The independent observatory for European data research
Our story
Silver Data Lab was founded in 2024 around a simple observation: Europe measures itself continuously, and publishes the results — yet most of the public conversation about those numbers happens a long way from the tables that contain them.
The observatory exists to close that distance. Its output is the study: a reading of one official dataset that names its source, documents how the figures were obtained, and says plainly what they can and cannot show. Nothing we publish asks to be taken on trust — every figure can be followed back to the table it came from.
The research programme now spans twenty-five statistical domains, following the structure of the official European statistics it draws on. Eurostat is the principal source; where a subject is measured elsewhere — monetary policy by the European Central Bank, for instance — the study names that body and archives its extraction on the same terms.
How we work
Official sources
Every figure we publish traces to a named dataset from an official European statistical source, linked from the study that uses it.
Declared extractions
Each study records the dataset code, the filters applied and the extraction date, and the extracted data is archived so any figure can be rechecked.
Derived values labelled
Anything not published directly by the source is recomputed from it and marked as derived on the page, with the calculation stated.
Limitations stated
Series breaks, coverage gaps and definitional differences are set out in the study itself, because a number stripped of its limits is easy to misread.