Circular material use rate
- Eurostat dataset
- cei_srm030
- Reference period
- 2024
- Unit of measure
- % of material input
Key estimates
- EU aggregate (2024): 12.2 % of material input.
- Highest value: Netherlands at 32.7 % of material input; lowest: Romania at 1.30 % of material input.
- Cross-country mean 10.9 % of material input, standard deviation 7.49, coefficient of variation 68.6% across 27 reporting countries.
- Aggregate change 2013→2024: +29.1% on a constant panel of 27 countries.
What fraction of European material demand is met by recycled inputs? Eurostat dataset cei_srm030 reports circular material use rate for 27 reporting countries, with 2024 as the most recent period carrying broad coverage. The European aggregate stands at 12.2 % of material input. The circular material use rate is the closest available approximation of true material loop closure.
The five highest values in 2024 are recorded by Netherlands (32.7), Belgium (22.7), Italy (21.6), Estonia (20.5), Malta (18.6), all expressed in % of material input. At the opposite end of the distribution sit Romania (1.30), Ireland (2.00), Finland (2.00), Portugal (3.00), Lithuania (4.20). The ratio between the highest and the lowest observation is 25.15, while the median country reports 9.40 % of material input against a mean of 10.9 % of material input.
Dispersion is wide: the standard deviation across countries is 7.49 % of material input, giving a coefficient of variation of 68.6%. The mean sits above the median, which indicates that the distribution is pulled by the upper tail rather than being symmetric. Any European average quoted for this indicator therefore describes a synthetic country that few Member States resemble.
Between 2013 and 2024 the summed value across the 27 countries reporting in both periods moved by +29.1%. The largest relative increases are observed in Greece (+205.9%), Malta (+195.2%), Slovakia (+171.1%); the largest decreases, or the smallest increases, in Finland (-76.5%), Romania (-48.0%), Poland (-36.9%). Because the panel is held constant, this change is not an artefact of countries entering or leaving the sample.
Higher values are the policy-preferred direction for this indicator, so the countries listed at the bottom of the distribution mark the effective size of the European gap: closing it to the level of the fifth-ranked country would require the lowest performer to move by 17.3 % of material input. The estimates above are reproducible: the dataset identifier, filter dimensions and reference period are stated in the methodological note, and the series can be re-downloaded from the Eurostat dissemination API at any time.
Methodological note
Source: Eurostat, dataset cei_srm030 ('Circular material use rate'), extracted from the Eurostat dissemination API (JSON-stat 2.0) on the dataset update of 2025-11-24. Filter dimensions: unit=PC. Unit of measure: % of material input. Reference period: 2024. Geographic perimeter: national reporting units with two-character geo codes (27 countries with a non-missing observation); European and euro-area aggregates are excluded from the cross-country statistics and reported separately. Descriptive statistics (mean, median, population standard deviation, coefficient of variation) are computed unweighted over reporting countries. Change over time is computed on a constant panel: only countries with a non-missing observation in both the base and the reference period enter the calculation, which removes composition effects but may differ from the officially published aggregate. No imputation, seasonal adjustment or re-scaling has been applied beyond what Eurostat performs at source. Flagged provisional and estimated observations are retained as published.
Source data
The underlying series can be inspected and re-downloaded from the Eurostat data browser.