Eurostat

The social distancing measures that have recently been introduced due to the coronavirus pandemic, have forced many people to work from home; for many of them this will be the first time that they have had to do so. However, how common was working from home before these measures came into force?

Online shopping is continuing to increase in the European Union (EU). Together with increasing use of the internet and improving security standards, consumers appreciate the possibilities of being able to shop anytime, anywhere, with access to a wide range of products and easy price comparisons.

In 2019, average hourly labour costs in the whole economy (excluding agriculture and public administration) were estimated to be €27.7 in the European Union of 27 Member States (EU) and €31.4 in the euro area.

Exports of waste from the European Union (EU) of 27 Member States to non-EU countries have increased by two thirds (+66%) since 2004, but remained stable from 2018 to 2019. In 2019, the EU exports of waste reached 31.0 million tonnes, with a value of EUR 13.4 billion.

In 2019, 20.3% of the EU population was aged 65 years or over; this was 0.3 percentage points higher than a year before and 2.9 percentage points higher than the corresponding share from a decade earlier. This article looks into the elderly population across EU regions, older people being considered at higher risk from the coronavirus.

According to Eurostat data published in November, for the period 2015-2017, police in the EU have registered an average of 697,000 car thefts a year. This shows a significant decrease of 29% compared to 2008-2010 (when on average 983,000 cars were missing per year). Car theft has been declining in most EU Member States over the last ten years, Eurostat data show.

In the EU in 2018, around 14 600 children died before reaching one year of age. This is equivalent to an infant mortality rate of 3.4 deaths per 1 000 live births, Eurostat data showed.

In 2018, 23.4 % of children in the EU27 were at risk of poverty or social exclusion compared with 22.1 % of adults (18-64) and 18.4 % of the elderly (65 or over).

Data differences

Outdated statistics complicate efforts to identify patterns and trends in a sector, hindering the efforts of policymakers, researchers and analysts to draw conclusions and draft recommendations or policies. Often, such "analyses are incomplete," said Olluri.

More and more enterprises in the European Union (EU) are using social media. In 2019, one in two enterprises (50%) reported that they were using at least one type of social media, which means an increase of 16 percentage points since 2014 (34%), Eurostat data showed.

Use of social media highest in Malta, lowest in Romania