Dataset description and subject overview

Situated in Luxembourg, Eurostat is the Statistical Office of the European Communities. Its key role is to provide the European Union with a high-quality statistical information service that enables comparisons between countries and regions. Eurostat's principal database is the New Cronos - which contains high quality macroeconomic and social statistics data covering not only European Union (EU) Member states but also many of the central European countries, Japan, the United States and the main economic partners of the EU. The data are organised into 'Key indicators on EU policy' and nine statistical themes, which are then subdivided into collections of data tables:

Key indicators on EU policy

• Structural indicators
  • General Economic Background Explanatory texts
  • Employment Explanatory texts
  • Innovation and Research Explanatory texts
  • Economic Reform Explanatory texts
  • Social Cohesion Explanatory texts
  • Environment Explanatory texts
• Euro-Indicators
  • Balance of payments Explanatory texts
  • Business and consumer surveys Explanatory texts
  • Consumer prices Explanatory texts
  • External trade Explanatory texts
  • Industry, commerce and services Explanatory texts
  • Labour market Explanatory texts
  • Monetary and financial indicators Explanatory texts
  • National accounts Explanatory texts
• Long-term indicators (list of abbreviations)
  • Economy and finance
  • Population and social conditions
  • Industry, trade and services
  • Agriculture, forestry and fisheries
  • External trade
  • Transport
  • Environment and energy
  • Science and technology
• Sustainable Development Indicators
  • Economic development
  • Poverty and social exclusion
  • Ageing society
  • Public health
  • Climate change and energy
  • Production and consumption patterns
  • Management of natural resources
  • Transport
  • Good governance
  • Global partnership

Theme 1: General Statistics - Major indicators for the Member States of the European Union, non-member countries, applicant countries and regions:

• European and national short term indicators
• Statistics for the euro-zone and European Union (EU-15)
• Structural indicators
• Eurostatus
• Eurostatistics
• Candidate Countries/Central European Countries
• Western Balkan Countries
• New Independent States
• ACP/ALA/MED (Africa, Caribbean, Pacific, Latin America, Asia, Mediterranean)
• MED program
• Regional statistics

Themes 2: Economy and Finance- Data on national accounts, prices and purchasing power parities, such as statistics on currency and the finance sector:

• International trade in services, foreign direct investment, balance of payments
• Exchange rates and interest rates
• Financial accounts
• Monetary and other financial statistics
• Prices and Purchasing Power Parities
• National Accounts - Aggregates - Annual Data
• National accounts by institutional sector
• Government sector
• National accounts - breakdowns of branch of activity
• Quarterly national accounts
• Auxiliary indicators (Population, employment and exchange rates)
• EC Economic Data Pocketbook (data for 2003-2004: DG ECFIN [Economic and Financial Affairs] - Autumn 2002 Economic Forecasts)
• National accounts historical data (ESA79)

Theme 3: Population and Social Conditions - Statistics on population, health, employment, consumption and living conditions:

• Census - Round 90-91
• Demography
• Gross and net earnings
• Education
• Employment
• Household Budget Survey
• Housing
• Income and living conditions
• Labour costs
• Labour Force Survey
• Labour Market Policy
• International Migration and Asylum
• Minimum wages
• Structure of Earnings Statistics - 1995
• Social protection
• Short Term Earnings and Labour Cost Indices
• Statistics on industrial disputes
• Training
• Unemployment

Theme 4: Industry, Trade and Services - Indicators and statistics on industrial activity, production, wholesale and retail trade, banks and services in Europe:

• Structural Business Statistics (Industry, Construction, Trade and Services)
• EUROPROMS : European production and market statistics (provisional version)
• European Business Trends - Monthly and Quarterly Short Term Statistics (Industry, Construction, Retail Trade and Other Services)
• Trade association database
• Iron and steel
• Communications
• Tourism
• Tourism - Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC), Mediterranean countries (MED)
• Audiovisual services
• Historical domain (compet, sbs_plus and sme)

Theme 5: Agriculture and Fisheries- Accounts, indices, prices and statistics on agriculture and fisheries:

• Economic accounts for agriculture and forestry (European Union and Candidate Countries)
• Structure of agricultural holdings
• Agricultural Information System
• Animal feed
• Fishery statistics
• Agricultural prices and prices indices (European Union and Candidate Countries)
• Agricultural products
• Agricultural products - Candidate Countries
• Database on orchards
• Database on viticulture
• Forestry Statistics 1992-2000

Theme 6: External Trade- Statistics on intra- and extra-European Union trade:

• Macro series for Candidate Countries and EFTA countries
• External trade data for Eurostatistics
• External trade data for Eurostat Yearbook
• High Level Aggregates
• Macro-economic series for EU15 and euro-zone12 (gross data, seasonally adjusted and adjusted data by working days, indices)

Theme 7: Transport - Data on air, rail, road and inland waterway transport in the European Union:

