Glossary

The terms used in our studies

How this site works

Extraction: The file downloaded from a statistical office's API on a stated date, with stated filters. Every figure on this site comes from an archived extraction, so the same query can be run again and checked — a figure whose extraction is not archived cannot be published here.
Dataset code: The identifier a statistical office gives a table — lfsi_emp_a, sdg_13_10 — which fixes exactly which series a study drew from. Every study names its codes, because a wrong code means a different table wearing a similar name.
Filters: The dimension values an extraction was requested with: age band, sex, citizenship, unit. Two extractions from the same dataset with different filters are different figures, so studies declare theirs — a missing filter falls back to the source's default view, which is how wrong numbers happen.
Derived value: A figure computed by Silver Data Lab from published source values rather than published directly by the source — a ratio between two regions, a gap between two rates. Wherever a derived value appears in a study, it is labelled as derived.
Aggregate: A figure for a group of countries as a whole — the EU average, or the EU sum. Not every dataset publishes one; where the source has none, a ranking here renders without a reference row rather than showing a number the source never stated.
Series break: A point where a statistical series changes definition or method, so values before and after it are not fully comparable. Studies say so wherever a series spans one; the clearest example in this corpus is the new EU labour force survey framework introduced on 1 January 2021.See it used: Regional Employment Rates in the EU
Reference period: The period the data describe, as distinct from the day they were published or extracted. Regional accounts can arrive years after their reference period, which is why a study published this year can legitimately describe an earlier one.

Units and standardisation

Purchasing Power Standard (PPS): An artificial common currency that corrects for price-level differences between countries: one PPS buys roughly the same basket of goods and services everywhere. Figures in PPS compare what people can actually afford, where figures in euro compare price tags.See it used: Regional GDP in the EU
Percentage point: The unit of the difference between two percentages. A rate that moves from 10% to 12% rises by two percentage points — not by two per cent, which would mean 10% growing to 10.2%. Studies on this site keep the two rigorously apart.
Median: The value that splits a ranked population in half. Income statistics prefer it to the mean, because a handful of very high incomes drags the mean upwards while leaving the median where most people actually are.
Equivalised income: Household income adjusted for household size and composition, so that a single person and a family of four can be compared. Each additional member counts by a weight rather than as one, because people who share a home share its costs.
Index (base = 100): A series rescaled so that one period equals 100, showing change relative to that base rather than levels. An index at 118 says the thing rose 18% since the base period; it says nothing about what the thing costs.

Statistical geography

NUTS: The EU's statistical geography — Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics — which divides each country into three levels of regions. Most regional figures on this site are at NUTS 2, the level EU regional policy is planned at. Codes retire as borders are redrawn, which is why old codes can appear with empty values.
EU-27: The European Union of 27 Member States, the aggregate written EU or EU-27 in tables. Series reaching back far enough may carry aggregates for earlier compositions of the Union, which are not the same number.
Euro area: The Member States whose currency is the euro. Smaller than the EU, so an EU average and a euro-area average of the same indicator are two different figures — studies say which one they use.
Region of usual residence: Where a person lives, which is where household surveys count them — as opposed to where they work. Regional employment rates follow residence, so a region's rate describes its residents' jobs wherever those jobs are.
Capital-city paradox: The pattern by which capital regions post extreme figures — very high GDP per head, depressed values in the commuter belt around them — partly because production is counted where people work while population is counted where they live. A measurement artefact, to be kept separate from the real phenomena underneath it.See it used: Regional GDP in the EU

Labour market

Employment rate: The share of people in employment within an age band, out of the total population of that band — not out of the labour force. The EU's headline band is 20 to 64; Eurostat's default view is 15 to 64, and the two differ by several points, which is why every study here states its band.See it used: Regional Employment Rates in the EU
Labour force: The employed and the unemployed together: everyone either working or actively looking and available to start. People doing neither — students, carers, the retired, the discouraged — are inactive: outside the labour force, not unemployed.
Unemployment rate: The unemployed as a share of the labour force — not of the population. Unemployed means without work, available, and actively searching, by the international ILO definition; giving up the search moves a person to inactivity and out of the rate.
EU-LFS: The EU Labour Force Survey: the harmonised household survey behind employment and unemployment statistics in every Member State. Its definitions — who counts as employed, unemployed, inactive — are what make national figures comparable.
NEET: A young person neither in employment nor in education or training. The NEET rate divides them by the population of the same age, and captures an exclusion the unemployment rate alone cannot see.See it used: The NEET Rate in the EU
Part-time employment: Employment for fewer hours than full time, as respondents themselves classify it — the EU-LFS sets no single hours threshold. A high part-time share can mean flexibility, rationed hours, or both, which is why it reads best next to underemployment.See it used: Part-Time Work in the EU
Long-term unemployment: Unemployment lasting twelve months or more, usually shown as a share of the labour force. It moves more slowly than the headline rate and lingers after recoveries, which is why the two are worth reading together.
Gender employment gap: The difference between men's and women's employment rates, in percentage points. A gap can narrow because women gain jobs or because men lose them — the direction of the arithmetic matters when reading it.See it used: The Gender Employment Gap in the EU
Labour productivity: Output per unit of labour, most comparably per hour worked. Per-person productivity mixes in how many hours people work, so two countries with identical hourly productivity can look different merely because one works longer.

