Archive:Living conditions statistics introduced

Latest update of text: May 2015. Planned article update: February 2016.

The demand for statistics on living conditions and social protection received a new impetus following the introduction of the social chapter of the Amsterdam Treaty (1997) which became the driving force for social statistics in the European Union (EU). This was reinforced by successive European Councils that have kept the social dimension high on the political agenda; moreover, 2010 was designated as the European year for combating poverty and social exclusion.

Open method of coordination

In the areas of social inclusion, healthcare and long-term care and pensions the European Commission works with EU Member States using an open method of coordination (OMC). This is a voluntary process for political cooperation based on agreeing common objectives and measuring progress towards these goals using indicators and benchmarks.

Europe 2020

The Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth put forward by the European Commission provides a growth strategy for the coming decade. A European platform against poverty is one of the seven flagship initiatives of this strategy. Its goals are to:

ensure economic, social and territorial cohesion;
guarantee respect for the fundamental rights of people experiencing poverty and social exclusion, and enable them to live in dignity and take an active part in society;
mobilise support to help people integrate into the communities where they live, get training and help them to find a job and have access to social benefits.

To measure progress in meeting the Europe 2020 goals, five headline targets to be met by 2020 have been agreed and translated into national targets in each EU Member State, reflecting different situations and circumstances. One of these targets is for there to be at least 20 million fewer people in or at-risk-of-poverty and social exclusion for the EU as a whole by 2020. The integrated economic and employment guidelines, first combined in 2008 and most recently specified in 2010, are assessed through the use of a joint assessment framework (JAF) within the context of the Europe 2020 strategy; guideline 10 concerns promoting social inclusion and combating poverty. In March 2015, the European Commission proposed a new set of integrated guidelines that once adopted would replace the 2010 guidelines: guideline 8 concerns ensuring fairness, combatting poverty and promoting equal opportunities.

The European Commission and its priorities

Furthermore, the new president of the European Commission outlined 10 political guidelines in October 2014, which included a range of actions on justice and fundamental rights, including:

concluding the accession of the Union to the European Convention of Human Rights;
further actions to remove discrimination;
combating cross-border crime and terrorism, and;
increasing judicial cooperation among EU Member States.

Data sources on living conditions and social protection

Eurostat data on living conditions and social protection aim to show a comprehensive picture of the social situation in the EU, covering indicators related to income, housing, material deprivation, poverty, social exclusion and social protection.

There are three main sources of data within Eurostat for the collection of information covering living conditions and social protection. These allow a wide portfolio of social inclusion, employment and social policy indicators to be compiled:

HBS data are collected approximately every five years; the surveys vary between countries in terms of frequency, timing, content or structure, with information available for all 28 EU Member States, as well as for Norway, Montenegro, the former Yugoslav of Republic of Macedonia and Turkey.

EU-SILC is an instrument that aims to collect timely and comparable data on income, poverty, social inclusion and living conditions, in both monetary and non-monetary terms. The data are generally collected for private households and household members. EU-SILC provides both cross-sectional data and longitudinal data (typically over a four-year period). The legal basis for this data collection exercise is a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council 1177/2003 concerning Community statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC); it is supported by a series of implementing regulations and special data collection modules that relate to the collection of secondary variables on a less regular basis.

ESSPROS is a common framework developed within the European statistical system (ESS) meant to provide a coherent comparison across European countries (28 EU Member States plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Serbia and Turkey) of social benefits to households and their financing, in terms of precisely defined risks or needs that refer to the ESSPROS functions: disability, sickness / health care, old age, survivors, family / children, unemployment, housing and social exclusion. The legal basis for the data collection exercise is provided by Regulation No 458/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European system of integrated social protection statistics (ESSPROS). ESSPROS is composed of a core system that contains annual data from 1990 onwards on (gross) expenditures and receipts. In addition to the core system, one module on pension beneficiaries and one on net social benefits data are available.

Crime

The progressive elimination of border controls within the EU has considerably facilitated the free movement of European citizens, but may have also made it easier for criminals to operate, especially since the scope of law enforcement authorities and criminal justice systems is generally limited to the boundaries of national borders. Further information about the common area of freedom, security, justice and police cooperation is provided in an article on crime statistics.

Further Eurostat information

Publications

Statistical working papers

Comparative EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions: Issues and Challenges

Statistical books and pocketbooks

Statistics in focus

Income inequality: nearly 40 per cent of total income goes to people belonging to highest (fifth) quintile — Statistics in focus 12/2014
Is the likelihood of poverty inherited? — Statistics in focus 27/2013
Living standards falling in most Member States — Statistics in focus 8/2013
Children were the age group at the highest risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2011 — Statistics in focus 4/2013
In 2009 a 6.5 % rise in per capita social protection expenditure matched a 6.1 % drop in EU-27 GDP — Statistics in focus 14/2012

Main tables

Database

Crime and criminal justice (crim)
Household budget surveys — Living conditions and welfare (livcon)
Income and living conditions (ilc)
Social protection (spr)

Dedicated section

Social inclusion

External links

European Commission — Directorate-General Employment, Social affairs and Inclusion — Social protection and Social inclusion