• Statistical cooperation and links with other domains
• A. Railway transport
• B. Road transport
• C. Inland waterways transport
• D. Oil pipeline transport
• E. Maritime transport
• F. Air transport

Theme 8: Environment and Energy - Statistics and indicators on the impact of population on the environment (production of waste, emissions and pollutants, climate, biodiversity, etc.) and on the impact on the economy (environmental spending):

• Environment statistics
• Energy

Theme 9: Science and Technology - Information on research and development, innovation and employment in the advanced-technology sectors, available for the Member States of the European Union and non-member countries:

• Indicators for benchmarking of national research policies
• Research & Development in the Candidate Countries & Russian Federation
• Employment in high technology sectors
• Human Resources in Science & Technology (HRST)
• Survey on innovation in EU enterprises
• Research and Development: Government budget appropriations or outlays on R&D
• European and US patenting systems
• Research and Development expenditure and personnel
• Key indicators on science and technology

For further information on the contents of each of the Eurostat themes, see the New Cronos macroeconomic statistical database overview pdf document (www.esds.ac.uk/international/support/user_guides/eurostat/NewCronos.pdf).

Eurostat uses data collected from national statistical institutes to produce these statistics and harmonises them according to a single methodology. (See the Documentation section for further information on methodologies).

Note: In January 2002 Eurostat introduced in its dissemination databases series labeled “national currency (including ‘euro fixed’ series for euro-zone countries)”. On 1st March 2002 the series denominated in the former national currencies of the euro-zone countries were removed. In general, the series in "national currency" should only be used for time series analysis; the series labeled“euro (from 1.1.1999)/ECU (up to 31.12.1998)” should be used for cross-country comparisons and aggregations.

User Documentation

Photo by: yewenyi, Creative Commons, Flickr

Eurostat produces the following documentation:

• The Eurostat website provides free data and documentation for the New Cronos database.
• Overview of the New Cronos macroeconomic statistical database.
• The Eurostat Concept and definitions database, (CODED)
• RAMON - Eurostat's classification server aims at making available as much information as possible relating to the main international statistical classifications in various fields: economic analysis, environment, education, occupations, national accounts, etc.
• Eurostat Yearbook
• The European Statistical Support Centre in the UK is another useful source of information, contact via the online form on the Help/User Support UK section of the Eurostat website.
• Eurostat provides an interactive user interface to Eurostat data- this is freely available to all and contains all associated metadata.
• The Eurostat website also provides several visualisation and data extraction tools.

Eurostat on Beyond 20/20 WDS

The Eurostat New Cronos hosted by ESDS International is delivered via Beyond 20/20 WDS - a guide to accessing the Eurostat New Cronos data is available (www.esds.ac.uk/international/support/user_guides/eurostat/cronoswe.asp).

In Eurostat New Cronos the period of time is represented as follows:

a: annual
s: biannual
q: quarterly
m: monthly
d: daily
c: cumulated from January

For example, 1985a00 = Annual data from 1985, 1970q01 = First quarter data from 1970 and 1990m08 = Monthly data from August 1990.

The Eurostat New Cronos is represented in over 4000 tables, but due to software constraints, there were a number of tables detailed in the attached file we were unable to publish.

Accessing the Eurostat New Cronos data

To access the ESDS International macro-economic datasets you must be a user from a UK higher or further education institution. We cannot provide data to users outside of this community due to the data re-distribution license agreements we have with our data providers. If you are a member of a UK higher or further education institution access to the macro-economic datasets is provided free of charge.

Access to data requires ESDS registration and uses the federated access management authentication system. Registration is a simple online process - go to the How to Register web page at (www.esds.ac.uk/aandp/access/access.asp) to begin the process.

Once you have registered with ESDS and attempt to access one of the macro-economic datasets, you will automatically be prompted to agree to additional dataset specific conditions if they apply.

However, Eurostat does provide their own interactive user interface to Eurostat data- this is freely available to all and contains all associated metadata.

Countries covered by the Eurostat New Cronos

Eurostat data are available for the groups and areas listed below, but coverage does depend on the variable and time period required.

The twenty five members of the European Union:

• Austria
• Greece
• Poland
• Belgium
• Hungary
• Portugal
• Cyprus
• Ireland
• Slovakia
• Czech Republic
• Italy
• Slovenia
• Denmark
• Latvia
• Spain
• Estonia
• Lithuania
• Sweden
• Finland
• Luxembourg
• UK
• France
• Malta
• Germany
• Netherlands

Data is also available for the sub-national areas within the EU-25 countries. Other countries covered include Japan, the United States, the central European countries and other main economic partners of the Union.

Periodicity and Time Range

The Eurostat New Cronos database contains monthly, quarterly, bi-annual or annual data, depending on the variable and country selected from 1960 onwards. It is updated annually at ESDS International - see the latest update information for the latest available edition information.