Documentation: | European Statistics 2012 |
Document: | Eurostat: Technical Documentation |
citation: | Social Explorer; Eurostat: Technical Documentation |
Still, while some basic definitions and the programme of the statistical tables to be transmitted to Eurostat have been fixed in the Regulations, the production of these data in the EU and in the neighbouring countries is characterised by disparate definitions and methodologies.
This documentation is an important source of information for users interested in gaining a deeper understanding of the peculiarities of the national production of official demographic statistics, and of their international comparability.
Eurostat continues to cooperate with its partners in the European Statistical System to harmonise the production of statistics, particularly in this area, where current trends have important implications for European societies.
The most common reference date for counting population is 1 January, followed by 31 December. The difference between these two dates is actually nil2 at national level: the population is usually the same on1 January of calendar year t as on 31 December of calendar year t-1. IE and UK use mid-April and 30 June respectively as reference dates. Also BA uses the mid-year reference date. CZ, ME and RS use all three reference dates (1 January,31 December and mid-year).
In order to measure the population, one has to define it. Four main definitions are used,3 each based on different principles determining whether or not a given individual is included. In general, the principles used reflect national data needs; they are as follows:
1. de jure population - this is based on a persons legal right to settle in the country; it therefore covers all persons who, on a given date, either have citizenship orhave been granted a residence permitor visa;
2. de facto population - all people present in the country at the time of the counting regardless of whetherthey have residence;
3. registered population - all persons listed in one or more registers kept by the national authorities on the reference date; and
4. usually residentpopulation - persons who4:
The definition recommended by the Conference of EuropeanStatisticians (CES)6 and incorporated in the EUs population and housing census Regulationis7 based on place of usual residence. Usually resident population is the most widespread definition: 34 of the 44 countries surveyed reported using it, of which 23 use it in isolation, four (FR, RO8, FI and CH) use it in combination with the concept of legal population, four (DE, ES, IT, XK) refer to it together with registered population and three (BE, PL9 and NO) use three concepts. The second most commonly used definition is registered population: this was used in isolation by seven countries (CZ, DK, NL, AT,SE, MD and RO), in combination with legal populationby two (SK and TR) and together with de facto population by one (MD). The only country that uses legal populationonly is RS.
As regards the definition of usual residence, most countries (33 out of 44) apply a time criterion of 12 months or at least 12 months. Nine countries report having no time criteria. Of the 33 countries referring to the usually resident population and applying a 12-month or an at least 12 months criterion, 11 (IRL, HRV, CYP, HUN, PRT, UKR, MLT, LIE, MNE, SRB and ALB) mention intention to stay in the country for (atleast) this amount of time as a key criterion.
Persons who can make the declaration
There are, however, differences in registration procedures and how the requisite information is collected. Three groups of countries can be identified according to who is responsible for making the declaration; this could be:
In some countries, births can be declared by all three of the above (e.g. DE, AT11 and PT) or by two, in various combinations as follows:
In CZ, births must be reported to registry offices by the hospital in question or, if the baby is delivered elsewhere, by a parent or another person with knowledge of the birth. In LV, the legislation requires local authorities to declare the birth of a child where parents have not done so; if the birth takes place in a prison or shelter, the head of the institution has to declare it. In HR, SI, SE, CH and RU, the place of birth determines who is entitled to make the declaration: the general rule is that births in a hospital or healthcare institution must be declared by that institution, while births occurring elsewhere must be declared to the civil authorities by the family.
In PL, the physician fills in some of the information on the birth declaration (medical characteristics and some identi fication details). Civil registration officers add socio-demographic characteristics taken from registers and the parents' declaration.
In NL, the parents register the child with the municipal authority where the child is born, which draws up the birth declaration. The information in the declaration is then entered in the population registry system, from where additional information can be obtained (e.g. parents' personal identifiers, age, etc.)
Time limit for birth declaration
The time limit for declaring a birth varies widely, from one day in FI, HU, PT and SK to 90 days in CY, IE and LT. Outside the EU, the range varies from the same day (GE) to a year (AM).
Seven countries (BE, HR, MT, RO, SI, RS and BA) require declarations within 15 days.
Time limits can be based on calendar days and working days. Limits of one or two days usually refer to working days.
