The European Union offers a wealth of information both quantitative and qualitative. It works on the idea that data should be freely available for use and reuse and, therefore, has an Open Data policy. The data is provided through a number of sources:

Eurostat

Eurostat is the statistical office of the European Union. It was established in 1953 for the European Coal and Steel Community and adopted its name in 1959. Its purpose is to provide the European Union with statistics at European level so comparisons between countries and regions can be made. Thereby rely on the European Statistical System (ESS) to provide comparable statistics at EU level.

Eurostat offers various ways to assess the data (both at EU and country level):

Note: all EuroStat information is updated twice a day, at 11:00 and 23:00
Download formats: tsv (tab separated values) and sdmx format

Eurostat now provides mobile apps (Available for iPhone, iPad and Android):

  • Eurostat_Eco EU Economy - gives an instant overview of the European Economy

  • Eurostat_Country Country Profiles - provides you with real-time updates of some 160 key statistical data from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

  • Eurostat_Quiz Eurostat Quiz - fun app to test your knowledge about the EU and its Member States

 

Opinion surveys

  • Eurobarometer (EB) surveys - comprises of the public opinions from Member States and associated countries. The major topics covered by the surveys are: European citizenship: enlargement, social situation, health, culture, information technology, environment, the Euro, defence, etc. EB offers:

    • Eurobarometer interactive search system - allows for a search to be performed in 3 stages 1) select a predefined question or type a related keyword, 2) select country or countries; 3) define the time period. The data can be displayed as a graph, a pie chart, in an excel table or in columns. Survey results can also be displayed on a map of the EU. The colour coding facilitates quick and easy comparisons between countries.

    • Standard EB - The survey consists of approximately 1000 face-to-face interviews per country. Data has been collected since 1973. The survey reports are published twice yearly.

    • Special EB - These surveys are based on in-depth thematical studies carried out for various services of the European Commission or other EU Institutions and integrated in Standard Eurobarometer's polling waves.

    • Flash EB - these are ad hoc thematical telephone interviews conducted at the request of any service of the European Commission. These surveys are conducted when the Commission needs to obtain opinions of a particular target group quickly.

    • Qualitative Studies - based discussion groups comprising of selected social groups. The purpose of these studies to assess the reactions, motivations, and feeling on a given subject or concept.

  • Scientific Committees - Opinions of independent Scientific Committees on Consumer Safety, health and environment risks emerging and newly identified health risk

Open Data Portal

Open Data Portal was created to provide ease of access to a growing range of data from the institutions and other bodies of the European Union (EU). EuroStat, European Banking Authority, European Institute for Gender Equality, DG for Competition, European Environment Agency are just a sample of publishers that provide data to the portal (full list of publishers). The datasets are mainly in .tmx (Translation Memory eXchange) format.

 

Further information: