What was the population growth in the EU27 over the last 10 years? In which Member State is it most common to own a house? Which Member State has the highest hourly labour cost? Which Member States are the most popular tourist destinations? The answers to these questions and to many more can be found in the 12th edition of the Eurostat Yearbook [1], published by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities.

Europe in Figures – Eurostat Yearbook 2008 provides users of official statistics with an overview of the wealth of information that is available on Eurostat’s web site [2] and within its online databases. It shows how key indicators have developed during the last eleven years in the EU27, the euro area, the Member States and the Candidate countries. Data for the EFTA countries, the US and Japan are included when available.

The 2008 Yearbook has fifteen main chapters on different statistical areas. The first chapter puts demographic change in the spotlight. The other chapters cover all major statistical domains: economy, education, health, living conditions and welfare, labour market, industry and services, agriculture, forestry and fisheries, international trade, transport, environment, energy, science and technology, Europe’s regions and finally a chapter devoted to the links between statistics and European policies. An annex contains a useful glossary and details of the nomenclatures used. The paper version of the Eurostat Yearbook is accompanied by a CD-ROM which contains the yearbook in pdf format, as well as the tables and graphs in Excel format.

The following is a selection of the statistics found in the Yearbook.

Population change between 1997 and 2007 ranged from -8% in Bulgaria to +18% in Ireland

The population of the EU27 reached 495 million in 2007, compared with 479 million in 1997, a growth of 3.4%. The Member State with the highest population growth was Ireland (+18.0%), followed by Cyprus (+16.9%), Luxembourg (+14.2%) and Spain (+12.5%). The population fell in eight Member States, with the largest declines in Bulgaria (-7.9%), Latvia (-6.7%) and Lithuania (-5.7%).

In 2005, the world population was 6.5 billion, more than double than the 3.0 billion recorded in 1960. The share of the EU27 has, however, declined from 13.3% in 1960 to 7.5% in 2005.

Total population, on 1 January, in thousands

* Including overseas departments

Proportion of home owners twice as high in Estonia and Lithuania than in Germany

Almost two thirds of EU25 households owned their homes in 2005 and the remaining third were tenants. In all Member States, except Germany (44% owners), there was a majority of owners. Over 80% of households owned their homes in Estonia and Lithuania (both 88%), Hungary (87%), Spain (83%) and Slovenia (82%), while after Germany the share of owners was lowest in Austria (52% owners), the Netherlands and Poland (both 54%), Denmark and France (both 58%).

Tenure status of households, in %, 2005

: Data not available

* Data for Bulgaria and Romania are not available

** Includes also rents at reduced rates and rent-free

Labour costs in 2006 varied by one to twenty in the EU27

Expressed in euro, the average hourly labour cost³ in the EU27 in 2006 was ?20.35. Sweden (?32.16) had the highest hourly labour cost in 2006, followed by Denmark (?31.98 in 2005), Luxembourg (?31.98) and Belgium (?31.58). Bulgaria (?1.65), Romania (?2.68), Latvia (?3.41) and Lithuania (?4.21) had the lowest.

Within the structure of the labour costs, the highest share of social security costs paid by the employer was found in Sweden (30.6%), followed by Belgium (30.3%) and France (28.6%) and the lowest shares in Malta (6.9%), Denmark (10.9%), Slovenia (13.4%) and Cyprus (15.1%).

Hourly labour costs and structure of labour costs, 2006

: Data not available

* Full-time employees in enterprises with 10 or more employees in industry and services; Greece: 2003; Italy: 2004; EU27, Denmark, theNetherlands and the United Kingdom: 2005.

** Greece: 2003; Denmark, the Netherlands, Poland and the United Kingdom: 2005.

Spain, Italy and France had highest numbers of nights spent in hotels by non-residents

There were 1.3 billion nights spent in hotels and other collective accommodation establishments by residents in their own countries in the EU27 in 2006. Germany (298 million nights, 22% of the EU27 total) had the highest number, followed by Italy (210 million, 16%), France (192 million, 14%) and the United Kingdom (175 million, 13%).

In addition, there were almost 1 billion nights spent by non-residents in hotels and other collective accommodation in the Member States of theEU27 in 2006.Spain (225 million nights, 24% of the EU27 total)recorded the highest number, followed by Italy (160 million, 17%) and France (106 million, 11%).

The tourism intensity (total number of nights spent by residents and non-residents per inhabitant) was 4.7 in the EU27 in 2006. The highest intensity was found in Cyprus (18.8), Malta (18.3), Austria (11.9) and Spain (8.7), and the lowest in Lithuania and Romania (both 0.9), Poland (1.3) and Latvia (1.4).

Tourism indicators, 2006

* Nights spent both for business and tourism in hotels and similar accommodation and in other collective accommodation establishments.

** Ratio of nights spent both for business and tourism by residents and non-residents in hotels and similar establishments and other collective accommodation establishments per inhabitant. Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Croatia: 2005.

1. “Europe in figures – Eurostat Yearbook 2008” The English PDF-version is available free of charge on the Eurostat website http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat. The French and German versions of the PDFversion, as well as the printed paper version in English, French and German will become available shortly. Due to revisions of data,updates have been made in some of the tables above, compared with the figures in the Yearbook.

2. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat

3. Labour costs are the total costs borne by employers for the purpose of employing staff. They include employee compensation (including wages, salaries in cash and in kind, employer’s social security contributions), vocational training costs, other expenditure (such as recruitment costs and spending on working clothes) and employment taxes regarded as labour costs minus any subsidies received.