Member States send to Eurostat data on population on of 31 December of the reference year under Regulation 1260/2013 on European demographic statistics. The data are conventionally published by Eurostat as population on 1 January of the following year (reference year + 1).

The aim is to collect annual mandatory and voluntary demographic data from the national statistical institutes. Mandatory data are those defined by the legislation listed under ‘6.1. Institutional mandate — legal acts and other agreements’.

The completeness of the demographic data collected on a voluntary basis depends on the availability and completeness of information provided by the national statistical institutes.

For more information on mandatory/voluntary data collection, see 6.1. Institutional mandate — legal acts and other agreements.

The following statistics are available.

Population on 1 January by sex and by:

- single age and educational attainment / marital status / broad group of citizenship / broad group of country of birth;

- five-year age group and citizenship / country of birth;

- citizenship and broad group of country of birth / country of birth and broad group of citizenship;

- broad age group and NUTS 3 (under regional data population folder);

- single age and NUTS 2 (under regional data population folder);

- five-year age group and NUTS 2 / NUTS 3 (under regional data population folder).

Population structure statistics: median age of population, proportion of population by various age groups, old age dependency ratio.