Statistics in the European Union are collected by Eurostat (European statistics body).

Area and population

As of 1 January 2006, the population of the EU was about 493 million people, although in 2020 the EU lost over 10% of its population as a result of the UK leaving the bloc.^[1] Many countries are expected to experience a decline in population over the coming decades,^[2] though this could be offset with new countries planning to join the EU within the next 20 years. The most populous member state is Germany, with an estimated 80.4 million people. France and Ireland have the highest birth-rates.^[3] The most densely populated country is the island of Malta, which is also the smallest, while the largest in area is France. The least densely populated country is Finland.

Population figures in the table below are from 2006 or 2007 estimates. The highest and lowest figures in each column have been marked in bold.

Member State	Population in millions	Population  % of EU	Area km2	Area % of EU	Pop. density People/km2
European Union	494.8	100%	4,422,773	100%	112
Austria	8.3	1.7%	83,858	1.9%	99
Belgium	10.5	2.1%	30,510	0.7%	344
Bulgaria	7.7	1.6%	110,912	2.5%	70
Croatia	4.3	0.9%	56,594	1.3%	75.8
Cyprus	0.8	0.2%	9,250	0.2%	84
Czech Republic	10.3	2.1%	78,866	1.8%	131
Denmark	5.4	1.1%	43,094	1.0%	126
Estonia	1.3	0.3%	45,226	1.0%	29
Finland	5.3	1.1%	337,030	7.6%	16
France[4]	65.03	13.%	643,548	14.6%	111
Germany	80.4	16.6%	357,021	8.1%	225
Greece	11.1	2.2%	131,940	3.0%	84
Hungary	10.1	2.0%	93,030	2.1%	108
Ireland	4.6	0.9%	70,280	1.6%	60
Italy	58.8	11.9%	301,320	6.8%	195
Latvia	2.3	0.5%	64,589	1.5%	35
Lithuania	3.4	0.7%	65,200	1.5%	45
Luxembourg	0.5	0.1%	2,586	0.1%	181
Malta	0.5	0.1%	316	0.0007%	1,261
Netherlands	17	3.3%	41,526	0.9%	394
Poland	38.1	7.7%	312,685	7.1%	122
Portugal	10.6	2.1%	92,931	2.1%	114
Romania	21.6	4.4%	238,391	5.4%	91
Spain	44.7	9.0%	504,782	11.4%	87
Slovakia	5.4	1.1%	48,845	1.1%	111
Slovenia	2.0	0.4%	20,253	0.5%	99
Sweden	10	1.8%	449,964	10.2%	20

Economy

For statistics relating to economy, please see Economy of the European Union.

EU budget

The primary resource for funding the European Union is the contributions sought from member states. Each member state contributes to the EU budget, and receives funding back from the EU, depending on the relative wealth of the states, i.e. their ability to pay.

The table below shows the contributions as a percentage of the total budget. This takes into account the special considerations given to the United Kingdom to reduce its contribution through a rebate. Expenditure in Luxembourg, Belgium and France include items for the EU administrative centres in each of those countries.

