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This report Eurostat Regional yearbook 2017, published by Eurostat on September 2017, gives a detailed picture relating to a broad range of statistical topics across the regions of the EU Member States, as well as the regions of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and candidate countries.
Statistical information is an important tool for understanding and quantifying the impact of political decisions in a specific territory or region. As the chief editor of the report states:
National figures alone cannot reveal the full and sometimes complex picture of what is happening at a more detailed level within the EU. Subnational data help to increase the understanding of the diversity that exists within Member States and across the European Union.
Within the EU, regional statistics are based on the three-level classification of territorial units for statistics, known by the acronym NUTS. The classification, updated every three years, uses harmonised conventions to define regions in a comparable manner, reflecting their diverse physical, demographic and administrative situations.
Each chapter presents statistical information in maps, tables and figures, accompanied by a description of the policy context, main findings and data sources. These regional indicators are presented for the following 12 subjects: regional policies and European Commission priorities, population, health, education and training, the labour market, the economy, structural business statistics, research and innovation, the digital economy and society, tourism, transport, and agriculture. In addition, two special chapters are included in this edition: a focus on European cities and a focus on rural areas.
Highlights
Population, Health, Education and training, Labour market
These chapters include, among others, information on the median age of the population in a region, on health determinants (such as obesity rates or alcohol consumption) by degree of urbanisation, on the gender gap for early leavers from education and training, or on mean annual earnings. You may discover that the Spanish region of Comunidad de Madrid records the highest life expectancy at birth, that Inner London ‘“ West in the United Kingdom has the largest share of people aged 30-34 with tertiary education, or that obesity is generally more frequent in rural areas of the EU than in cities.
Economy, Structural business statistics, Research and innovation
From these chapters, you will learn, for example, that Severozapaden in Bulgaria is the most agriculture-oriented area of the EU, while Groningen in the Netherlands is the most industry-oriented. You will discover which EU regions have the highest shares of high-growth enterprises within the business economy and which ones have the highest share of human resources in science and technology (HRST).
Digital economy and society, Tourism, Transport and Agriculture
In these chapters, you can see that the capital city regions of Copenhagen in Denmark and Stockholm in Sweden record the largest proportion of individuals participating in social networks. These chapters also reveal that that the regions of Centre and Bretagne, both in France, are the top EU regions for the production of cereals and the production of cows’ milk respectively, while Cataluña in Spain records the highest number of pigs. You will also get, amongst others, facts and figures about tourism in coastal and non-coastal areas as well as a map on nine planned transport corridors in the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T).
Data Collection
The data presented within this publication were extracted during February’“April 2017. An online data code available under each map/table/figure can be used to directly access the most recent data on Eurostat’ s website. The regional statistics presented in this publication complement those provided in the online version of Europe in figures’” Eurostat’ s yearbook (an online-only Eurostat publication udpated on a rolling basis), which concentrates on statistics for the EU-28, euro area and individual Member States.