Structural indicators

The quality profile is a user-oriented summary of the main quality features of indicators. Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities being in charge of disseminating structural indicators, has the responsibility to provide guidance for their use and analysis as well as input to the selection processes of structural indicators.

In line with the Eurostat quality concept, quality is defined along several dimensions. The quality profile aims at a quick overview on how far a structural indicator is deemed "fit for use" with regard to its key objectives. More information on quality of the indicators, including for some surveys, detailed quality reports and explanations of the applied concepts and methodologies are available under explanatory texts.


The quality profiles are issued by Eurostat in close co-operation with the National Statistical Institutes of the EU-Member States covering gradually all structural indicators, including those that stem from sources outside the European Statistical System.

The Eurostat quality profile for structural indicators covers the following quality dimensions:
Feasibility by looking at timeliness and coverage: The indicator has to be available in time for Member States, Candidate Countries and as far as possible the United States and Japan. Time series beginning in 1990 are provided as much as possible to allow for a dynamic analysis.

Technical soundness, comprising overall accuracy, comparability (over time and across countries), is assessed on the basis of existing quality information in the domain. The indicator should stem from reliable sources meeting high standards and involving statistical expertise as regards the technique and methodology applied. The indicator should be comparable between Member States, Candidate Countries as well as with the United States and Japan. The indicator has to be comparable from one year to another. For each of these components a brief overall assessment (high/restricted) is provided, substantiated by further qualitative information, if considered useful.

The quality profile discusses the relevance which is considered here to comprise the content and suitability of the indicator to measure appropriately the phenomenon considered. Moreover, room is provided to describe other characteristics which may lead to restricting the use of the indicator, relating e.g. to its own complexity, a lack of an unambiguous scientific basis or to the coherence with other existing indicators, lack of comprehensive metadata etc.