Archive:Europe 2020 indicators - United Kingdom
- Data from June 2017. Most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables. Planned article update: July 2018.
This article is part of a set of statistical articles on Europe 2020 strategy, focusing on the situation in the United Kingdom.
Main statistical findings
Source: Eurostat (see dedicated web section: Europe 2020 headline indicators)
The United Kingdom has not adopted specific national Europe 2020 targets apart from the already existing climate change and renewable energy commitments (as a consequence, no radar chart can be shown for the UK). After rising continuously since 2011, the country’s employment rate reached a decade high of 77.6 % in 2016, exceeding the EU aggregate performance of 70.1 %. In the period between 2008 and 2016, the UK managed to increase its tertiary educational attainment rate from 39.5 % to 48.1 %. The indicator on early school leavers recorded a 3.7 percentage point reduction over a five-year period, from 14.9 % in 2011 to 11.2 % in 2016. Although nearly 243 000 people were lifted out of the risk of poverty between 2014 and 2015, there were still 0.9 million more people at risk of poverty or social exclusion compared to 2008. R&D expenditure increased to 1.7 % of GDP in 2015, a value close to the 2008 level. Between 1990 and 2015, the country had reduced its GHG emissions in non-ETS sectors by 15.6 %, putting it within reaching distance of its Europe 2020 reduction target of 16 %. Regarding renewable energy, the UK was the third furthest country (after France and the Netherlands and along with Ireland) from its renewable energy target in 2015 with a gap of 6.8 percentage points. Between 2008 and 2015, it reduced its primary energy consumption by 27.7 Mtoe, shortening the distance to its 2020 target of 177.6 Mtoe.
Data sources and availability
More information about the origin of the data and the calculation of indicators can be obtained via the Europe 2020 indicators dedicated website.
Under 'Tables', click on the icons next to the indicators:
- 'Explanatory texts (metadata)' for a detailed overview of the collection and compilation methods;
- 'Information on the leaf' for data availability per country.
A more general overview of quality procedures can be found in Implementation of standard reference metadata for indicators - the ESMS Indicator Profile (ESMS-IP) (PDF file).
Context
Europe 2020 is the EU’s agenda for growth and jobs for the current decade. It emphasises smart, sustainable and inclusive growth as a way to strengthen the EU economy and prepare its structure for the challenges of the next decade. The final objective is to deliver high levels of employment, productivity and social cohesion in the Member States, while reducing the impact on the natural environment.
See also
Further Eurostat information
Publications
- Smarter, greener, more inclusive - indicators to support the Europe 2020 strategy (online publication, also downloadable as PDF file
Main tables
Dedicated section
Methodology / Metadata
- Towards robust quality management for European Statistics - Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council COM(2011) 211 final.
Other information
- Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of 11 March 2009 on European statistics