Archive:Eurostat yearbook

Europe in figures – Eurostat yearbook 2011 provides users of official statistics with an overview of the wealth of information that is available on Eurostat’s website and within its online databases. It belongs to a set of general compendium publications and, of these, it provides the most extensive set of analyses and detailed data. Europe in figures has been conceived as a publication that provides a balanced set of indicators, with a broad cross-section of information.

Structure of the publication

Europe in figures is divided into an introduction, 13 main chapters and a set of annexes. The main chapters contain data and / or background information relating to a very wide range of Eurostat data. Each subchapter starts with a commentary on the main findings, some details regarding data sources, followed by background information and policy relevance. The core of each subchapter is a set of tables and graphs that have been selected to show the wide variety of data available for that particular topic; often these include information on how important benchmark indicators have developed during recent years within the European Union (EU), the euro area (EA) and the Member States. Users will find a great deal more information when consulting the Eurostat website, which contains subject-specific publications and online databases. The publication closes with a set of annexes that contain details of classifications, a list of statistical symbols, abbreviations and acronyms, and a subject index.

Files on the Eurostat website

The Eurostat website has a dedicated section for the yearbook, which contains the PDF version of the publication as well as all tables and graphs in MS Excel format. The PDF version of the publication allows direct access through a set of hyper-links to all of the data tables and databases that were used in the production of this publication, see: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/publications/eurostat_yearbook_2011.

Data extraction, coverage and presentation

The statistical data presented in the yearbook were extracted between September and December 2010 and represent data availability at that time. The accompanying text was drafted between October and December 2010.

Due to its complex nature, data collection, data processing and the subsequent release of information either online or in publications often means that a significant amount of time may elapse between the collection of data and its publication / release; this can vary from a few weeks in the case of short-term monthly indicators to several years for complex, ad-hoc surveys. There is a release calendar, which provides details of the schedule for releasing euro-indicators (a collection of the most important monthly and quarterly indicators), available at: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/release_calendars/news_releases. For other data sets, the metadata provided on the Eurostat website gives information relating to the frequency of surveys and the time that may elapse before data is published / released.

The Eurostat website is constantly being updated, therefore it is likely that fresher data will have become available since the data was extracted for the production of this publication. It is possible to access the latest version of each data set through hyper-links that are provided as part of the source under each table and graph in the PDF version of the publication. This publication usually presents information for the EU-27 (the 27 Member States of the EU), the euro area (based on 16 members), as well as the individual Member States. The order of the Member States used in the yearbook generally follows their order of protocol; in other words, the alphabetical order of the countries’ names in their respective original languages; in some figures the data are ranked according to the values of a particular indicator.

The EU-27 and euro area (EA-16) aggregates are normally only provided when information for all of the countries is available, or if an estimate has been made for missing information. Any partial totals that are created are systematically footnoted. Time-series for these geographical aggregates are based on a consistent set of countries for the whole of the time period (unless otherwise indicated). In other words, although the EU only had 25 Member States since early 2004 and has only had 27 Member States since the start of 2007, the time-series for EU-27 refer to a sum or an average for all 27 countries for the whole of the period presented, as if all 27 Member States had been part of the EU in earlier periods. In a similar vein, the data for the euro area are consistently presented for the 16 members (as of December 2010), despite the later accessions of Greece, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta, and Slovakia to the euro area. At the time of writing (late 2010), Estonia had yet to join the euro area. As the data for this publication had already been extracted and the accompanying text had already been drafted before the accession of Estonia to the euro area (1 January 2011), Estonia is excluded from the euro area aggregates presented. Unless otherwise stated, the data for the euro area covers the 16 Member States that shared the euro as a common currency as of December 2010 (Belgium, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland).

When available, information is also presented for EFTA countries (including Iceland that is also a candidate country) and the candidate countries of Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia ( ) and Turkey, as well as for Japan and the United States. Note Montenegro also became a candidate country in mid-December 2010 (but has not been included in this edition). In the event that data for any of these non-member countries does not exist, then these have been excluded from tables and graphs; however, the full set of 27 Member States is maintained in tables, with footnotes being added in graphs for those Member States for which information is missing.

In the event that a reference year is not available for a particular country, then efforts have been made to fill tables and graphs with previous reference years (these exceptions are footnoted); generally, an effort has been made to go back two reference periods.

Eurostat online databases contain a large amount of metadata that provides information on the status of particular values or data series. In order to improve readability, the majority of this has been omitted when constructing the tables and graphs. The following symbols are used, where necessary:

Italic value is a forecast, provisional or an estimate and is therefore likely to change

not available, confidential or unreliable value

– not applicable or zero by default 0 less than half the final digit shown and greater than real zero

Breaks in series are indicated in the footnotes provided under each table and graph.

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