Data on the person who makes the declaration of birth are also registered. In 32 countries, this person's name is on the declaration, while his/her address is registered in 23.
Information on type of birth (spontaneous delivery, caesarean section, forceps delivery, etc.) and place of delivery is collected by seven countries (BE, EE, PL, AL, BY, BA and MD) and 26 (BE, BG, EE, IE, EL, ES, FR, HR, LU, MT, NL, PL, PT, RO, SI, SK, FI, UK, CH, RS, AL, BY, BA, XK, MD and GE) respectively. However, 18 countries (CZ, DK, DE, IT, CY, LV, LT, HU, AT, PT, SE, LI, NO, ME, TR, UA, AM, AZ and RU)12do not register any details about the place of delivery. The birth declaration in 19 countries includes duration of pregnancy (BE, BG, CZ, EE, IE, EL, HU, MT, AT, PL, RO SI, SK, CH, AL, BY, XK, MD and GE)13.
As mentioned above, birth declarations usually include data on parents as well: often their age, marital status, nationality and country of birth. All these details (for both parents) can be found on the declarations in 16 countries (BE, BG, DE, EE, EL, FR, LV, LU, MT, AT, PT, SK, LI, AL, BY, RU, AM, AZ and GE)14. RO collects all these details only for mothers. Information on the highest level of educational attainment is collected in 19 countries (BE, BG, CZ15 , EE, EL, HR, HU, AT, PL, RO, SK, ME, AL, BY, BA, XK, RU, AM and AZ), in RO and RU only for the mothers.
Collected children's and parents' characteristics as registered in birth declarations in the countries varies widely among countries. BG and EE register 27 of the 30 selected items in the table, while FI, HR and CY record fewer than 10. Outside the EU, BY is the country that registers the highest number of items (28) and MD and UA collect the least information (16 items).
However, in some countries, such as NL, DK, PT or CZ the information in the birth declaration is integrated in the register, from where a number of other information can or could be deduced or calculated. For example the mother's and father's age can be deduced from their date of birth etc., thus this information could be considered as available. In PT the collection of live births data for statistical purposes includes information from the birth declaration plus a set of other variables collected simultaneously in an electric questionnaire. In DK, medical information on births is taken from the central population register and supplemented with data from the birth register, retrieved by the NSI, while information on the mother's and father's background is compiled from administrative registers. Thus it can be said that the declaration of birth is a general indication of the information available for statistical offices, but in many cases it is not their only source of information.
All the countries are able to produce birth data by mother's age at the time of giving birth. Some (BE, CZ, DK, DE, EE, FR, CY, LV, LU, MT, NL, SI, SK, SE, LI, NO, CH, BA and GE) also produce data by mother’s age reached at the end of the year.
The majority of the countries surveyed follow the UN definition. Variations nevertheless exist:
In almost all countries, doctors or relatives can fill in the declaration of death, which must be made at a local or district civil registration office. In several countries the information in this document is complemented by other sources, such as a separate declaration made by a doctor or a statistical questionnaire collected simultaneously with the registration of death20.
Time limits for declaring a death are generally much shorter than those for declaring a birth. In the majority of the countries surveyed, deaths must be declared within zero to seven days. However:
16 countries do not register the age of the deceased, although in all these countries except FI, SE and NO this information could be derived from processing.
32 countries (FI, SE and NO included) register the personal identification number (PIN), whereby in a number of countries the declaration can be linked to other registered data.
The deceased's religion is registered in CY, DE (till 2013) and RS, while the highest level of educational attainment is registered in BE, BG, CZ21, EE, EL, HR, IT, HU, PL, PT, RO, SK, ME, TR, BY, BA, XK, MD, RU, AM and AZ. EE also records place of burial.
Citizenship and country of birth are registered by 32 and 30 countries, respectively, while marital status and cause of death are recorded by 37.
EE, EL, IT, CY, HU, RO, SK and BA register the most items on the death declaration, while FI and SE register only a very limited amount of information. However, several countries can link different sources in order to obtain more information. In NL for example the declaration of death is made up by the general practitioner (doctor) and sent to Statistics Netherlands through the municipal authority where the person has died. The information in the document is combined with the population registry information available at Statistics Netherlands. Secondary variables like: country of birth, date of birth, address, sex etc. are obtained from the register, not from the death declaration itself.
