European Union statistics explained

Statistics in the European Union are collected by Eurostat (European statistics body).

Area and population

As of 1 January 2006, the population of the EU was about 493 million people, although in 2020 the EU lost over 10% of its population as a result of the UK leaving the bloc.^[1] Many countries are expected to experience a decline in population over the coming decades,^[2] 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 80.4 million people. France and Ireland have the highest birth-rates.^[3] 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.

The table below uses data from Eurostat.^{[4] [5]}

Member State	Population	% pop.	Area km^2	% area	Density /km^2
	448,387,872	100%	4,225,134	100%	106
	9,104,772	2.0%	83,878	2.0%	109
	11,754,004	2.6%	30,667	0.7%	383
	6,447,710	1.4%	110,996	2.6%	58
	3,850,894	0.9%	56,594	1.3%	68
	920,701	0.2%	9,253	0.2%	100
	10,827,529	2.4%	78,871	1.9%	137
	5,932,654	1.3%	42,925	1.0%	138
	1,365,884	0.3%	45,336	1.1%	30
	5,563,970	1.2%	338,411	8.0%	16
	68,070,697	15.2%	638,475	15.1%	107
	84,358,845	18.8%	357,569	8.5%	236
	10,394,055	2.3%	131,694	3.1%	79
	9,597,085	2.1%	93,012	2.2%	103
	5,194,336	1.2%	69,947	1.7%	74
	58,850,717	13.1%	302,079	7.1%	195
	1,883,008	0.4%	64,586	1.5%	29
	2,857,279	0.6%	65,284	1.5%	44
	672,050	0.1%	2,586	0.1%	260
	542,051	0.1%	316	0.01%	1715
	17,811,291	4.0%	37,378	0.9%	477
	36,753,736	8.2%	311,928	7.4%	118
	10,467,366	2.3%	92,227	2.2%	113
	19,051,562	4.2%	238,398	5.6%	80
	5,428,792	1.2%	49,035	1.2%	111
	2,116,792	0.5%	20,273	0.5%	104
	48,059,777	10.7%	505,983	12.0%	95
	10,521,556	2.3%	447,424	10.6%	24

Economy

For statistics relating to economy, please see Economy of the European Union.

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. Expenditure in Luxembourg, Belgium and France include items for the EU administrative centres in each of those countries.

Figures below are in Euros, where applicable. Data are for the year 2006.

Member State	Total contribution	% total	Total expenditure	% total	Net contrib.	Net contrib. per capita	Total contrib. per capita
	105,259,468,772	100.00%	106,575,500,000	100.00%	-1,316,031,228	-3	213
	22,218,438,941	21.11%	12,242,400,000	11.49%	9,976,038,941	124	276
	17,303,107,859	16.44%	13,496,200,000	12.66%	3,806,907,859	59	266
	14,359,479,157	13.64%	10,922,300,000	10.25%	3,437,179,157	58	244
	13,739,900,046	13.05%	8,294,200,000	7.78%	5,445,700,046	90	226
	8,957,286,488	8.51%	12,883,000,000	12.09%	-3,925,713,512	-88	200
	5,552,933,781	5.28%	2,190,400,000	2.06%	3,362,533,781	198	327
	4,035,286,807	3.83%	5,625,100,000	5.28%	-1,589,813,193	-151	384
	2,832,862,800	2.69%	1,573,400,000	1.48%	1,259,462,800	126	283
	2,308,432,030	2.19%	1,830,100,000	1.72%	478,332,030	58	278
	2,130,860,212	2.02%	1,501,900,000	1.41%	628,960,212	116	395
	2,099,087,114	1.99%	5,305,600,000	4.98%	-3,206,512,886	-84	55
	1,882,611,879	1.79%	6,833,700,000	6.41%	-4,951,088,121	-446	170
	1,544,832,284	1.47%	1,280,400,000	1.20%	264,432,284	50	291
	1,443,049,602	1.37%	3,634,800,000	3.41%	-2,191,750,398	-207	136
	1,341,281,313	1.27%	2,461,800,000	2.31%	-1,120,518,687	-244	292
	1,003,119,411	0.95%	1,842,200,000	1.73%	-839,080,589	-83	99
	932,392,859	0.89%	1,330,000,000	1.25%	-397,607,141	-39	91
	393,148,777	0.37%	696,200,000	0.65%	-303,051,223	-56	73
	299,993,572	0.29%	406,000,000	0.38%	-106,006,428	-53	150
	241,439,011	0.23%	1,194,800,000	1.12%	-953,360,989	-1,907	483
	221,997,405	0.21%	799,800,000	0.75%	-577,802,595	-170	65
	144,556,416	0.14%	239,600,000	0.22%	-95,043,584	-119	181
	115,205,431	0.11%	402,600,000	0.24%	-287,394,569	-125	50
	100,756,308	0.10%	300,000,000	0.28%	-199,243,692	-142	72
	57,409,269	0.05%	157,000,000	0.14%	-99,590,731	-249	144
			360,600,000	0.34%	-360,600,000	-47
			693,100,000	0.65%	-693,100,000	-32

Economic and governance-related rankings

There are many indices available on issues such as corruption, development, and freedom. The rankings below include all EU member states, EU candidates (with the exception of Turkey, cause their accession negotiations have stalled since 2016) and EFTA countries.

