More information

Compact guides

KS-30-10-627-EN-C
For general information regarding European statistics,
please go to the Eurostat web site:
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat
For information on statistical classifications, please go
to the Eurostat classification server RAMON:
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/ramon
For more information on European policies in the areas of enlargement,
employment, social affairs and equal opportunities please go to the
following web sites:
http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement
http://ec.europa.eu/social
For more specific questions on statistics in relation
to candidate and potential candidate countries, please contact:
Eurostat Unit D1 - Statistical cooperation with European and
Mediterranean countries
5, rue Alphonse Weicker, L-2721, Luxembourg
e-mail: ESTAT-D1-REQUESTS@ec.europa.eu
fax: (352) 4301-32139
For more information on statistics in candidate and potential candidate
countries, please go to the websites of the National Statistical Institutes:
Croatia http://www.dzs.hr
Iceland http://www.statice.is
Montenegro http://www.monstat.org
The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia http://www.stat.gov.mk
Turkey http://www.turkstat.gov.tr
Albania http://www.instat.gov.al
Bosnia and Herzegovina http://www.bhas.ba
Serbia http://www.stat.gov.rs
Kosovo under UNSCR 1244/99

Symbols and abbreviations

http://www.ks-gov.net/esk
Candidate and potential
candidate countries
In the graphs, names are abbreviated as follows:
HR Croatia
IS Iceland
ME Montenegro
MK* The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Population and social conditions
TR Turkey
AL Albania
BA Bosnia and Herzegovina
RS Serbia
XK Kosovo under UNSCR 1244/99
* Provisional code which does not prejudge in any way the definitive nomenclature
for this country, which will be agreed following the conclusion of negotiations
currently taking place on this subject at the United Nations.
The data for Serbia exclude Kosovo, which is under international administration in 2011 Edition
line with the UNSCR 1244/99.

ISBN 978-92-79-17714-9
doi: 10.2785/59129
© European Union 2011
INTRODUCTION Population, total and by gender, 2009 (1000)

The process of enlargement and social conditions Total population on Population by gender
The European Union is currently made up of 27 Member States (EU-27), while 1st January
there is an ongoing process for its future enlargement. At the moment several Male Female
countries have the candidate status and are on their way to joining the EU, EU-27 ( ) 1
497 683 242 873 254 811
while others are potential candidates for the future.
There are five candidate countries: Croatia (HR), the former Yugoslav Republic HR 4 435 2139 2 296
of Macedonia (MK*), Iceland (IS), Montenegro (ME) and Turkey (TR). The
European Union started accession negotiations with Croatia and Turkey in IS 319 162 157
October 2005 and with Iceland in June 2010. There are the following potential ME 630 310 320
candidates: Albania (AL), Bosnia and Herzegovina (BA), Kosovo** (XK) and
Serbia (RS). MK 2 049 1 027 1 022
In 2009, almost 500 million people lived in the European Union. The combined
population of candidate and potential candidate countries represented TR 71 517 35 901 35 616
nearly a fifth of the total EU-27 population. Turkey was by far the largest of the AL 3 185 1 585 1 600
candidate countries and potential candidates, with above 71.5 million people,
whereas Iceland and Montenegro were the smallest, with populations of 319 BA 3 844 1 878 1 966
thousand and 630 thousand respectively in 2009.
Iceland was the only enlargement country to experience a lower RS 7 335 3 567 3 768
unemployment rate than the EU-27. In 2009, the EU-27 average level of XK 2 180 1 101 1 079
unemployment was almost 9%, whereas in Iceland it was above 7%. In
(1) 2008 data.
contrast, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Kosovo recorded by
far the highest levels of unemployment of around 32% and 45% respectively. Source: Eurostat (online data codes: demo_pjangroup, demo_gind and cpc_psdemo).
In 2009, the overall EU-27 employment rate averaged almost 65%. Only Iceland
recorded a higher employment rate then the EU-27 average. The employment
rate in Iceland was 78% in 2009. In contrast, an employment rate in the other Population by age class, 2009 (%)
enlargement countries was below the EU-27. It ranged from 26% in Kosovo to
almost 57% in Croatia in 2009.
Iceland stood out as having by far the lowest gap in employment between under 15 15-64 65 and more
men and women. In 2009, it was only 4 percentage points in Iceland which was
much narrower than the difference of 12 percentage points in employment EU-27 (1) 16 67 17
rates between men and women recorded for the EU-27. The employment
gender gaps in Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia were similar to those for the HR 15 67 18
EU-27 in 2009. All other candidate and potential candidate countries recorded
substantially higher gaps, ranging from 19 percentage points in the former IS 21 68 12
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to 40 percentage points in Turkey.
ME 19 68 13
In 2009, the gross domestic product (GDP) per inhabitant in Iceland, expressed
in purchasing power standards (PPS), was 20% above the EU-27 average. MK 18 70 12
In contrast, GDP per capita in the other candidate and potential candidate
countries was lower than that of the EU-27 in 2009. Croatia, Montenegro TR 26 67 7
and Turkey registered GDP per capita between 30% and 60% below the
EU-27 average, while Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav AL 25 66 9
Republic of Macedonia and Serbia were between 60% and 80% below the BA 18 68 14
EU-27 average.
RS 15 68 17
The role of Eurostat
XK 30 63 7
The role of Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, is to follow the
(1) 2008 data.
progress of the candidate countries and potential candidates in complying (2) 2007 data.
with the acquis (the body of EU law) in the field of statistics as well as to collect (3) 2005 data.
data from these countries. Eurostat provides technical assistance and support (4) 2008 data.
to the national statistical institutes of the candidate countries and potential
candidates, to enable them to produce and disseminate harmonised and good Source: Eurostat (online data codes: demo_pjangroup, demo_gind and cpc_psdemo).
quality data according to European and international statistical standards.
(*) Provisional code which does not prejudge in any way the definitive nomenclature for this
Population: the inhabitants of a given area on 1 January of the year in question (or, in some
country, which will be agreed following the conclusion of negotiations currently taking place
on this subject at the United Nations.
cases, on 31 December of the previous year). The population is based on data from the most
( ) Under United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1244/99.
** recent census adjusted by the components of population change produced since the last
census, or based on population registers.
Total fertility rate (number of children per women) Life expectancy at birth by gender, 2009 (years)
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

