European Union statistics

Statistics in the European Union are collected by Eurostat.

Institutional statistics

Area and population

As of 1 January 2006, the population of the EU was about 493 million people [" [http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page?_pageid=1996,39140985&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL&screen=detailref&language=en&product=Yearlies_new_population&root=Yearlies_new_population/C/C1/C11/caa10000 Total Population as of 01.01.06] ", EUROSTAT. Retrieved 12 November 2006.] . Many countries are expected to experience a decline in population over the coming decades, [" [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4768644.stm The EU's baby blues] ", BBC News, 27 March 2006. Retrieved 10 July 2006.] , though this could be offset with new countries planning to join the EU within the next 20 years. The most populous member state is Germany, with an estimated 82 million people. France and Ireland have the highest birth-rates. [" [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6268251.stm France claims EU fertility crown ] ", BBC News, 16 January 2007. Retrieved 10 February 2007.] The most densely populated country is the island of Malta, which is also the smallest, while the largest in area is France. The least densely populated country is Finland.

Population figures in the table below are the latest available for each country (some are 2006 estimates, others are 2007 estimates). The highest and lowest figures in each column have been marked in bold.

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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 2007, Estonia and Slovakia had the freest press in the European Union, with a score of 1.00, whilst Poland was ranked as having the least free press, with a score of 18.50.

There is no data available for Luxembourg and Malta, and hence these are not included in the statistics.

Economic freedom

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. Ireland ranks highest amongst EU nations in terms of these variables.

A similar index produced by the World Economic Forum is its Global Competitiveness Index.

Source: [http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/countries.cfm The Heritage Foundation] .

Transparency International is an international NGO publishing an annual Global Corruption Report indicating the perception of corruptionaround the world. The rankings of the table refer to the [http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2007 Corruption Perceptions Index 2007] .

Human development

The Human Development Index is a measure produced by the United Nations which covers three aspects of human development:
* poverty (GDP per capita)
* education (literacy rate)
* health (life expectancy)The rankings of the table refer to the [http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/pdfs/report/HDR06-complete.pdf UNDP Human Development Report 2006] . The UN lists all 27 EU member states as countries with high human development.

Income equality

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, Luxembourg, and Cyprus have no statistics available, and so are not included in this table. These statistics have been compiled by the United Nations (see [http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006] )

Ease of doing business

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.

ee also

*Enlargement of the European Union
*European Union
*Eurostat - European statistics body
*Largest cities of the European Union by population within city limits
*List of European Union member states by population
*Largest urban areas of the European Union and Larger Urban Zones (LUZ) in the European Union
*OSCE countries statistics

ources

* [http://europa.eu/eur-lex/budget/data/D2005_VOL1/EN/nmc-grseq42960935830-3/index.html EU Budget Data]

References