Freedom of the press

EU Rank Member State Global Rank 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 5 5 6 6 8 7 10 8 11 9 12 10 13 11 14 12 15 13 17 14 18 15 22 16 27 17 28

EU Rank Member State Global Rank 18 29 19 32 20 33 21 34 22 40 23 41 24 48 25 59 26 62 27 65 28 81 29 85 30 89 31 92 32 93 33 105 34 111

Reporters sans frontières (Reporters Without Borders) conducts an annual survey on the freedom of the press and produces scores (not shown here) for each country, resulting in the Press Freedom Index. In 2019 and 2020, Finland was proclaimed as having the freest press in the European Union, and the second in the world behind Norway. Bulgaria was ranked as having the least free press in the European Union in 2019 and 2020.^[6]

Colour Codes
Good Situation
Satisfactory Situation
Noticeable problems
Difficult situation

Economic freedom

EU Rank Member State Global Rank 1 5 2 6 3 8 4 10 5 13 6 14 7 16 8 19 9 20 10 22 11 23 12 27 13 28 14 29 15 32 16 36 17 37

EU Rank Member State Global Rank 18 38 19 41 20 42 21 46 22 48 23 52 24 56 25 57 26 58 27 60 28 62 29 64 30 65 31 74 32 84 33 91 34 100

The Index of Economic Freedom, published by The Wall Street Journal and The Heritage Foundation, uses 50 different variables to compile the survey, in areas such as trade policy and government intervention.^[7]

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

Colour Codes
Free
Mostly Free
Moderately Free
Moderately Unfree

Perception of corruption

Global Rank Country Score 1 90 2 87 4 84 5 83 7 82 8 80 9 79 10 77 10 77 14 74 14 74 18 73 18 73 21 72 22 71 33 62 33 62 35 60 39 59 41 56 41 56 41 56

Global Rank Country Score 41 56 45 55 49 53 51 52 51 52 54 51 57 50 63 46 63 46 65 45 72 43 77 42 84 41 85 40 91 39 91 39 101 36 101 36 101 36 110 34 116 33 137 28

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 Corruption Perceptions Index 2022 https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2020/index/nzl. A high ranking means low corruption.

Human development

Rank Country Global Rank 1 1 2 2 3 2 4 4 5 6 6 7 7 8 8 10 9 11 10 13 11 14 12 18 13 22 14 23 15 25 16 26 17 27 18 28 19 29 20 29 21 32 22 33

Rank Country Global Rank 23 34 24 35 25 37 26 38 27 39 28 40 29 43 30 48 31 49 32 52 33 53 34 54 35 56 36 61 37 64 38 69 39 73 40 74 41 81 42 82 43 88 44 90

Colour Codes
Very High Human Development
High 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 (mean years of schooling and expected years of schooling)
• health (life expectancy)

The rankings of the table refer to the UNDP Human Development Report 2019 (2018 data). The UN lists all EU member states as countries with

very high human development.

Democracy Index

Global Rank Country Score 1 9.81 3 9.52 4 9.39 5 9.29 6 9.28 7 9.14 8 9.13 9 9.00 10 8.81 13 8.80 14 8.28 20 8.20 22 8.07 22 8.07 25 7.97 25 7.97 27 7.96 28 7.95 31 7.75 33 7.70 34 7.69 36 7.64

Global Rank Country Score 37 7.38 38 7.37 39 7.36 43 7.07 46 7.04 56 6.64 57 6.53 59 6.50 61 6.45 61 6.45 64 6.41 68 6.33 69 6.23 72 6.10 82 5.63 87 5.42 90 5.20 97 5.00 103 4.35 134 2.87 146 2.28 153 1.99

The Democracy Index is an index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the research division of the Economist Group, a UK-based private company which publishes the weekly newspaper The Economist.

See also

• Enlargement of the European Union
• Largest cities of the European Union by population within city limits
• Hispanics and Latins in Europe
• List of European Union member states by population
• Largest urban areas of the European Union and Larger Urban Zones
• Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe statistics

External links

• Eurostat – Statistics Explained
• Health-EU Portal Health Statistics
• EU Budget Data

Notes and References

1. "Total Population as of 01.01.06 ", EUROSTAT. Retrieved 12 November 2006.
2. "The EU's baby blues", BBC News, 27 March 2006. Retrieved 10 July 2006.
3. "France claims EU fertility crown ", BBC News, 16 January 2007. Retrieved 10 February 2007.
4. Web site: EUROSTAT Population on 1 January . 16 Dec 2023 . ec.europa.eu.
5. Web site: Area by NUTS 3 region . 16 Dec 2023 . ec.europa.eu.
6. https://rsf.org/en/ranking/2019 World Press Freedom Index 2019
7. http://www.heritage.org/index/ranking 2020 Index of Economic Freedom 2020 Index of Economic Freedom