In 2019, 99% of importing enterprises in total trade (intra-EU and extra-EU) were small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), while this share was only slightly lower for exporting enterprises (98%). For both importing and exporting enterprises, this value remained almost unchanged between 2015 and 2019. Micro enterprises represented the highest share of importing enterprises (77%), significantly higher than […]
Emergency oil stocks in European Union
This article presents data on emergency and commercial oil stocks in the European Union (EU). Crude oil and petroleum products play a very important role in the economy of the European Union and, given the oil import dependency of the EU, holding emergency oil stocks is very important for the energy security of the Union. Commercial […]
SDGs & me: Gender equality
The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 5) ‘Gender equality‘ aims to end all forms of discrimination, violence, and any harmful practices against women and girls. It also calls for the full participation of women at all levels of political and economic decision-making. In an EU context, SDG 5 focuses on progress made in abating gender-based violence and in […]
7.2% of people in the EU suffer from chronic depression
In 2019, 7.2% of EU citizens reported having chronic depression, a small increase compared with 2014 (+0.3 percentage points). Among the EU countries, Slovenia (15.1%) had the highest share of the population reporting chronic depression in 2019, followed by Portugal (12.2%) and Sweden (11.7%). In contrast, the share of people reporting chronic depression was lowest in Romania […]
Business registrations and bankruptcies in the EU
In the second quarter of 2021, registrations of new businesses increased by 5.3% when compared with the previous quarter. In the case of declared bankruptcies, there was a growth of 1.8% in the second quarter of 2021 compared to the first quarter of 2021. The graph below shows the evolution of company registrations (blue line) […]
How often do you drink sugar-sweetened soft drinks?
In 2019, 9% of people aged 15 and over in the EU drank sugar-sweetened soft drinks daily, while 6% drank such beverages 4-6 times a week and 19% drank these 1-3 times a week. Daily consumption of sugar-sweetened soft drinks was more common for men than for women (12% of men vs. 7% of women). In addition, […]
Over half of adults in the EU are overweight
While 45% of adults living in the EU had a normal weight in 2019, slightly more than half (53%) were considered as overweight (36% pre-obese and 17% obese) and almost 3% as underweight, according to their body mass index (BMI). BMI is a measure of a person’s weight relative to their height that links fairly well with body fat. With the exception of […]
Immigration law enforcement in the EU – figures for 2020
In 2020, 137 800 non-EU citizens were refused entry into the EU territory while 557 500 were found to be illegally present in one of the EU Member States. The number of non-EU citizens issued with an order to leave an EU Member State was 396 400 people. Following an order to leave, 99 300 […]
Commercial air transport in June 2021: preparing for take-off?
To prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries around the world have taken a variety of restrictive measures since the beginning of 2020. The air transport industry was hit immediately, yet the most recent figures on commercial flights show first signs of recovery. The first impact on commercial air transport was visible in March […]