EU-27 (�) EU-27 (�)

HR HR

IS (�) IS (�)

ME ME

MK (�) MK (�)

TR TR

AL AL

BA BA

RS RS

XK (�) XK (�)

2000 2009 Male Female

(1) 2002 instead of 2000. 2007 instead of 2009. (1) 2007 data.
(2) 2008 instead of 2009. (2) 2008 data.
(3) 2003 data. (3) 2003 data.

Source: Eurostat (online data codes: demo_find and cpc_psdemo). Source: Eurostat (online data codes: demo_mlexpec and cpc_psdemo).

Total fertility rate: the average number of children that would be born to a woman Life expectancy at birth: the average number of years a person would live if age-specific
during her lifetime if she were to pass through her childbearing years conforming to the mortality rates observed for a certain calendar year or period were to continue. Figures are
average fertility rates of each year. given separately for men and women.
Unemployment rates (%) Employment rates by gender, 2009 (%)
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

EU-27 EU-27

HR HR

IS IS

ME ME

MK MK

TR TR

AL AL

BA BA

RS RS

XK (�) XK

2000 2009 Male Female

(1) 2001 instead of 2000.
Source: Eurostat (online data codes: lfsi_emp_a and cpc_siemp).
Source: Eurostat (online data codes: lfsa_urgan and cpc_pslm).

Employment rate: the proportion of population aged 15 to 64 that is in employment.

Unemployment rate: persons aged 15 to 74 who were not employed, had actively sought
work during the past four weeks and were ready to begin working within two weeks, as a
proportion of the total number of active persons of the same age.
 Data are available FREE OF CHARGE Household expenditure, 2009 (%)
on the Eurostat website:
ec.europa.eu/eurostat 0 10 20 30 40 50 60

EU-27

GDP per capita, 2009

0 5 000 10 000 15 000 20 000 25 000 30 000

EU-27 HR

IS
HR

ME
IS

ME MK

MK
TR
TR

AL AL (�)

BA
BA (�)
RS

RS (�)
XK (�)

EURO PPS
(1) GDP per capita in PPS: not available. XK
Source: Eurostat (online data codes: nama_aux_gph and cpc_ecnagdp).
Food and non-alcoholic beverages
GDP per capita is an indicator that is derived through the division of GDP by the total
population.
Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels
Recreation and culture
Gross domestic product (GDP) is a basic measure of a country’s overall economic
health. As an aggregate measure of production, GDP is equal to the sum of the gross Health
value-added of all resident institutional units (i.e. industries) engaged in production, (1) 2008 data, except ‘Health’ 2007 data.
plus any taxes, and minus any subsidies, on products not included in the value of (2) 2007 data.
their outputs. Gross value-added is the difference between output and intermediate (3) 2008 data.
consumption.
Purchasing power standard (PPS) shall mean the artificial common reference currency Source: Eurostat (online data codes: nama_co2_c and cpc_ecnacoi).
unit used in the European Union to express the volume of economic aggregates for
the purpose of spatial comparisons in such a way that price level differences between Household expenditure: the value of goods and services used for household needs and
countries are eliminated. Economic volume aggregates in PPS are obtained by dividing classified by 12 main headings of COICOP (classification of individual consumption by
their original value in national currency units by the respective PPP. 1 PPS thus buys the purpose).
same given volume of goods and services in all countries, whereas different amounts of
national currency units are needed to buy this same volume of goods and services in
individual countries, depending on the price level.
Rate of motorisation (passenger cars per 1 000 inhabitants) Cellular mobile telephone penetration (number of subscriptions
per 1 000 inhabitants)
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
0 500 1000 1500 2000

EU-27 (1)
EU-27

HR

HR
IS

IS
ME

ME (1)
MK (2)

MK
TR

TR
AL (2)

AL (2)
BA (3)

BA
RS

XK (4) RS

XK (3)
2000 2009
(1) 2008 instead of 2009, estimated.
(2) 2008 instead of 2009.
(3) 2006 instead of 2000. 2000 2009
(4) 2005 instead of 2000; 2008 instead of 2009. (1) 2001 instead of 2000; 2008 instead of 2009.
(2) 2001 instead of 2000; 2006 instead of 2009.
Source: Eurostat (online data codes: road_eqs_carmot, demo_pjan and cpc_transp). (3) 2003 instead of 2000.

Passenger cars are defined as road motor vehicles, other than motorcycles, that are
intended for the carriage of passengers and designed to seat no more than nine persons
(including the driver). Hence, the data presented should cover micro-cars (no permit
required to be driven), taxis and hired passenger cars (with less than ten seats), the only
exception being minibuses.
Source: Eurostat (online data codes: isoc_tc_ac1, demo_pjan and cpc_inisoc).
A mobile phone subscription to the use of public mobile telecommunication systems
(also called mobiles or cell phones) using cellular technology. Active pre-paid cards are
also treated as subscriptions. People may have more than one subscription.