Member State	Total contribution in Euro	Total contribution as % of total EU budget	Total expenditure year 2006 in Euro	Total expenditure as % of total EU budget	Net contribution in Euro	Net contribution in Euro per capita	Total contribution in Euro per capita
European Union	105,259,468,772	100.00%	106,575,500,000	100.00%	-1,316,031,228	-3	213
Germany	22,218,438,941	21.11%	12,242,400,000	11.49%	9,976,038,941	124	276
France	17,303,107,859	16.44%	13,496,200,000	12.66%	3,806,907,859	59	266
Italy	14,359,479,157	13.64%	10,922,300,000	10.25%	3,437,179,157	58	244
United Kingdom	13,739,900,046	13.05%	8,294,200,000	7.78%	5,445,700,046	90	226
Spain	8,957,286,488	8.51%	12,883,000,000	12.09%	-3,925,713,512	-88	200
Netherlands	5,552,933,781	5.28%	2,190,400,000	2.06%	3,362,533,781	198	327
Belgium	4,035,286,807	3.83%	5,625,100,000	5.28%	-1,589,813,193	-151	384
Sweden	2,832,862,800	2.69%	1,573,400,000	1.48%	1,259,462,800	126	283
Austria	2,308,432,030	2.19%	1,830,100,000	1.72%	478,332,030	58	278
Denmark	2,130,860,212	2.02%	1,501,900,000	1.41%	628,960,212	116	395
Poland	2,099,087,114	1.99%	5,305,600,000	4.98%	-3,206,512,886	-84	55
Greece	1,882,611,879	1.79%	6,833,700,000	6.41%	-4,951,088,121	-446	170
Finland	1,544,832,284	1.47%	1,280,400,000	1.20%	264,432,284	50	291
Portugal	1,443,049,602	1.37%	3,634,800,000	3.41%	-2,191,750,398	-207	136
Ireland	1,341,281,313	1.27%	2,461,800,000	2.31%	-1,120,518,687	-244	292
Hungary	1,003,119,411	0.95%	1,842,200,000	1.73%	-839,080,589	-83	99
Czech Republic	932,392,859	0.89%	1,330,000,000	1.25%	-397,607,141	-39	91
Slovakia	393,148,777	0.37%	696,200,000	0.65%	-303,051,223	-56	73
Slovenia	299,993,572	0.29%	406,000,000	0.38%	-106,006,428	-53	150
Luxembourg	241,439,011	0.23%	1,194,800,000	1.12%	-953,360,989	-1,907	483
Lithuania	221,997,405	0.21%	799,800,000	0.75%	-577,802,595	-170	65
Cyprus	144,556,416	0.14%	239,600,000	0.22%	-95,043,584	-119	181
Latvia	115,205,431	0.11%	402,600,000	0.24%	-287,394,569	-125	50
Estonia	100,756,308	0.10%	300,000,000	0.28%	-199,243,692	-142	72
Malta	57,409,269	0.05%	157,000,000	0.14%	-99,590,731	-249	144
Bulgaria			360,600,000	0.34%	-360,600,000	-47
Romania			693,100,000	0.65%	-693,100,000	-32

Economic and governance-related rankings

There are many indices available on issues such as corruption, development, and freedom. The rankings below include all EU member states, EU candidates (with the exception of Turkey, cause their accession negotiations have stalled since 2016) and EFTA countries.

Freedom of the press

EU Rank Member State Global Rank 1  Norway 1 2  Finland 2 3  Denmark 3 4  Sweden 5 5  Netherlands 6 6  Switzerland 8 7  Portugal 10 8  Germany 11 9  Belgium 12 10  Ireland 13 11  Estonia 14 12  Iceland 15 13  Luxembourg 17 14  Austria 18 15  Latvia 22 16  Cyprus 27 17  Lithuania 28

EU Rank Member State Global Rank 18  Spain 29 19  Slovenia 32 20  Slovakia 33 21  France 34 22  Czech Republic 40 23  Italy 41 24  Romania 48 25  Croatia 59 26  Poland 62 27  Greece 65 28  Malta 81 29  Albania 85 30  Hungary 89 31  North Macedonia 92 32  Serbia 93 33  Montenegro 105 34  Bulgaria 111

Reporters sans frontières (Reporters Without Borders) conducts an annual survey on the freedom of the press and produces scores (not shown here) for each country, resulting in the Press Freedom Index. In 2019 and 2020, Finland was proclaimed as having the freest press in the European Union, and the second in the world behind Norway. Bulgaria was ranked as having the least free press in the European Union in 2019 and 2020.^[5]

Economic freedom

EU Rank Member State Global Rank 1  Switzerland 5 2  Ireland 6 3  Denmark 8 4  Estonia 10 5  Iceland 13 6  Netherlands 14 7  Lithuania 16 8  Luxembourg 19 9  Finland 20 10  Sweden 22 11  Czech Republic 23 12  Germany 27 13  Norway 28 14  Austria 29 15  Latvia 32 16  Bulgaria 36 17  Cyprus 37

EU Rank Member State Global Rank 18  Romania 38 19  North Macedonia 41 20  Malta 42 21  Poland 46 22  Belgium 48 23  Slovenia 52 24  Portugal 56 25  Albania 57 26  Spain 58 27  Slovakia 60 28  Hungary 62 29  France 64 30  Serbia 65 31  Italy 74 32  Croatia 84 33  Montenegro 91 34  Greece 100

The Index of Economic Freedom, published by The Wall Street Journal and The Heritage Foundation, uses 50 different variables to compile the survey, in areas such as trade policy and government intervention.^[6]

A similar index produced by the World Economic Forum is its Global Competitiveness Index.

