UNECE Statistics

We coordinate statistical activities in the UNECE region through the Conference of European Statisticians (CES) and its Bureau, and the Database of International Statistical Activities. We develop guidelines and training materials on statistical methodology and practices working with groups of specialists from national and international statistical organizations. We organize meetings and other opportunities for statistical experts to exchange experiences on a wide range of statistical topics and provide technical cooperation to member countries. We also provide free on-line data on our 56 member countries in Europe, Central Asia and North America in both English and Russian.

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Suicide rates declining in most UNECE countries

In most UNECE member countries, the suicide rate has fallen since the millennium, with larger decreases occurring in countries that had higher rates. This is illustrated by the chart below, which depicts suicide rates from 2000 to 2008, for selected countries. Kazakhstan, with a high suicide rate, has seen a large decrease in its rate. However Italy, which has a lower suicide rate, has seen only a small decrease.

The large gender difference has persisted, with suicide rates for men higher than those for women, although the male-female ratio varies between countries and time periods, as can be seen by comparing Kazakhstan with Slovenia in the year 2000. There are, however, a number of exceptions to the decreasing trend in the suicide rate. For example, whereas Ireland saw a decrease for males, the rate for females remained unchanged. In Norway, an increased female suicide rate accompanied a decrease for males. The United States and Portugal saw increases for both males and females--although in the United States these were slight--and from a relatively low level in 2000 in the case of Portugal.

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2007-2011 real-wage trends in UNECE region show huge variations among countries

Among the countries of the UNECE region, between 2007 and 2011 Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation saw the highest increases in real wages.  Finland and Spain also saw increases, though to a much lesser extent.

In Greece, real wages, which had increased considerably in 2009, began to fall in 2010 and 2011. 

In the United Kingdom, nominal wages increased at a slower rate than inflation. This meant a fall in the purchasing power of wage earners. 

In the Czech Republic, Germany, Israel and the United States, nominal wages and consumer inflation varied at almost the same rate.

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How much waste do we produce?

The Member States of the European Union (EU) produce more than 2 billion tonnes of waste, including hazardous materials, every year. And this figure is rising steadily. The situation is even more alarming in the countries of Eastern Europe, Caucasus, and Central Asia. The waste generated there accounts for nearly 4 billion tonnes (2009).

Read more at UNECE Statistics website.

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Stark contrasts in UNECE region's unemployment rates

The unemployment figures for countries in the UNECE region vary significantly from country to country. The following are just some examples of the huge differences in the trends.

In the five years from 2006 to 2011, Spain saw its unemployment rate soar from 8.5% to 21.7%. Greece's unemployment rate climbed from 8.9% to 17.7%, and Ireland's from 4.5% to 14.4%. By contrast, Germany's unemployment has been steadily decreasing— from 10.3% in 2006 to 5.9% in 2011. This makes Germany the country with the second lowest unemployment rate in the UNECE region after Switzerland, with 4%. In the Russian Federation, the unemployment rate rose from 7.2 % in 2006 to 8% in 2009, but in 2011 fell to 6.6%. The United Kingdom saw an increase in unemployment from 6% to 8% between 2008 and 2009, and the rate has remained steady.

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Infant mortality rate falling in UNECE region

However, the gap in the infant mortality rates remains large between the different UNECE subregions. For example, although Tajikistan showed a 40% reduction in infant mortality from twenty years ago, the mortality there now is still 13 times the average level of the current EU Member States. This is up from 9 times the EU average in 1990 because the reduction of the infant mortality in the EU was more rapid than in Tajikistan. The most impressive drop of infant mortality occurred in Turkey. In 1990, Turkey had the highest rates of infant mortality in the UNECE region, along with Central Asian and Caucasus countries. Almost 80% decline in 20 years brought Turkey close to the level of Eastern European countries such as the Russian Federation and Ukraine. Although the relative improvements in countries of Central Asia and Caucasus were significant, these countries remain the group with highest infant mortality in the UNECE region.

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How much waste do we produce? Some statistics.

The Member States of the European Union (EU) produce more than 2 billion tonnes of waste, including hazardous materials, every year. And this figure is rising steadily. The situation is even more alarming in the countries of Eastern Europe, Caucasus, and Central Asia. The waste generated there accounts for nearly 4 billion tonnes (2009). 

Russian Federation

3,877

EU (27 countries)

2,612

Kazakhstan

457

Ukraine

427

Germany

373

France

345

United Kingdom

334

Bulgaria

286

Romania

189

Italy

179

Spain

149

Poland

140

Netherlands

100

Sweden

86

Finland

82

Belarus

43

Armenia

12

Notes:  The countries of Eastern Europe, Caucasus, and Central Asia are highlighted in blue. Data for the Russian Federation excludes municipal waste. Data for Ukraine are for 2010. Source: Eurostat and data provided to the UNECE Joint Task Force on Environmental Indicators.

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Regional divide in women’s mean age at first marriage

Marriages are the earliest in countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia where the bride’s average age at first marriage ranges between 22 and 25 years. At the same time, women in most countries of Central Europe and the Baltics marry after the age of 26.

n Northern, Western and Southern Europe women usually marry around the age of 30. Sweden has the highest mean age at first marriage (32.9), followed by other Nordic countries and Spain. In all UNECE countries, the age at first marriage has been rising over the past ten years. The factors behind this trend include the general postponement of family formation as well as increase in the incidence and duration of cohabitation as in many countries couples frequently live together for a long time before getting married.

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Some Eastern European countries show high proportions of underweight girls

Data on the Body Mass Index of adolescents up to 2008 indicates that the proportions of underweight girls of this age have reached high levels in some Eastern European countries. Belarus and Bulgaria saw the proportion of underweight girls increase to around 23% of adolescents by 2008. Throughout this period adolescent boys had much lower proportions being underweight than girls. In other UNECE countries for which data is available, the proportion of underweight females is generally lower than Belarus and Bulgaria, as can be seen on the Chart. The USA has similar proportions of underweight girls and boys, whilst Kyrgyzstan has more underweight boys than girls.

Percentage of Adolescent Girls and Boys who are Underweight, 2000 (or nearest available year) and 2008

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UNECE marks World Population Day and launches regional review of international policy framework on population and development (ICPD+20)

UNECE marks the 2012 World Population Day under the motto of Universal Access to Reproductive Health Services.

Worldwide, reproductive health problems remain the leading cause of ill health and death for women of childbearing age. Nearly 800 women die every day in the process of giving life. About 1.8 billion young people are entering their reproductive years, often without the knowledge, skills and services they need to protect themselves. The UNECE region is faced with large disparities regarding reproductive health: for instance, in CIS countries, on average 23 maternal deaths occur per 100,000 live births, in the EU it is only six (2010).

Reproductive health is at the heart of development, an interdependence that was acknowledged at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), a milestone event in the history of population and development. It marked a shift away from top-down population policies towards an approach of empowering people, enabling them to take informed decisions.

A total of 179 governments signed up to the ICPD Programme of Action. The benchmarks agreed in Cairo at the ICPD, together with benchmarks adopted at ICPD+5 became key elements of the Millennium Development Goals designed in 2000. In 2012, the ICPD Beyond 2014 Review has been launched and the UNECE secretariat will lead the process in the region. The Review aims to take stock of progress made and challenges faced in implementing the ICPD programme as a basis to define the post 2014-agenda. A Global Survey will be conducted with regional commissions, including UNECE, coordinating its implementation in the respective region. The Survey questionnaire will be disseminated during the second half of July 2012. UNECE member States will be requested to complete the Global Survey questionnaire by the end of October 2012 – a process that should include national stakeholder meetings to validate responses. Based on a thorough analysis of country data, a regional report will be prepared by the UNECE and a regional population conference is expected to take place in July 2013 to discuss outcomes as well as the way forward.

The regional process will feed in to the global review process which will culminate into an analytical global report with recommendations, and a shorter report by the Secretary-General which will be considered by both the 47th session of the Commission on Population and Development in 2014 and a United Nations General Assembly Special Session, tentatively planned for 24 September of the same year.

For more information on the UNECE’s work on population: http://www.unece.org/pau/welcome.html

For more information on World Population Day: http://www.unfpa.org/public/world-population-day

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In 1989, the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme recommended, in its decision 89/46, that 11 July should be observed by the international community as World Population Day. Today, attention is focused on the importance of population issues in the context of...

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European countries show large variations in unemployment rates

Over the last years, unemployment rates have continued to diverge across European countries reflecting the level of economic activity and different impact of the economic crisis.

By early 2012, the unemployment rate in Spain reached 23 per cent - the highest in Europe. Although Greece has experienced a sharper increase in unemployment due to the economic and financial constraints in the country, the unemployment rate was smaller than in Spain - about 20 per cent by the end of 2011.

Germany and Poland - two large Central European economies - have experienced stable unemployment rates: 10 per cent in Poland and a graduate fall from 8 to 6 per cent in Germany. Norway is an example of an economy that has not been influenced much by the crisis. Unemployment there has stayed at 3-4 per cent over the two years.

Source: UNECE Statistical database www.unece.org/stats/data

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Top 10 countries with consumer price index growth rate, year 2011

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Longer working life and shrinking home-making leads to increase in women’s economic activity

In most UNECE countries, the economic activity rate of working-age women is constantly growing. In Ireland, for example, this indicator increased from 46.1 per cent in 1995 to 62.5 per cent 2009. For the same period, the Netherlands experienced the growth in this field from 57.9 per cent to 73.3 per cent.

There are two major patterns that can be identified among the countries with the growth of women’s economic activity.

In the first pattern, some countries - such as Austria, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Israel, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland – saw the share of working women increase at the cost of the women who preferred to stay at home. In case of Spain, the economic activity rate of women increased by 11.4 per cent over the last decade whereas the share of women who look after the family or home has decreased by 8 per cent.

In the second pattern, in the countries such as Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, and the Russian Federation, the share of economically active women grew mostly because of decreasing number of retired women. It suggests that women in those countries choose to work longer and postpone their retirement.

The pension reforms and, more precisely, the increase of retirement age influence this trade significantly. In case of Latvia, for example, the increase of economic activity rate by 8.5 per cent is accompanied by the decrease of retirees by the same proportion.

The effect of other reasons in the two patterns is often much smaller.

Change in economic activity and reasons for inactivity among women aged 15-64

Note: The economically active population includes all the persons who are working or seeking a job.

Source: UNECE Statistical Database.

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Role of imports in domestic economy of EECCA countries

The importance of import for the domestic demand has developed differently in the countries of East Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) over the last five years. It remained stable in Armenia, Georgia, Russia and Ukraine, while in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Tajikistan, the importance of import for domestic demand dropped.

Kyrgyzstan was the only country that experienced an increase in import compared to domestic demand over the last five years.

Import of goods and services plays an important role for the economies of EECCA countries. The importance can be measured by the ratio of import to domestic final demand (final consumption expenditure plus gross capital formation). This indicator shows the share of domestic final demand met by import.

For the first group of countries, the shares of import and domestic final demand to GDP showed similar growth over the five-year period. This resulted in a stable ratio of import to domestic final demand.

The second group of countries all experienced growth in domestic final demand in share of GDP and decrease in import's share of GDP. This led to a decrease in the ratio of import to domestic final demand. The data reflects a growing importance of the domestic production for these countries. For Kyrgyzstan, on the other hand, the role of domestic production for the economy fell in this period.

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UNECE Statistical Database Presents Globalization Indicators

UNECE Statistical Database now contains indicators that give a snapshot of economic globalization in the countries of the region. The indicators are available for every year dating back to 1990. Traditional economic statistics does not reflect fully the importance and consequences of the continuing economic globalization. As a result, many users of statistics expressed their need of additional indicators that describe different aspects of economic globalization. Most of the indicators are based on the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's definitions of reference globalization indicators. The ones in the UNECE Database focus on international trade and foreign direct investments. Those indicators are derived from official national statistics already available in the economic database and will be regularly updated.

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Users Pleased with Changes to UNECE Statistical Database

The UNECE Statistical Database has been significantly enhanced in content and functionality in recent months – resulting in positive feedback from users.

The database contains data from three UNECE Divisions, covering a growing range of topics including economic, social, transport and forestry statistics. The most recent additions are data on progress towards the Millennium Development Goals and on international migration.

New data on economic globalisation will be added in 2012, and proposals to add energy and environmental indicators are being considered. The volume of available data has increased three-fold over the last five years, whilst increased automation of data work has reduced the human resources required by nearly 50% over the same period.

New functionality, introduced during 2011 includes the possibility to view key indicators in a simple graphic form, showing comparisons between countries and changes over time. Interactive links to definitions of statistical concepts have been added to help users to better understand the data. The database interface has been simplified where possible, and more data are now available in Russian.

However, the real value of the UNECE statistical database is demonstrated by its use. Data downloads have increased by around 30% over the last year, with particularly strong growth in interest for key indicators, data on wages and statistics on road traffic accidents.

The annual database user survey for 2011 showed that over 80% of users think that the quality of our data is good or excellent,  compared with 76% in 2010. This result compares very favourably with similar surveys for other international organisations.

Users were particularly happy with the improvements in explaining the statistical concepts used, but raised concerns about timeliness. As a result, improving the availability of data for the latest periods is a key priority in the UNECE data quality improvement programme for 2012.

To see the changes for yourself, please visit http://w3.unece.org/pxweb. Feedback on any aspect of the database is always welcome, and should be sent to [email protected].