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Eurostat has just published its Statistical Yearbook for 2001. It provides a wide selection of figures on areas such as economics, demographics, social and environmental issues. Over 900 indicators covering the period 1989-1999 are covered. A selection - about 100 indicators - are available on the Eurostat web site. The information covers the EU and its Member States as well as Norway, Iceland, the United States, Canada and Japan plus key data for the candidate countries. We present below a bar chart from the 'Education' section and three tables of figures from the areas of 'Health and Safety', 'Information Society' and 'National Income and Expenditure'.
Figures for education spending broken down into Member States reveal big differences between countries. As expressed by percentage of Gross Domestic Product Denmark spends the most and Greece the least. The figures are also divided into primary, secondary and tertiary (college and university) sectors which tend to follow the overall totals although Norway (outside the European Union) comes out top in primary education.
The yearbook shows that there is a wide divergence in the data between different Member States though some patterns can be ascertained. In the tables below France and Finland have the most hospital beds with only Portugal and Spain with a lower ratio than the U.K. In the personal computer table, which include PCs used at home and at work the Mediterranean countries are also lagging behind whilst the top two countries are Sweden and Denmark from Scandinavia. Overall 31 % of the EU population (15 years and older), or 95 million persons, use a PC at home,whilst 40 % use a PC at work. In 1998 21 million computers (15 % portable and 85 % desktop) were sold in the EU. One consolation for those living in the southern Member States might be the low levels of tax: Spain, Greece and Portugal vie for the bottom spot.
Country |
Hospital beds per 100,000 inhabitants(1996) |
Personal computers per 100 inhabitants(1998) |
Current taxes on income and wealth as % of GDP(1999) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Austria |
920 |
23.5 |
13.4 |
|
Belgium |
734 |
28.5 |
17.2 |
|
Denmark |
475 |
37.8 |
30.2 |
|
Finland |
897 |
21.1 |
18.6 |
|
France |
897 |
21.1 |
12.2 |
|
Germany |
726 |
27.9 |
12.0 |
|
Greece |
503 |
5.2 |
10.5 |
|
Ireland |
525 |
27.1 |
13.8 |
|
Italy |
650 |
17.4 |
15.2 |
|
Luxembourg |
--- |
38.9 |
16.4 |
|
Netherlands |
517 |
31.9 |
12.2 |
|
Portugal |
414 |
8.1 |
10.5 |
|
Sweden |
560 |
39.6 |
22.4 |
|
Spain |
391 |
10.9 |
10.3 |
|
UK |
420 |
26.2 |
16.3 |
|
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