In almost all countries, doctors or relatives can fill in the declaration of death, which must be made at a local or district civil registration office. In several countries the information in this document is complemented by other sources, such as a separate declaration made by a doctor or a statistical questionnaire collected simultaneously with the registration of death22.
Time limits for declaring a death are generally much shorter than those for declaring a birth. In the majority of the countries surveyed, deaths must be declared within zero to seven days. However:
At the moment of surveying the countries (spring 2013) it was in eight (BE, ES, FR, DK, NL, NO, PT, SE23 that same-sex couples could marry officially. Such marriages are registered by the local registrar. Several other countries reserve the possibility of a legal union for same sex couples.
All countries except DK have marriage certificates/declarations. In general, the administration responsible for collecting the requisite information is the civil registry office. There are also some country-specific features, as follows:
Time limits in the EU for registering/declaring a marriage generally exist and range between one day (ES) and 56 days (IE). Elsewhere, the lowest limit is 10 days (TR) and the highest three months (AM). Some differences:
In 20 countries, 16-year-olds can get married with parental consent. In EE, LT, SI, AL, BY and XK the minimum age is 15 and in ES it is 14. In EL, men may be allowed to marry when they are 14, while for women the minimum age to receive court permission to marry is 12. In four countries (EL, LU, AT and PL) the legally required age to marry is not the same for men and women, with a difference of two years.
Other information included in the certificate varies widely among countries. For example, information on the spouses' highest level of educational attainment is included in 17 countries (CZ24, EE, EL, HR, IT, HU, PL, PT, RO, SK, ME, TR, BY, BA, XK, AM and AZ). Nine (DE, EL, HR, CY, LV, AT, CH, BA and XK) collect information on their religion. 12 countries (DE, EE, LU, HU, AT, PT, NO, CH, BY, XK, RU and AZ) register how many children each of them has (either together or from previous relationships)25.
In HU for example, surnames before and after marriage are included in the marriage declaration, but not recorded in the statistical database. Home address is available at settlement level and information on both spouses' country of birth will be available from 2014.
Information on both spouses' economic activity status is collected in HR, EL, HU, IT, PT and RO.
In the EU, the countries that collect the most information on the marriage declaration are EE, EL, LV and PT (13 items of the 15 selected); outside the EU, XK collects 14 items out of 15.
However, countries can link different sources in order to obtain more information. In NL the data on the marriage declaration document is integrated in the population registry system. This in turn allows for access to secondary variables like date of birth of the spouses, their address, citizenship etc. In PT, the collection of data on marriages for statistical purposes includes information from the civil registry (marriage registration) as well as a set of other variables collected simultaneously in an electronic questionnaire.
Case 1 represents the most common situation: two people who reside in the same country and get married in that country. In this case, the marriage certificate is drawn up in that country, the marriage is entered in the marriage statistics of that country and no other country is involved, either administratively or in terms of population statistics.
Looking at the other cases from the point of view of spouse 1 or his/her country of residence respectively:
Case 2 marriages are generally treated and counted no differently from other marriages. Marriages contracted abroad (i.e. Cases 3 and 4) are registered in 30 of the 44 countries surveyed. Of these, 11 (BE, HR, CY, FI, LI, MD, NL, RS, SK, SI and TR) register all marriages of their
residents that take place abroad, others apply various criteria to determine whether or not a marriage is registered:
Of the countries that register marriages taking place abroad, 20 include them in their national statistics, while BE, BG, EE, CY, PL, SI, ME, RS, TR and RU do not. In the remaining countries, there is no legal requirement to register such marriages.
Marriages of 'non-residents' are registered in 26 countries, but 14 (BG, CZ, EE, HR, LV, LT, NL, AT, PL, SI, SE, CH, RS and BA) do not include these in national statistics.
Most countries' national statistics include marriages of residents contracted abroad and exclude marriages by 'nonresidents'. However:
Among the 44 countries surveyed, legal/civil unions are allowed in 19 (BE, CZ, DK, DE, ES, FR, IE, EL, LU, HU, MT, NL, AT, SI, FI, SE, UK, NO and CH). In CZ, DE, HU, AT, FI, SI, UK and CH, registered/civil partnership status is reserved for same-sex couples and in EL for heterosexual couples. In the rest of the countries where legal/civil unions exist they are possible both for heterosexual and same-sex couples.
