European Union statistics
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Statistics in the European Union are collected by Eurostat. The EU has 25 member states as of 1 May 2004. This number will increase as other states join the Union. Romania and Bulgaria are scheduled to join on January 1, 2007, while Croatia is not expected to join until the end of the decade, possibly in 2009 or 2010.
See also: Enlargement of the European Union
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[edit] Institutional Statistics
See also:
[edit] Area and population
The European Union had a population of 456.8 million in 2004. This will exceed 500 million as more states are expected to join the union in the next few years. The most densely populated country is the island of Malta, which is also the smallest, whilst the largest in area is France. The least densely populated country is Finland. The highest and lowest figures in each column have been marked in bold.
See also: Largest cities of the European Union by population
[edit] Languages
For statistics relating to languages spoken in the European Union, please see Languages of the European Union.
[edit] Economy
For statistics relating to economy, please see Economy of the European Union.
[edit] EU Budget
The primary resource for funding the European Union is the contributions sought from member states. Each member state contributes to the EU budget, and receives funding back from the EU, depending on the relative wealth of the states, i.e. their ability to pay.
The table below shows the contributions as a percentage of the total budget. This takes into account the special considerations given to the United Kingdom to reduce its contribution through a rebate.
[edit] Proportion of non-EU nationals
In most EU cities, there is a proportion of its inhabitants which are not nationals of the European Union. Eurostat has compiled figures for this, which are listed below.
[edit] Freedom and Governance-related Rankings
There are many indices available on issues such as corruption, development, and freedom.
[edit] Freedom of the Press
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Reporters sans frontières conducts an annual survey on the freedom of the press and produces scores (not shown here) for each country. In 2006 three countries, Finland, Ireland, and the Netherlands, all ranked as having the most free press with a score of 0.50, whilst Poland was ranked as having the least free press in the European Union, with a score of 14.00.
There is no data available for Luxembourg and Malta, and hence these are not included in the statistics.
[edit] Economic Freedom
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An index of Economic Freedom is produced by the Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation. It uses 50 different variables to compile the survey, in areas such as trade policy and government intervention. Luxembourg ranks as having the most economic freedom in the European Union, and is also placed third out of all nations surveyed.
A similar index produced by the World Economic Forum is its Global Competitiveness Index.
[edit] Perception of Corruption
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Transparency International is an international NGO publishing an annual Global Corruption Report indicating the perception of corruption
around the world. The rankings of the table refer to the Corruption Perceptions Index 2006.
[edit] Human Development
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The Human Development Index is a measure produced by the United Nations which covers three aspects of human development:
The rankings of the table refer to the UNDP Human Development Report 2006.
[edit] Income equality
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Income inequality, measured by the gini coefficient is how evenly incomes are distributed through the population. Denmark has the least income inequality with a gini coefficient score of 24.4, whilst Portugal has the most income inequality with a score of 38.5. Malta and Cyprus have no statistics available, and so are not included in this table. These statistics have been compiled by the United Nations (see [1])
[edit] Ease of doing business
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The Ease of Doing Business Index is created by the World Bank and based on the study of laws and regulations, with the input and verification by more than 3,500 government officials, lawyers, business consultants, accountants and other professionals who routinely advise on or administer legal and regulatory requirements.
[edit] See also
- European Union
- Eurostat - European statistics body
- Statistics relating to the EU enlargement
- List of European Union member states by population