Income and living conditions

EU-SILC: EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions: the harmonised survey behind poverty, deprivation and housing statistics. Its income reference period is usually the year before the survey, so a wave dated one year describes the incomes of the previous one.
At-risk-of-poverty rate: The share of people whose equivalised disposable income falls below 60% of the national median. A relative threshold: it moves with the median, so it measures distance from the middle of one's own country, not a fixed basket of needs.
AROPE: At Risk Of Poverty or social Exclusion: the EU's headline indicator combining three conditions — income poverty, severe material and social deprivation, and very low household work intensity. A person meeting any of the three counts once.
Severe material and social deprivation: Being unable to afford a defined set of everyday items and activities — keeping the home adequately warm, facing an unexpected expense, a week's holiday. Unlike income poverty it is an absolute measure: the list is the same in every country.See it used: Material Deprivation in the EU
Income quintile share ratio (S80/S20): The total income of the richest fifth of the population divided by that of the poorest fifth. A compact inequality measure that reads directly: a ratio of five means the top fifth earns five times the bottom fifth.
Overcrowding rate: The share of people living in a dwelling with too few rooms for the household's size and composition, by a fixed rooms-per-member definition. A measure of space, not of quality: a large dilapidated home is not overcrowded.

Prices and money

HICP: The Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices: the inflation measure built the same way in every Member State, and the one the ECB's target refers to. National consumer price indices can differ from it in coverage — notably on owner-occupied housing.
ECB key interest rates: The three rates the European Central Bank sets: the deposit facility rate, the main refinancing operations rate, and the marginal lending facility rate. When banks hold abundant liquidity, the deposit facility rate is the one that steers money markets.See it used: Business Lending Rates in the Euro Area
House price index: An index of transaction prices for dwellings bought by households, new and existing. It tracks pure price change, quality-adjusted where possible — not the cost of owning, which also moves with interest rates.See it used: House Prices in the EU

National accounts and macro

GDP: Gross Domestic Product: the value of everything produced within a territory in a period. A measure of production, not of residents' income — the distinction matters wherever multinationals book output in one country and send the income elsewhere.
GNI: Gross National Income: GDP plus the incomes residents earn abroad, minus the incomes non-residents earn here. Where foreign-owned companies book much of the output, GNI describes what actually stays in the country.
Current account: The balance of a country's trade in goods and services, plus cross-border incomes and transfers. A surplus means the country as a whole lends to the rest of the world; a deficit means it borrows.
Net international investment position (NIIP): What a country's residents own abroad minus what foreigners own in the country — the stock that years of current-account balances accumulate into. It is the indicator behind the sentence “this country owes the world”.
Government deficit and debt (Maastricht): The general-government balance and gross debt as defined for EU fiscal surveillance — the definitions behind the 3% and 60% of GDP reference values. General government includes regions, municipalities and social security, not just the central state.

Environment and energy

CO2 equivalent: The common unit for greenhouse gases: each gas is converted to the amount of CO2 with the same warming effect over a century, so that methane, nitrous oxide and CO2 can be summed into one figure.See it used: How EU Emissions Are Measured
LULUCF: Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry: the accounting sector for the carbon that land absorbs or releases. Including it turns gross emissions into net emissions — and can flip a country's trend, because forests can stop absorbing.See it used: Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the EU
Renewables share: The share of energy consumption met from renewable sources, measured on gross final energy consumption — not on electricity alone. A country can have green electricity and a modest renewables share, because heating and transport count too.
Energy import dependence: The share of a country's energy needs met by net imports. It measures exposure, not consumption: a country can use little energy and still depend almost entirely on others for it.

Demography, health and education

Life expectancy at birth: The years a newborn would live if today's death rates at every age applied for their whole life. A summary of present mortality, not a forecast — it moves when mortality moves.See it used: Regional Life Expectancy in the EU
Healthy life years: The part of life expectancy expected to be lived without activity limitation, based on self-reported health. Two countries can share the same life expectancy and differ widely in how much of it is healthy.See it used: Healthy Life Years in the EU
Total fertility rate: The number of children a woman would have if today's age-specific birth rates applied across her lifetime. The replacement level in low-mortality countries is about 2.1 — a definitional benchmark, not a target.
Net migration: Immigration minus emigration over a period. Together with natural change — births minus deaths — it accounts for all population change, and the two components can pull in opposite directions.
ISCED: The International Standard Classification of Education: the scale that makes qualifications comparable across countries, from level 0 to 8, with tertiary education meaning levels 5 to 8. When a study says graduates, ISCED is what draws the line.