Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
Eurostat, The Statistical Office of the European Union
1.2. Contact organisation unit
F2: Population and migration statistics
1.3. Contact name
Confidential because of GDPR
1.4. Contact person function
Confidential because of GDPR
1.5. Contact mail address
European Commission, 2920 Luxembourg LUXEMBOURG
1.6. Contact email address
Confidential because of GDPR
1.7. Contact phone number
Confidential because of GDPR
1.8. Contact fax number
Confidential because of GDPR
2.1. Metadata last certified
14 February 2025
2.2. Metadata last posted
14 February 2025
2.3. Metadata last update
14 February 2025
3.1. Data description
Eurostat’s annual data collections on population are structured as follows:
POPSTAT Population statistics data collection: The most in-depth annual national and regional demographic and migration data collection. The data relate to populations, births, deaths, immigrants, emigrants, marriages and divorces, and is broken down into several categories (Article 3 of Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 and Article 3 of Regulation (EU) No 862/2007).
Member States send population data to Eurostat data as on of 31 December for the reference year under Regulation 1260/2013 on European demographic statistics. The data are conventionally published by Eurostat as population on 1 January of the following year (reference year + 1).
The aim is to collect annual mandatory and voluntary demographic data from the national statistical institutes. Mandatory data are those defined by the legislation listed under ‘6.1. Institutional mandate — legal acts and other agreements’.
The completeness of the demographic data collected on a voluntary basis depends on the availability and completeness of information provided by the national statistical institutes.
For more information on mandatory/voluntary data collection, see 6.1. Institutional mandate — legal acts and other agreements.
The following statistics are available.
Population on 1 January by sex and by:
single age and educational attainment / marital status / broad group of citizenship / broad group of country of birth;
five-year age group and citizenship / country of birth;
citizenship and broad group of country of birth / country of birth and broad group of citizenship;
broad age group and NUTS 3 (under regional data population folder);
single age and NUTS 2 (under regional data population folder);
five-year age group and NUTS 2 / NUTS 3 (under regional data population folder).
Population structure statistics: median age of population, proportion of population by various age groups, old age dependency ratio.
Eurostat aims to collect population data as on 1 January from the EU Member States. The recommended definition is the "usually resident population" which represents the number of inhabitants of a given area on 1 January of the year in question (or on 31 December of the previous year). However, the population transmitted by the countries can also be either based on data from the most recent census adjusted by the components of population change produced since the last census, either based on population registers.
Usual residence means the place where a person normally spends the daily period of rest, regardless of temporary absences for purposes of recreation, holidays, visits to friends and relatives, business, medical treatment, or religious pilgrimage. The following persons alone are considered to be usually residents of the geographical area in question:
those who have lived in their place of usual residence for a continuous period of at least 12 months before the reference time; or
those who arrived in their place of usual residence during the 12 months before the reference time with the intention of staying there for at least 1 year.
Citizenship denotes the particular legal bond between an individual and their State, acquired by birth or naturalization, whether by declaration, choice, marriage or other means according to national legislation.
Country of birth is the country of residence (in its current borders, if the information is available) of the mother at the time of the birth or, in default, the country (in its current borders, if the information is available) in which the birth took place.
Young age dependency ratio is the ratio of the persons aged 0-14 years old (1st variant) or 0-19 years old (2nd variant) or 0-19 years old (3rd variant) or 0-24 years old (4th variant) divided by the number of persons conventionally considered of working age (respectively aged 15-64 (1st variant) or 20-59 years old (2nd variant) or 20-64 years old (3rd variant) or 25-64 (4th variant)).
Old age dependency ratio is the number of persons of an age when they are conventionally considered economically inactive (aged 65 years and over (1st variant) or 60 years and over (2nd variant) or aged 65 years and over (3rd variant) or aged 65 years and over (4th variant)) to the number of persons conventionally considered of working age (respectively aged 15-64 (1st variant) or 20-59 years old (2nd variant) or 20-64 years old (3rd variant) or 25-64 (4th variant)).
The total age dependency ratio is the sum of the young and old age dependency ratios.
Median age of population
The age that divides a population into two numerically equal groups, meaning half of the people are younger than median age and half are older.
