Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

F2 Population

European Commission, Eurostat
L-2920 Luxembourg

Total usually resident population reported by the EU Member States for specific Union purposes, in particular for the qualified majority voting in the Council (Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013, Article 4).

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Total usually resident population at country level

Data referring to population on 31 December of the reference year are transmitted by the Member States to Eurostat under the Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 on European demographic statistics. Articles 4 and 5 of this Regulation oblige the Member States to transmit their total population figures based on the "usual residence" concept, to be used for the purposes of qualified majority voting in the Council. The data are conventionally published by Eurostat as 1 January of the following year (reference year + 1).

Number of persons

The total usually resident population at country level.

According to Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 on European demographic statistics, article 2(c) and 2(d), ‘Usual residence’ means the place where a person normally spends the daily period of rest, regardless of temporary absences for purposes of recreation, holidays, visits to friends and relatives, business, medical treatment or religious pilgrimage. The following persons alone shall be considered to be usual residents of a specific geographical area:

1. those who have lived in their place of usual residence for a continuous period of at least 12 months before the reference time; or
2. those who arrived in their place of usual residence during the 12 months before the reference time with the intention of staying there for at least one year.

According to Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 on European demographic statistics, article 4(2), 'Member States may estimate the total population referred to in paragraph 1 (i.e., total population at national level for the purpose of the Qualified Majority Voting) from the legally resident or registered population using scientifically-based, well-documented, and publicly available statistical estimation methods'.

Data are available at country level, for Member States only.

The total usually resident population is available in the context of the Regulation (EU) 1260/2013 starting with the reference date 31 December 2013 (published by Eurostat as 1 January 2014).

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Number of persons

The reference date for population data is the end of the reference period (midnight of 31 December). This is conventionally published by Eurostat as 1 of January the following year.

Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 November 2013 on European demographic statistics

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The population figures collected from the EU Member States under the Article 4 of the Regulation (EU) 1260/2013 are published in Eurostat's online database at the beginning of October of each year.

These figures will be used during the following year for weighting by qualified majority of the votes in the Council of the European Union.

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Annual.

Once published, figures are not revised.

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The population figures collected from the EU Member States under the Article 4 of the Regulation (EU) 1260/2013 are published in Eurostat's online database in the table "Usually resident population on 1 January (demo_urespop)".

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Article 4(2) of the of Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 on the Total population for specific Union purposes specifies that: 'Member States may estimate the total population referred to in paragraph 1 (i.e., total population at national level for the purpose of the Qualified Majority Voting) from the legally resident or registered population using scientifically-based, well-documented, and publicly available statistical estimation methods'.

Information on how each Member State estimate the usually resident population can be found in the national metadata files.

Information on quality management can be found in the national metadata files.

According to Article 9(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013, Member States have to ensure the quality of the data transmitted according to the criteria referred to in Article 12(1) of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009. They shall also provide to Eurostat reference metadata information on the data sources, definitions and estimation methods used to calculate their figures.

More information can be found in the national metadata files.

Article 11 of Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 states that the Commission shall submit reports on its implementation, to the European Parliament and the Council as follows:

• first report by 31 December 2018, see Report on the implementation of Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 on European demographic statistics;
• second report by 31 December 2023, see REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the implementation of Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European demographic statistics.

These reports are to evaluate quality of data transmitted by Member States and EFTA countries under Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 and data collection methods used and, if appropriate, should be accompanied by proposals designed for future improvement of legal framework for population and vital events statistics under this Regulation.

A paragraph in the first report from 2018 describes the total population transmitted by Member States for specific Union purposes.

The usually resident population figures collected from the EU Member States under the Article 4 of the Regulation (EU) 1260/2013 are primarily used for the purposes of the Qualified Majority Voting in the Council of the EU.

According to the Council's Rules of Procedure the population figures to be used are amended every year and published in a Council Decision.

For example, see Council Decision (EU, Euratom) 2023/2827 of 12 December 2023 amending the Council’s Rules of Procedure.

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The total population figures are available for all EU Member States.

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For the purposes of qualified majority voting in the Council, Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat) with data on the total population at national level at the reference time within eight months of the end of the reference year.

The actual delivery date (31 August of each year) is established by the Regulation (EU) 1260/2013.

The definition of 'usual residence' for population ensures geographical comparability.

The total usually resident population is available in the context of the Regulation (EU) 1260/2013 starting with the reference date 31 December 2013 (published by Eurostat as 1 January 2014).

In case of a change of methodology, the flag "b" for "break in time series" is used.

The total usual residence population transmitted by the National Statistical Offices to Eurostat in the framework of the Usual Residence Population data collection may differ from those available in National Accounts, Labour Force Survey or in the survey on Income and Living Conditions. The difference is given by the population coverage (see metadata specific to each domain).

The total usual residence population  transmitted by the national statistical offices to Eurostat in the framework of the Usual Residence Population data collection may differ from those available in the rest of the Population and demography domain. The difference is given by the population definition (see metadata specific to each domain).

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To further specify the general Eurostat revision policy, the following revision policy has been established for demographic and migration statistics (as available in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 205/2014, art 5):

1. Member States shall inform the Eurostat of any planned revision of the data already supplied no later than one week before the release of the revised data in the Member State concerned.

2. Member States shall provide any revised data to the Eurostat no later than one week after the release of these data.

3. Member States shall ensure that any revised data provided to the Eurostat is consistent with the whole set of data already provided.

For more information please see also in the Eurostat dedicated section on demography, population stocks and balance.

Once data are disseminated for a time period, they are never corrected or otherwise revised for that time period.

National Statistical Offices

Annual

An annual data collection is carried on by Eurostat from the national statistical offices for collecting the population under Article 4 of the Regulation (EU) 1260/2013.

Checks are carried out on the data and metadata transmitted by the Member States to Eurostat.

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