Legal/civil unions are usually registered by municipalities. In DE and MT, this is done by the registrar’s office, in SI by the ministry of interior and in NO by the tax administration.
In CZ, only registered same-sex partnerships are codified, but the data are not collected for statistical purposes. BE produces statistics on legal cohabitation but not on legal unions.
In eight countries (BE, DE, IE, HU, SI, FI, UK and CH), such certificates also include information about both partners' previous marital status.
DE registers the religion of partners in a legal union, while in HU the declaration contains their highest level of educational attainment and occupational status. MT equally registers the spouses' parents' name and surname, maiden name of the mothers, as well as information about the witnesses: name and surname, date and place of birth, place of residence.
Similarly to marriage declarations, the information in the document in NL is integrated in the population registry system. Secondary variables like: date of birth of spouses, address, citizenship etc. can be drawn from this register.
DE, IE, EL, HU, NL, SI, UK, NO and CH register legal unions contracted between 'non-residents' but NL, SI, NO and CH do not include them in national statistics.MT only registers legal unions contracted between 'non-residents' if one of them is MT citizen.
Distinct statistics on the dissolution of legal unions, as opposed to divorces, are collected by all countries that allow legal unions except IE.
The contents of these certificates vary widely across countries. EE and HU include the most information on such a certificate, followed by TR, GE and ME. Date of registration of divorce, date of marriage, date of birth and citizenship of both ex-spouses are the most commonly registered data. The number of common children is also included in 17 and the highest level of educational attainment in 15 countries. In EE, IT, RS and AM, certificates indicate the ex-spouses' socio-economic status. In BG, CZ, DE, IT, CY, LU, HU, PL, PT, RO, SK, CH and TR, the certificates also include information on the reasons for the divorce/dissolution.
Like in the case of the other declarations, the declaration of divorce is a general indication of the information available for statistical offices, but not necessarily the only source of information. In PT there are two instruments/declarations that support data collection: one for divorces granted in Court and another for divorces granted by the Civil Registry. For NL the gathering of the information follows this process: the information in the divorce declaration is sent to the municipality where the former spouses live and is integrated there in the population registry system. Secondary variables like date of birth of spouse, address, citizenship etc. are drawn from the register not from the marriage dissolution certificate. A number of variables like marriage order for example, are deducted from registry information within Statistics Netherlands. Similarly, in BG information on date of birth of both partners, their place of birth, home address, age country of birth, citizenship can be derived from the register. In UK age at divorce is derived while processing from age at marriage.
Duration completed at the time of divorce is used for the definition of duration of marriage at time of divorce in all the countries surveyed except DK, FR, LV and AM, which exclusively use duration reached at the end of the calendar year in their statistics. 11 countries (CZ, EE, IE, LU, NL, SK, SE, NO, CH, BA and GE) use both definitions.
Code | Name |
BE | Belgium |
BG | Bulgaria |
CZ | Czech Republic |
DK | Denmark |
DE | Germany |
EE | Estonia |
IE | Ireland |
EL | Greece |
ES | Spain |
FR | France (including overseas departments - DOM) |
HR | Croatia |
IT | Italy |
CY | Cyprus |
LV | Latvia |
LT | Lithuania |
LU | Luxembourg |
HU | Hungary |
MT | Malta |
NL | Netherlands |
AT | Austria |
PL | Poland |
PT | Portugal |
RO | Romania |
SI | Slovenia |
SK | Slovakia |
FI | Finland |
SE | Sweden |
UK | United Kingdom |
LI | Liechtenstein |
NO | Norway |
CH | Switzerland |
ME | Montenegro |
AL | Albania |
RS | Serbia |
TR | Turkey |
BY | Belarus |
BA | Bosnia and Herzegovina |
XK | Kosovo (under UNSCR 1244) |
MD | Moldova |
RU | Russian Federation |
UA | Ukraine |
AM | Armenia |
AZ | Azerbaijan |
GE | Georgia |
2. [Except where legislation relevant to the population count enters into force on 1 January. This is the case with changes to geographical area; e.g. on 1 January 2014, Mayotte became part of the economic territory of France and there was a significant difference between the French population on 31 December 2013 and that on 1 January 2014.]←
3. [Lanzieri, G. (2013): Population definitions at the 2010 censuses round in the countries of the UNECE region. Paper for the 15th meeting of UNECE Group of Experts on Population and Housing Censuses, Geneva, from 30.9 to 3.10.2013.]←
