European Union statistics

Statistics in the European Union are collected by Eurostat.

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. Many countries are expected to experience a decline in population over the coming decades, 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. 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.

Member State

Population

%
pop.

Area
km²

%
area

Density
/km²

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European Union

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 and EFTA countries.

Freedom of the press

conducts an annual survey on the freedom of the press and produces scores 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.

Colour Codes

Good Situation

Satisfactory Situation

Noticeable problems

Difficult situation

Economic freedom

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.
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

is an international NGO publishing an annual Global Corruption Report indicating the perception of corruption
around the world. The rankings of the table refer to the Corruption Perceptions Index 2022 . A high ranking means low corruption.

Human development

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
education
health

The rankings of the table refer to the UNDP Human Development Report 2019. The UN lists all EU member states as countries with very high human development.

Democracy Index

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