Open-ended age class concept (Y_OPEN code) is a solution for presenting different open-ended age classes for data on population that are reported by the countries.
The open-ended age classes for data on population are the following: 85 and over (+), 90+, 95+, 99+, 100+ with the exceptions:
Bulgaria: 80+ for the years 1994, 1995 and 1996
Cyprus: 80+ for the years 1990, 1991 and 1992
Turkey: 75+ for the years 2009, 2010 and 2011
Open-ended age class contains all the people aged more than the last single age for which a country can report. For example, if a country can provide data on its population by single year of age up to 94 years old, the ''open ended age class'' contains population 95 years old and over.
3.5. Statistical unit
Statistical unit used is ''person'' as indicated in the online database or deductible from the title of tables.
3.6. Statistical population
Statistical population is total population as defined in 3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions.
3.7. Reference area
The population statistics are disseminated by single country, by region and by aggregates of countries, as follows:
e) Other countries: Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Monaco, the Russian Federation, San Marino and the United Kingdom.
f) The geographical aggregates European Union and Euro Area, on which the dissemination covers at least the current and the previous version of their composition, the European Economic Area (EEA) and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA).
For details on geographical changes over time see the notes by country under 15.2 Comparability over time.
National refers to the territory of a Member State within the meaning of Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 applicable at the reference time.
Regional refers to NUTS level 1, NUTS level 2 or NUTS level 3 as defined in the Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 and available according to the classification in force at the reference time; where this term is used in connection with countries that are not members of the European Union, "regional" means the Statistical Regions at level 1, 2 or 3, as agreed between those countries and the Commission (Eurostat), at the reference time.
The available time series collected and published in Eurostat database varies with the population breakdowns, with the longest time series starting in 1960 for national data and 1990 for regional data and continuing to the latest available reference year.
The completeness of the time series of the demography and migration statistics collected on voluntary basis before the entering into force of the regulations listed in "6.1 Institutional mandate – legal acts and other agreements"and of the statistics which continue to be supplied to Eurostat on voluntary basis today depends on the availability of data transmitted by the national statistical institutes.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
Population figures are disseminated in integer numbers and as shares of various age groups in total population (see dataset on population structure indicators).
Data referring to population on 31 December of the reference year are transmitted by the Member States to Eurostat under the Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 on European demographic statistics. The data are conventionally published by Eurostat as on 1 January of the following year (reference year + 1).
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 July 2007 on Community statistics on migration and international protection and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 311/76 on the compilation of statistics on foreign workers.
Commission Regulation (EU) No 351/2010 of implementing Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 on Community statistics on migration and international protection as regards the definitions of the categories of the groups of country of birth, groups of country of previous usual residence, groups of country of next usual residence and groups of citizenship.
population by age and sex at national and regional level before the reference year 2013;
population by citizenship and country of birth before the reference year 2008;
annual data on various breakdowns of population which are not foreseen in the legislation above but are part of the Eurostat data collections (e.g. legal marital status, education).
Summary of mandatory and voluntary population data collected by Eurostat:
Since 2008 population by 5-year age group, sex, country group of CTZ/group of COB, as well as population by age, sex, group of CTZ/group of COB have been mandatory.
Since 2014 also population by age, sex, region became mandatory.
Population by 5-year age group, sex, single CTZ/single COB, as well as population by group of CTZ, group of COB, and population by age, sex, legal marital status, education are voluntary (since before 2008).
Where:
group of CTZ= group of citizenship: nationals/non-nationals/unknown;
country group of CTZ= country group of citizenship: reporting, EFTA, candidate countries, stateless, etc.;
group of COB= group of country of birth: native born/foreign born/unknown;
''mandatory'' refers only to the Member States and EFTA countries.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Not applicable.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for to produce of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
For Germany, population data by country of birth were calculated with a specific estimation method using the distribution of countries of birth by citizenship, age groups and sex from census 2022. The census data used to calculate the distribution were treated for confidentialtiy with the cell-key method. For more information please see the German national metadata file.
8.1. Release calendar
Usually Residence Population: October
Population on 1 January by detailed breakdown: February/March
Notes:
The most updated data on total population on 1 January may be found in the table ''Demographic balance and crude rates (demo_gind)'' of the online database. This table includes the latest updates (or revised data) on total population, births and deaths reported by the countries, while the detailed breakdowns by various characteristics included in the rest of the tables of the domain may be transmitted to Eurostat at a subsequent date.