4. [As defined in Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European demographic statistics, URL (26.02.2015): http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32013R1260&from=EN ]←
5. [Regardless of temporary or short-term absences for recreation, personal or business visits, etc. ]←
6. [ Lanzieri, G. (2013): Some proposals for the Revision of the CES Recommendations on the population to be enumerated. Paper for the 15th meeting of UNECE Group of Experts on Population and Housing Censuses, Geneva, from 30.9 to 3.10.2013.]←
7. [European Parliament and Council Regulation (EC) No 763/2008 on population and housing censuses]←
8. [RO calculates usually resident population at national level and a combination of legal and usually resident population for other levels. ]←
9. [PL has used three concepts, but the one considered the most important is 'legal' or 'dejure' (actually living) population, i.e. those having a registered place of residence to stay permanently in PL. The criterion for duration of stay is three months.]←
10. [RU: Live birth is the moment of foetus separation from the mother's body through the childbirth when the pregnancy term is 22 weeks or more and child body weight is 500 grams or more (less for multiple births.) If the mass of the body is unknown - when length of child body is 25 cm or more and new-born gives signs of birth. If a pregnancy term is less than 22 weeks, weight is less than 500 grams, child body length is less than 25cm live-born is a child who has lived not less than 7 days.
LT: Live birth is the delivery of a live-born child, i. e. a child showing evidence of life irrespective of the duration of pregnancy.
SK: Child showing at least one sign of life, with birth weight 500 grams or more, or with a birth weight of 499 grams or less, if survives 24 hours after birth]←
11. [According to civil registry law in AT, the following (in the following order) are responsible for declaring the birth: 1. the general manager of the hospital where the child is born; 2. physicians or midwives present at the birth; 3. the father or mother, if they are able to do so within the deadline; 4. any government office performing inquiries on the birth; 5. any other persons with knowledge of the birth.]←
12. [CZ and DK can retrieve these from related information sources. In CZ, the report for the NSI does not contain this information, but medical reports on mother/new-born do.]←
13. [ In some cases, like for example PT this can be deduced from related information sources.]←
14. [Same as above.]←
15. [Collected on a voluntary basis.]←
16. [Also LV partly includes live births abroad in its national statistics. Data on the usual residence of the mother before and after the birth are used, as is information from the health register (the child has to be seen by a doctor once a month in the first six months and then twice between the seven and 11 months). If the mother is usually resident in the country (even if she was abroad for a short period), but the birth occurs abroad, this is included in national statistics. Live births to 'non-resident' women in the country are partly registered but not included in national statistics.]←
17. [Vital events, marriage and divorce of BY residents temporarily living or staying abroad are included in the national statistics if the events were registered at the consular institutions or diplomatic missions of BY. Duplicate copies of records of births, deaths, marriages and divorces occurring to BY residents temporarily living or staying abroad are then annually (before 31 December following the reporting year) sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of BY.]←
18. [NL registers children born abroad where at least one parent is resident in the Netherlands.]←
19. [SK included live births abroad in national statistics until 2011, but has not done so since.]←
20. [In Portugal, for example, data on deaths are collected from three different sources:
(1) The death certificate, filled by a doctor
(2) The death registration, made at a Civil Registration Office by a relative or other person on his/her behalf
(3) A statistical questionnaire collected simultaneously with the registration of death by the Civil Registration Office.
The data from these three sources are compiled by Statistics Portugal into a unique database.]←
21. [On a voluntary basis.]←
22. [Since March 2014 marriages are also available for same-sex couples in England and Wales.]←
23. [On a voluntary basis. ]←
24. [CH and DE registers the number of children the couple has together (not overall number of children of each spouse). Certificates in EE, HU and PT also show separately how many children the spouses had before marrying together, how many children come from previous relationships.]←
25. [Divorce has been allowed since 1855 in Scotland, 1858 in England and 1971 in Northern Ireland. ]←
26. [In CZ, two different forms of marriage dissolution existed in 1918-49.]←