12 July 2011

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Live births: Births of children that showed any sign of life. It is the number of births excluding stillbirths (total births include live births and stillbirths).

Stillbirth: The expulsion or extraction from the mother of a dead foetus after the time at which it would normally be resumed capable of independent extrauterine existence (commonly taken to be after 24 to 28 weeks of gestation).

Crude birth rate: The ratio of the number of live births during the year to the average population in that year. The value is expressed per 1000 inhabitants.

Mean age of women at childbirth: The mean age of women when their children are born.

Total fertility rate: The mean number of children that would be born alive to a woman during her lifetime if she were to pass through her childbearing years conforming to the fertility rates by age of a given year.

Fertility rates by mother's age (age specific fertility rate): The number of births to mothers of age x to the average female population of age x.

Age concept:

Most National Statistical Institutes of the EU Member States provide data on the number of live births by both dimensions: mother's age and mothr's year of birth. Live births are compiled and disseminated, based on the data collected, as follows: by mother's age at last birthday (also referred as age completed) and by mother's age reached during the year. The availability of data on live births by the two concepts among the countries starts at different moment of time series.

Eurostat uses the concept of age completed for the calculation of the fertility indicators.

See Glossary in "Annex" at the bottom of the page.

See data and indicators

Total population

European Union:

a. Individual Member States of the EU-27: Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden, United Kingdom.

Please note:

- FX stands for metropolitan France, including Corsica, excluding the overseas departments (DOM: Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyane, Réunion)).

- FR stands for the whole France, including the overseas departments (DOM).

- The time series for Germany (DE) exclude the former GDR before 1991 and refer to the Federal Republic starting with 1991 refference year. The time series for Germany (DE_TOT) refer to the Federal Republic within its frontiers after 3 October 1990.

- Starting from 1975, data for Cyprus (CY) refer to the government-controlled area.

- Up to 2000, population data for Malta (MT) refer to the Maltese population only while, starting from 2001, figures include also foreign resident. This is indicated by a flag b (break in series) in the figures for 2001.

b. The aggregates for EU and Euro Area

Please note:

These aggregates include FX until 1997 and FR from 1998 on. This change is indicated by a flag b (break in series) in the figures for 1998.

EU Candidate countries:

Montenegro, Croatia, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey.

EFTA countries:

Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland.

The aggregates EEA and EFTA.

Please note:

The aggregate EEA includes FX until 1997 and FR from 1998 on. This change is indicated by a flag b (break in series) in the figures for 1998.

Other European countries:

Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, Russian Federation, San Marino, Serbia, Kosovo (under UNSCR 1244), Ukraine.

Please note:

Data for Serbia do not include Kosovo.

Time series for the EU (Member States and Candidate Countries) and EFTA countries start generally from 1960 up to the latest available year. For other countries, the time series depend on national availability, but longer series may be available in the future.

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Absolute numbers and crude rates expressed per 1000 of the average population.

The calendar year for all tables, with exception of the monthly time series on live births, where the reference period is the month of occurrence.

Data are collected from National Statistical Institutes on voluntary basis.

The Joint demographic data collection is carried out in co-operation with the UNSD.

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 the production 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.

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In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see item 10 - 'Dissemination format') respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.

Following the annual demographic data collections (see par. 15.1 Timeliness and 19.1 Revision policy).

News releases on-line.

Eurostat's general and cross-domains publications, yearbooks and pocketbooks.

'The social situation in the European Union' report and 'Demography report', in cooperation with DG-EMPL.

Two regular statistics in focus/data in focus publications on population and other demographic indicators:

- 'Population in Europe: first results': published in summer, containing the first demographic estimates on the demographic balance for the year T-1. The publication is based on the Rapid data collection.

- 'First demographic estimates' on the total population by country on 1 January of the following year (now casts), published at the end of the year.

Please consult free data on-line.

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Working paper 3/2003/E/n. 25 "Demographic statistics: Definitions and methods of collection in 31 European Countries".

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Data is validated before publishing in Eurostat's online free dissemination database.

See par. 20.4 Data validation.

No quality assessment is available.

Demographic trend and developments have a strong impact on the societies of the countries and of the EU. Demographic statistics on the size and structure of Europe's population are used in a wide range of economic, social and environmental policy areas.

No user' satisfaction surveys are carried out.

Data completeness depends on the availability of data from the National Statistical Institutes.

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Information on vital events of year (T-1) at aggregate level is collected in spring of the year T; these data are disseminated around end of May of year T.

Detailed data by sex, age and other characteristics for the demographic events of year (T-1) are collected in summer of the year T; these data are disseminated around the end of the year T.

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When a methodological change occurs, the flag b (break in series) is displayed.

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Data are checked for internal consistency before making them available in NewCronos. Corrections are also performed ex-post, if errors are found.

Not relevant.

The data on demographic vital events are revised on a continuous base according to updates and revisions provided by the national statistical institutes. The aggregated geographical levels are updated accordingly.

Data are collected by Eurostat from the National Statistical Institutes.

Annual

See Working paper 3/2003/E/n. 25 "Demographic statistics: Definitions and methods of collection in 31 European Countries".

Absolute figures received from the National Statistical Institutes are validated by Eurostat before being dissemination in Eurostat's free dissemination online datanse.

Basic validations are carried out to check if the totals provided by the countries are consistent with the breakdown by sex, by year and by other characteristics (e.g., live births are the sum of births inside marriage plus births outside marriage; total population is equal to the sum of marital statuses, etc.).

Cross validations are carried out to check consistency between the different tables of one domain (e.g., the totals of births must be equal to the sum of births by rank).

Time series analysis by country can be done to check if outliers appear.

When demographic indicators are calculated, other errors can be detected in the time series by country and they are investigated.

Eurostat calculates all demographic indicators for all countries and all geographical aggregates using a common methodology. Geographical aggregates are sometimes estimated in case a component geographical unit missing (i.e. data are not available for all countries that constitute the aggregate). No estimations done by Eurostat for the national data  are published under this situation, but only the demographic indicator(s) resulted for the aggregated geographical level, marked with a correspondent flag for estimation.

However, Eurostat collects also national estimates for several demographic indicators: total fertility rate, life expectancy at birth (total, male and female) and mean age of mother at childbearing. These indicators are available in the table "Indicators calculated by the National Statistics Institutes (demo_gnsiind)".

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