A few situations may lead to different figures on population on 1 January displayed in different population tables at a given moment in time:
The timing of the transmission / retransmission in case of revision to Eurostat of the population data for various breakdown.
The succession of the annual demography data collections described above, which collect and update the total population and the breakdowns of population figures by various characteristics at different moment during the calendar year.
The calendar of the national statistical offices for producing and releasing population broken down by characteristics which fall under the voluntary data collection, respectively the timings when data are transmitted to Eurostat.
Population statistics are revised on a continuous base according to the most recent data released and transmitted to Eurostat by the National Statistical Institutes. The geographical aggregates and the demographic indicators are accordingly revised.
Dissemination is made in line with the 8.1 Release calendar and with 17.1 Data revision-policy.
According to Art. 12 of the Regulation (EC) No 862/2007, "starting August 2012 and every three years thereafter, the Commission shall submit a report to the European Parliament and the Council on the statistics compiled pursuant to this Regulation and on their quality".
Therefore, information about overall assessment of data quality procedures carried out by Eurostat on the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 on Community Statistics on Migration and International Protection is comprised in the Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council, from 24 August 2021. This report documents the degree of progress that has been made by Member States, together with the Commission (Eurostat), in the implementation of the Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 since the first report.
In addition, Art. 11 of Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 states that the Commission shall also submit reports on its implementation, to the European Parliament and the Council as follows:
These reports are to evaluate quality of data transmitted by Member States and EFTA countries and data collection methods used and, if appropriate, should be accompanied by proposals designed for future improvement of legal framework for population and vital events statistics under this Regulation.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Population statistics are widely used for planning actions, monitoring and evaluating programmes in a number of policy areas in the social and economic fields, such as:
Analysis of population ageing and its effects on sustainability and welfare.
Evaluation of fertility as a background for family policies.
Evaluation of the economic impact of demographic change.
Calculation of 'per capita' indicators.
Key input for the EU decision-making process, as population defines the weight of each Member State in the Qualified Majority Voting of the Council of the EU.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
No user satisfaction surveys are carried out.
12.3. Completeness
Statistical data completeness depends on the availability of raw data transmitted by the National Statistical Institutes.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Not available.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Not applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
For timeliness of data release see 8.1Release calendar.
14.2. Punctuality
Not applicable.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
The recommended definition of the "population" for the statistics on population reported under Article 3 of the Regulation 1260/2013 and under Article 3 of the Regulation 862/2007 is the "usually resident population" meaning all the persons having their usual residence in a Member State at the reference time. Where the circumstances described above cannot be established, "usual residence" can be taken to mean the place of legal or registered residence.
The reported reference populations based on which population statistics are transmitted by the national statistical institutes to Eurostat:
1. Usually Resident Population([1]): BE, BG, CZ[4], CY, DE, EE, EL, ES, FR, HR, HU, IE, IT, LT, LV, MT, PL, PT, RO, SI, SK[5], UK, AL, RS, GE, AM
2. Legal Residence Population ([2]): CH, LI, FI, TR
3. Registered Residence Population([3]): AT, CZ, DE, DK, ES, IS, LU, NL, NO, SE
[1] 'Usually Resident Population' as stated in Article 2 of Regulation 1260/2013.
[2] 'Legal Residence Population' is composed of those persons who are entitled to be settled in the country at the reference date, either by holding the national citizenship or by other authorization issued by national authorities.
[3] 'Registered Residence Population' is composed of those persons who are listed on one or more registers owned by national authorities at the reference date. Each registered person shall be counted only once.
Note: The information above is based on statistics and metadata on population reported by the countries, reflecting the latest updates. Some countries place themselves in two categories, explanation can be found in the national metadata files linked above.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Comparability over time could be disturbed by breaks in data series. The breaks in population series due to methodological, data processing changes or revisions in population counts reported by the countries are documented in Eurostat’s database with the flag b (break in time series).
The population data for the year 2021 and after take into account the results of the latest population census (held in 2021-2022). Following Eurostat’s recommendations to ensure consistency of statistics over time, several Member States (Bulgaria, Ireland, Spain, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Portugal) have revised their population time series between the reference years of the population and housing censuses held in 2011 and 2021. While this work was spread over time, revisions were transmitted and released in 2024 (for more information about data revision per country, see also 17. Data revision). While the processing of population revisons is ongoing, it may happen that EU aggregates are not fully syncronised with the corresponding sum of countries.
Over time there have been geographical changes for certain countries, and changes in the methodology for producing population figures, as follows:
FX stands for Metropolitan France, including Corsica, excluding the overseas departments (DOM).
FR stands for the whole France, including the overseas departments (DOM). Data on Saint Barthelemey are excluded starting with 1 Januray 2012. Data on Mayotte are included starting with the statistics on vital events for the reference year 2014 and with the statistics on population on 1 Januray 2015.
The European geographical aggregates (EU, EA and EEA) include FX until 1997 and FR from 1998 on. This change is indicated by a flag b (break in time series) in the EU statistics for 1998.
The time series for Germany (DE_TOT) refer to the Federal Republic within its frontiers after 3 October 1990.
Starting with 1 Januray 1975, data for Cyprus (CY) refer to the government-controlled area.
Up to 1 Januray 2000, population data for Malta (MT) refer to the Maltese population only while, starting with 2001, figures include also foreign residents. This is indicated by a flag b in the figures for 2001.
Starting with 1 Januray 2010, the statistics on the permanent resident population of Switzerland (CH) includes all persons in the asylum process who have been residing in Switzerland since 12 months or more. The change appears in Eurostat population figures starting with population reported for 1 Januray 2011.
Starting with 1 Januray 2010, Poland (PL) revised the methodology used to estimate the usually resident population. This is indicated by a flag b in the figures for 2010.
Starting with 1 Januray 2011, Belgium (BE) population figures at national level refer to all registered persons including asylum seekers.
Starting with 1 Januray 2012, the reported Estonian (EE) population includes the migration component, whereas this was not included before.
Data for Georgia (GE) refer to the government-controlled area.
Data for Moldova (MD) refer to the government-controlled area.
Data for Ukraine (UA) exclude the illegally annexed Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
The population figures transmitted by the National Statistical Institutes to Eurostat in the framework of demography domain may differ from those available in other domains such us National Accounts, Labour Force Survey or in the survey on Income and Living Conditions. The difference is given by the population coverage (see metadata specific to each domain).
1. Member States shall inform the Eurostat of any planned revision of the data already supplied no later than one week before the release of the revised data in the Member State concerned.
2. Member States shall provide any revised data to the Eurostat no later than one week after the release of these data.
3. Member States shall ensure that any revised data provided to the Eurostat is consistent with the whole set of data already provided.
The policy of Eurostat is to make updates as soon as data is received and at any time during the year.
For the usually resident population for the purpose of the Qualified Majority Voting see the specific metadata.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Population statistics are revised on a continuous base according to the most recent data released and transmitted to Eurostat by the National Statistical Institutes. The geographical aggregates and the demographic indicators are accordingly revised.
The status of the data is indicated by using flags (flag p = provisional data; flag e = estimated; flag b = break in time series; flag f = forecast).
The revision practice effectively corresponds to the revision policy of the domain listed under sub‑concept 17.1 (data revision – policy).
All reported errors (once validated) result in corrections of the disseminated data.
Reported errors are corrected in the disseminated data as soon as the correct data have been validated.
Data may be published even if they are missing for certain countries or flagged as provisional or estimated for certain countries. They are replaced with final data once transmitted and validated. European aggregates and demographic indicators are updated for consistency with new country data.
Whenever new data are provided and validated, the already disseminated data are updated and European aggregates and demographic indicators are accordingly revised.
Data are usually revised for the last period. Countries however may choose the length of the revisions depending on the need. In principle, aggregates and components are revised at the same time or soon after a data revision is received by Eurostat. There are no routine revisions aiming at adjusting monthly time series of live births and deaths to have temporal consistency with the yearly series. For most of the countries data are considered final with the first sending, except in case of errors discovered after transmitting data to Eurostat and in case of post-census revisions. Revisions are published continuously as soon as received by Eurostat. Routine revisions are documented and monitored internally and communicated in the metadata files available in dissemination.
