Op Wereld Statistiekdag een nieuwe publicatie van Eurostat over de EU en de G20 (en)

20.10.2010: World Statistics Day

A new Eurostat publication on the EU

and the G-20

To celebrate World Statistics Day, Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, releases on this day a new publication "The EU in the world - a statistical portrait"1. This publication paints a picture of the EU in relation to the rest of the world using a range of harmonised European and international statistics. It provides data for the EU, the world total and for the 15 non-EU G-202 countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey and the United States).

The publication also presents information on current EU action to help develop official statistics across the globe through cooperation programmes. Eurostat in particular supports the development of international statistical standards, and also promotes bilateral cooperation with national statistical systems of non-member countries. In so doing, Eurostat assists beneficiary countries to develop their statistical systems.

The type of statistical cooperation provided to each country or region varies. Assistance to the candidate and potential candidate countries is designed to help their statistical bodies develop systems that comply with EU regulations. Assistance to countries that surround the EU is supported through the European Neighbourhood Policy, while statistical cooperation with the rest of the world is related to advocacy, coordination, advice, training and capacity building.

The publication covers a wide range of socio-economic fields, of which some examples are presented below.

The EU accounts for 7% of the world population…

The world has 6.9 billion inhabitants in 2010. The most populous countries are China (1 350 million inhabitants or 20% of the world population), India (1 210 mn or 18%), the United States (320 mn or 5%), Indonesia (230 mn or 3%) and Brazil (200 mn or 3%). The EU, with 500 million inhabitants, accounts for 7% of the world population.

In 1960, there were on average 116.0 cases of infant mortality per 1000 live births in the world, compared with

36.0 in the EU. In 2008, these rates had decreased considerably, with an average of 47.3 infant deaths per 1000 live births in the world, compared with 4.5 in the EU. India (54.6) and South Africa (49.1) had the highest infant mortality rates among the non-EU G-20 countries, while Japan (3.2) and South Korea (4.4) had rates below the EU average. The United States (5.9) was above the EU average.

The average life expectancy at birth in the world was 67.6 years, compared with 79.2 years in both the EU and the United States. The highest life expectancies among the non-EU G-20 countries were found in Japan (82.7 years), Australia (81.5 years) and Canada (80.7 years), and the lowest in South Africa (51.6 years), India (63.5 years) and Russia (66.5 years).

Demography