Perception of corruption

Global Rank Country Score 1  Denmark 90 2  Finland 87 4  Norway 84 5  Sweden 83 7  Switzerland 82 8  Netherlands 80 9  Germany 79 10  Luxembourg 77 10  Ireland 77 14  Estonia 74 14  Iceland 74 18  Belgium 73 18  United Kingdom 73 21  France 72 22  Austria 71 33  Lithuania 62 33  Portugal 62 35  Spain 60 39  Latvia 59 41  Italy 56 41  Slovenia 56 41  Czech Republic 56

Global Rank Country Score 41  Georgia 56 45  Poland 55 49  Slovakia 53 51  Greece 52 51  Cyprus 52 54  Malta 51 57  Croatia 50 63  Romania 46 63  Armenia 46 65  Montenegro 45 72  Bulgaria 43 77  Hungary 42 84  Kosovo 41 85  North Macedonia 40 91  Moldova 39 91  Belarus 39 101  Serbia 36 101  Albania 36 101  Turkey 36 110  Bosnia and Herzegovina 34 116  Ukraine 33 137  Russia 28

Transparency International is an international NGO publishing an annual Global Corruption Report indicating the perception of corruption around the world. The rankings of the table refer to the Corruption Perceptions Index 2022 [1]. A high ranking means low corruption.

Human development

Rank Country Global Rank 1  Norway 1 2  Ireland 2 3  Switzerland 2 4  Iceland 4 5  Germany 6 6  Sweden 7 7  Netherlands 8 8  Denmark 10 9  Finland 11 10  United Kingdom 13 11  Belgium 14 12  Austria 18 13  Slovenia 22 14  Luxembourg 23 15  Spain 25 16  France 26 17  Czech Republic 27 18  Malta 28 19  Estonia 29 20  Italy 29 21  Greece 32 22  Cyprus 33

Rank Country Global Rank 23  Lithuania 34 24  Poland 35 25  Latvia 37 26  Portugal 38 27  Slovakia 39 28  Hungary 40 29  Croatia 43 30  Montenegro 48 31  Romania 49 32  Russia 52 33  Belarus 53 34  Turkey 54 35  Bulgaria 56 36  Georgia 61 37  Serbia 64 38  Albania 69 39  Bosnia and Herzegovina 73 40  Ukraine 74 41  Armenia 81 42  North Macedonia 82 43  Azerbaijan 88 44  Moldova 90

The Human Development Index is a measure produced by the United Nations which covers three aspects of human development:

• poverty (GDP per capita)
• education (mean years of schooling and expected years of schooling)
• health (life expectancy)

The rankings of the table refer to the UNDP Human Development Report 2019 (2018 data). The UN lists all EU member states as countries with very high human development.

Democracy Index

Global Rank Country Score 1  Norway 9.81 3  Iceland 9.52 4  Sweden 9.39 5  Finland 9.29 6  Denmark 9.28 7  Switzerland 9.14 8  Ireland 9.13 9  Netherlands 9.00 10  Luxembourg 8.81 13  Germany 8.80 14  United Kingdom 8.28 20  Austria 8.20 22  France 8.07 22  Spain 8.07 25  Greece 7.97 25  Czech Republic 7.97 27  Estonia 7.96 28  Portugal 7.95 31  Slovenia 7.75 33  Malta 7.70 34  Italy 7.69 36  Belgium 7.64

Global Rank Country Score 37  Cyprus 7.38 38  Latvia 7.37 39  Lithuania 7.36 43  Slovakia 7.07 46  Poland 7.04 56  Hungary 6.64 57  Bulgaria 6.53 59  Croatia 6.50 61  Romania 6.45 61  Montenegro 6.45 64  Albania 6.41 68  Serbia 6.33 69  Moldova 6.23 72  North Macedonia 6.10 82  Armenia 5.63 87  Ukraine 5.42 90  Georgia 5.20 97  Bosnia and Herzegovina 5.00 103  Turkey 4.35 134  Azerbaijan 2.87 146  Russia 2.28 153  Belarus 1.99

The Democracy Index is an index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the research division of the Economist Group, a UK-based private company which publishes the weekly newspaper The Economist.