The impact of major revisions is analysed in working documents produced for experts' meetings held with representatives of National Statistical Institutes. Time series breaks caused by major revisions are not flagged, to provide break-free data, back-calculation is applied.
Major revisions are pre-announced and documented in the metadata files available in dissemination. The impacts of major revisions are communicated in working documents produced for experts meetings held with representatives of National Statistical Institutes.
18.1. Source data
Population data are collected by Eurostat from National Statistical Institutes.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Data are collected annually.
18.3. Data collection
The annual population data collections are carried out by Eurostat from the National Statistical Institutes to collect updated data. The demographic data collections contain both mandatory and voluntary data (see 3.1. Data description).
18.4. Data validation
Controls are carried out on raw data transmitted by the National Statistical Institutes to check if the total of a variable is consistent with the breakdown by different variables. Consistencies between different breakdowns of the same variable are verified by cross-validations. More information can be found in the page on quality of the dedicated section on Population and demography.
Based on the detailed collected data, Eurostat is computing a series of demographic statistics. The regular calculated demographic indicators are further submitted to several validations concerning the most updated annual value but also the available time series. These validations include checking on the plausibility of the most updated annual value and on two consecutive annual values. Mathematical verifications using standard deviation and weighted average are applied, for example for breakdowns of the life expectancy by educational attainment.
Based on the national detailed figures on population and other demographic events transmitted by the National Statistical Institutes, Eurostat derives/calculates demographic variables and geographical aggregates by applying common calculation method.
Geographical aggregation
For population data expressed in number, the geographical aggregation is done by arithmetical sum, when there are no missing values among the components of the respective geographical aggregate. Otherwise, they are not calculated. For certain indicators like the average population, the EU value may not coincide with the sum of individual countries due to rounding.
For population structure statistics the geographical aggregates are calculated by applying the same method applied to an individual country. The input for calculation is the aggregated data described above. Therefore, for statistics like ''median age'' of EU is not the average of median age for individual countries. Instead, it is computed as median age across all Member States, meaning that 50% of the total EU population are younger and 50% of the total EU population are older than the median age.
Eurostat’s annual data collections on population are structured as follows:
POPSTAT Population statistics data collection: The most in-depth annual national and regional demographic and migration data collection. The data relate to populations, births, deaths, immigrants, emigrants, marriages and divorces, and is broken down into several categories (Article 3 of Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 and Article 3 of Regulation (EU) No 862/2007).
Member States send population data to Eurostat data as on of 31 December for the reference year under Regulation 1260/2013 on European demographic statistics. The data are conventionally published by Eurostat as population on 1 January of the following year (reference year + 1).
The aim is to collect annual mandatory and voluntary demographic data from the national statistical institutes. Mandatory data are those defined by the legislation listed under ‘6.1. Institutional mandate — legal acts and other agreements’.
The completeness of the demographic data collected on a voluntary basis depends on the availability and completeness of information provided by the national statistical institutes.
For more information on mandatory/voluntary data collection, see 6.1. Institutional mandate — legal acts and other agreements.
The following statistics are available.
Population on 1 January by sex and by:
single age and educational attainment / marital status / broad group of citizenship / broad group of country of birth;
five-year age group and citizenship / country of birth;
citizenship and broad group of country of birth / country of birth and broad group of citizenship;
broad age group and NUTS 3 (under regional data population folder);
single age and NUTS 2 (under regional data population folder);
five-year age group and NUTS 2 / NUTS 3 (under regional data population folder).
Population structure statistics: median age of population, proportion of population by various age groups, old age dependency ratio.
14 February 2025
Population on 1 January
Eurostat aims to collect population data as on 1 January from the EU Member States. The recommended definition is the "usually resident population" which represents the number of inhabitants of a given area on 1 January of the year in question (or on 31 December of the previous year). However, the population transmitted by the countries can also be either based on data from the most recent census adjusted by the components of population change produced since the last census, either based on population registers.
Usual residence means the place where a person normally spends the daily period of rest, regardless of temporary absences for purposes of recreation, holidays, visits to friends and relatives, business, medical treatment, or religious pilgrimage. The following persons alone are considered to be usually residents of the geographical area in question:
those who have lived in their place of usual residence for a continuous period of at least 12 months before the reference time; or
those who arrived in their place of usual residence during the 12 months before the reference time with the intention of staying there for at least 1 year.
