particular the scope and means of data transmission, there are changes for the dissemination of UK data by Eurostat, with the exception of cases foreseen in the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland.
This means that until agreement on statistical cooperation is established, Eurostat is no longer disseminating new data for the UK, neither through its database nor in other dissemination products.
In geographical lists, the UK is placed after those third countries with which the EU already has established very close relationships in the field of statistics, EEA/EFTA and Switzerland.
Existing tools and products, produced before 1 January 2021, are being gradually adapted as new editions are published.
Data access and download
The Eurostat data code, which you find under most graphs and tables in Eurostat's publications, allows you to access, via the Home page of the Eurostat Web site, the most recent data to which the table or graph refers. To access the data, enter the code into the search field on the top right side of the Eurostat website and click on SEARCH. Among the search results you will find the title of the corresponding table. By clicking on this title you will receive the product page of the main table. To view this table click on 'view table'.
Data and information stored in the data navigation tree are updated twice a day at 11:00 and 23:00.
| Data browser is the tool for displaying, charting and downloading statistical data. The main features are filtering of dimensions, saving customized views, contextual help and extended range of download formats. | |
| Dataset compression: for downloading complete datasets in tabular separate value format (tsv). | |
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COMEXT database includes all international trade data. |
| Metadata: explanatory texts documenting statistical data and providing summary information useful for assessing data quality and the statistical production process in general. |
To the right of each table, by clicking on the
symbol, you will find information on the last update, the oldest and most recent data, as well as the number of values in the table.
For information on the frequency of dissemination and timeliness, consult the metadata of the data collection under the "" symbol.
The data can be imported into Excel with a tab-delimited file (TAB) using the following extraction tools:
Data browser or complete table (equivalent to bulk download).
Please consult the online help for the data browser and the first visit page.
You can download datasets or the whole database by using the bulk download feature.
It is possible to access the datasets through our web services.
The files which are currently available via the bulk download will remain available after October 2023 as following:
/comext
The files in this folder will remain available for automatic and manual downloads:
- manual download: please use the “Downloads” tab of the data browser for manual downloads – to be available as of early October 2023.
- automatic download: please use a new URL which will be made available as of early October 2023.
/data
- TSV file content vs API result is detailed in this PDF.
- SDMX(-2.0) files are deprecated, users should now use API SDMX 2.1 results.
- The content in this folder is already available in the data browser (Downloads - Data tab) and via the API. There are differences in the content between the Bulk download files and the API content: For more details, see https://wikis.ec.europa.eu/display/EUROSTATHELP/Transition+-+from+Eurostat+Bulk+Download+to+API
/dic
The content of the 3 subfolders by language (/en, /fr, /de) is already available in the data browser (please see 'Downloads – Code lists tab') and via the API.
The mapping files at the root of /dic folder will be available in the code lists tab on the data browser interface as of early October 2023.
/metadata
As of early October 2023, the content will be available in the data browser (please see 'Downloads - Metadata' ). Currently, there is already a metadata tab in data browser downloads, but this is limited to ESMS files attached to datasets and does not list the full content of the folder.
Data services
Important information: The data explorer extraction tool was taken away from the Eurostat database on 5 December 2022.
We have announced this change for several months using a banner on top of Eurostat webpages:
Please use the data browser available in the Eurostat database by clicking on this symbol in front of the dataset title. The data browser offers the same functionalities as the data explorer.
Bookmarks
If you create new bookmarks, please use the data browser.
If you still have bookmarks using the data explorer, please change them.
Online help and support
You can find more information on how to do this in our data browser online help.
If you have questions, please contact our support services.
The SDMX Web Services (REST and SOAP) as well as the JSON and Unicode Web Services will stop in January 2023.
They have been replaced with a new dissemination API. To help you make the transition to these new services, we have created Wikis with all the information needed.
To replace the SDMX Web Services (REST and SOAP), please consult the wiki page API SDMX 2.1.
To replace the JSON and Unicode Web Services, please consult the wiki page API Statistics – migrating from JSON web service to API Statistics.
Further help
We suggest that you explore the following pages:
- Website guide
- Our products and tools
- Our services
- Statistics Explained, your guide to European statistics presenting statistical topics in an easily understandable way
- Statistical themes, giving an overview of our statistical themes sections which provide access to data and background information
- Stats finder A-Z
If you still have not found the data you are looking for, please contact our support team.
Please send your questions, comments and suggestions to the European Statistical Data Support via the user support form in the language of your choice.