Council and Parliament secure deal to harmonise collection of population statistics

The Council has reached an agreement with the European Parliament on new rules to ensure that statistics collected on population and housing at EU level are complete, coherent and comparable.

The aim of the new legal framework is to improve the overall quality of population and housing statistics by introducing a harmonised definition of the term 'population', providing for easier access to data sources, and streamlining and improving statistical production in this regard.

Detailed, coherent and comparable data across the EU

European statistics on population and housing are necessary for the design, implementation and evaluation of EU policies, including economic and social planning, cohesion policy, and the green and digital transitions. They are also essential for administrative purposes and determining qualified majority voting in the Council. For this purpose, member states currently provide Eurostat with data on the total populations at national level.

However, according to an evaluation carried out by the European Commission, under the current legal framework, member states have been using different definitions of the population, which made it difficult to compare collected data.

Moreover, in order to develop effective EU policies across several sectors, it is necessary to collect more detailed and timely statistics on population and housing, including socio-economic characteristics, migration or building characteristics.

The new rules agreed on today establish a common legal framework for the development of European statistics on population and housing in order to:

• ensure complete, coherent and comparable statistics provided in a timely manner
• improve quality of population data, acknowledging the challenges faced by member states
• be flexible enough to adapt to changing policy needs and to the use of new sources
• avoid unnecessary burden on national statistical authorities through gradual implementation of changes

Background

The Commission submitted its proposal on 20 January 2023, in order to address the need for timelier, more frequent and more detailed European statistics on population and housing, particularly in view of the evolving demographic situation and recent migration trends, climate change and the digital transformation.

The Council agreed its negotiating mandate on 21 June 2023 and revised it on 6 March 2024. Negotiations with the European Parliament began on 8 November 2023 and ended with the provisional agreement reached today.

Next steps

The agreement reached today is provisional and additional technical work will take place in order to finalise the text of the deal. It will then be confirmed by the Council and the Parliament before it can be formally adopted by both institutions following legal-linguistic revision.