Citizenship denotes the particular legal bond between an individual and their State, acquired by birth or naturalization, whether by declaration, choice, marriage or other means according to national legislation.
Country of birth is the country of residence (in its current borders, if the information is available) of the mother at the time of the birth or, in default, the country (in its current borders, if the information is available) in which the birth took place.
Young age dependency ratio is the ratio of the persons aged 0-14 years old (1st variant) or 0-19 years old (2nd variant) or 0-19 years old (3rd variant) or 0-24 years old (4th variant) divided by the number of persons conventionally considered of working age (respectively aged 15-64 (1st variant) or 20-59 years old (2nd variant) or 20-64 years old (3rd variant) or 25-64 (4th variant)).
Old age dependency ratio is the number of persons of an age when they are conventionally considered economically inactive (aged 65 years and over (1st variant) or 60 years and over (2nd variant) or aged 65 years and over (3rd variant) or aged 65 years and over (4th variant)) to the number of persons conventionally considered of working age (respectively aged 15-64 (1st variant) or 20-59 years old (2nd variant) or 20-64 years old (3rd variant) or 25-64 (4th variant)).
The total age dependency ratio is the sum of the young and old age dependency ratios.
Median age of population
The age that divides a population into two numerically equal groups, meaning half of the people are younger than median age and half are older.
Open-ended age class concept (Y_OPEN code) is a solution for presenting different open-ended age classes for data on population that are reported by the countries.
The open-ended age classes for data on population are the following: 85 and over (+), 90+, 95+, 99+, 100+ with the exceptions:
Bulgaria: 80+ for the years 1994, 1995 and 1996
Cyprus: 80+ for the years 1990, 1991 and 1992
Turkey: 75+ for the years 2009, 2010 and 2011
Open-ended age class contains all the people aged more than the last single age for which a country can report. For example, if a country can provide data on its population by single year of age up to 94 years old, the ''open ended age class'' contains population 95 years old and over.
Statistical unit used is ''person'' as indicated in the online database or deductible from the title of tables.
Statistical population is total population as defined in 3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions.
The population statistics are disseminated by single country, by region and by aggregates of countries, as follows:
e) Other countries: Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Monaco, the Russian Federation, San Marino and the United Kingdom.
f) The geographical aggregates European Union and Euro Area, on which the dissemination covers at least the current and the previous version of their composition, the European Economic Area (EEA) and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA).
For details on geographical changes over time see the notes by country under 15.2 Comparability over time.
National refers to the territory of a Member State within the meaning of Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 applicable at the reference time.
Regional refers to NUTS level 1, NUTS level 2 or NUTS level 3 as defined in the Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 and available according to the classification in force at the reference time; where this term is used in connection with countries that are not members of the European Union, "regional" means the Statistical Regions at level 1, 2 or 3, as agreed between those countries and the Commission (Eurostat), at the reference time.
Data referring to population on 31 December of the reference year are transmitted by the Member States to Eurostat under the Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 on European demographic statistics. The data are conventionally published by Eurostat as on 1 January of the following year (reference year + 1).
Not available.
Population figures are disseminated in integer numbers and as shares of various age groups in total population (see dataset on population structure indicators).
Based on the national detailed figures on population and other demographic events transmitted by the National Statistical Institutes, Eurostat derives/calculates demographic variables and geographical aggregates by applying common calculation method.
Geographical aggregation
For population data expressed in number, the geographical aggregation is done by arithmetical sum, when there are no missing values among the components of the respective geographical aggregate. Otherwise, they are not calculated. For certain indicators like the average population, the EU value may not coincide with the sum of individual countries due to rounding.
For population structure statistics the geographical aggregates are calculated by applying the same method applied to an individual country. The input for calculation is the aggregated data described above. Therefore, for statistics like ''median age'' of EU is not the average of median age for individual countries. Instead, it is computed as median age across all Member States, meaning that 50% of the total EU population are younger and 50% of the total EU population are older than the median age.
Population data are collected by Eurostat from National Statistical Institutes.
Population statistics are revised on a continuous base according to the most recent data released and transmitted to Eurostat by the National Statistical Institutes. The geographical aggregates and the demographic indicators are accordingly revised.
Dissemination is made in line with the 8.1 Release calendar and with 17.1 Data revision-policy.
For timeliness of data release see 8.1Release calendar.
The recommended definition of the "population" for the statistics on population reported under Article 3 of the Regulation 1260/2013 and under Article 3 of the Regulation 862/2007 is the "usually resident population" meaning all the persons having their usual residence in a Member State at the reference time. Where the circumstances described above cannot be established, "usual residence" can be taken to mean the place of legal or registered residence.
The reported reference populations based on which population statistics are transmitted by the national statistical institutes to Eurostat:
1. Usually Resident Population([1]): BE, BG, CZ[4], CY, DE, EE, EL, ES, FR, HR, HU, IE, IT, LT, LV, MT, PL, PT, RO, SI, SK[5], UK, AL, RS, GE, AM
2. Legal Residence Population ([2]): CH, LI, FI, TR
3. Registered Residence Population([3]): AT, CZ, DE, DK, ES, IS, LU, NL, NO, SE
[1] 'Usually Resident Population' as stated in Article 2 of Regulation 1260/2013.
[2] 'Legal Residence Population' is composed of those persons who are entitled to be settled in the country at the reference date, either by holding the national citizenship or by other authorization issued by national authorities.
[3] 'Registered Residence Population' is composed of those persons who are listed on one or more registers owned by national authorities at the reference date. Each registered person shall be counted only once.
Note: The information above is based on statistics and metadata on population reported by the countries, reflecting the latest updates. Some countries place themselves in two categories, explanation can be found in the national metadata files linked above.
Comparability over time could be disturbed by breaks in data series. The breaks in population series due to methodological, data processing changes or revisions in population counts reported by the countries are documented in Eurostat’s database with the flag b (break in time series).
The population data for the year 2021 and after take into account the results of the latest population census (held in 2021-2022). Following Eurostat’s recommendations to ensure consistency of statistics over time, several Member States (Bulgaria, Ireland, Spain, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Portugal) have revised their population time series between the reference years of the population and housing censuses held in 2011 and 2021. While this work was spread over time, revisions were transmitted and released in 2024 (for more information about data revision per country, see also 17. Data revision). While the processing of population revisons is ongoing, it may happen that EU aggregates are not fully syncronised with the corresponding sum of countries.
Over time there have been geographical changes for certain countries, and changes in the methodology for producing population figures, as follows:
FX stands for Metropolitan France, including Corsica, excluding the overseas departments (DOM).
FR stands for the whole France, including the overseas departments (DOM). Data on Saint Barthelemey are excluded starting with 1 Januray 2012. Data on Mayotte are included starting with the statistics on vital events for the reference year 2014 and with the statistics on population on 1 Januray 2015.
The European geographical aggregates (EU, EA and EEA) include FX until 1997 and FR from 1998 on. This change is indicated by a flag b (break in time series) in the EU statistics for 1998.
The time series for Germany (DE_TOT) refer to the Federal Republic within its frontiers after 3 October 1990.
Starting with 1 Januray 1975, data for Cyprus (CY) refer to the government-controlled area.
Up to 1 Januray 2000, population data for Malta (MT) refer to the Maltese population only while, starting with 2001, figures include also foreign residents. This is indicated by a flag b in the figures for 2001.
Starting with 1 Januray 2010, the statistics on the permanent resident population of Switzerland (CH) includes all persons in the asylum process who have been residing in Switzerland since 12 months or more. The change appears in Eurostat population figures starting with population reported for 1 Januray 2011.
Starting with 1 Januray 2010, Poland (PL) revised the methodology used to estimate the usually resident population. This is indicated by a flag b in the figures for 2010.
Starting with 1 Januray 2011, Belgium (BE) population figures at national level refer to all registered persons including asylum seekers.
Starting with 1 Januray 2012, the reported Estonian (EE) population includes the migration component, whereas this was not included before.
Data for Georgia (GE) refer to the government-controlled area.
Data for Moldova (MD) refer to the government-controlled area.
Data for Ukraine (UA) exclude the illegally annexed Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol.
