Statistical yearbook reflects in figures the life in Estonia

The yearbook is mainly concerned with the year 2007 in comparison with the previous ones.

• In the beginning of 2007, the estimated size of population in the European Union (EU-27) was 495 million — it has increased by two million compared to the previous year. As before, Germany had the largest population among the EU Member States with almost a sixth of the total population of the EU, and Malta had the smallest population. The population decreased in eight EU Member States, seven of them (incl. Estonia) were the new Member States which had joined the EU in 2004 or 2007.
• In Estonia, the level of education of the population aged 25–64 was one of highest in the EU in 2007. The share of population with below upper secondary level of education was one of the smallest compared to other countries (in Estonia 11%, in the Czech Republic 10% and in the EU 29%), but the share of population with tertiary education was one of the largest (in Estonia 33%, in Finland 36% and in the EU 23%).
• Among the new EU Member States, the employment rate of population aged 15–64 was only in Cyprus (71%) bigger than in Estonia (69.4%) in 2007. The highest employment rate among the EU countries was continually in Denmark. The employment rate of Estonia’s women aged 15–64 increased to 65.9% in 2007 which is higher than the EU average (58.3%).
• The unemployment in 2007 was the biggest in Slovakia (11.1%) and the smallest in the Netherlands (3.2%). In Estonia, the unemployment rate decreased 1.2 percentage points (from 5.9% to 4.7%) over the year and was the smallest of the last 15 years. The unemployment as well as the long-term unemployment were smaller in Estonia than the average of EU.
• In 2007, the economic activity of EU continued to increase successfully, although slightly slower than a year earlier. The average economic growth of the EU was 2.9% in 2007. The growth of Estonian economy was still fast in 2007 — 7.1%, although it was by 4.1 percentage points less compared to the previous year. In comparison with the other Member States, the economic growth of Estonia had the sharpest slowdown, but it still took the fourth position among the countries of EU-27 with respect to the rate. Only Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia had a higher growth rate of economy.
• In 2007, the increase in prices accelerated in the whole world. In Estonia, the annual change in the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) was 6.7% in 2007. The increase in prices was faster than that only in Latvia, Hungary and Bulgaria. On average, the inflation in the EU increased a bit over the year (from 2.2% to 2.3%). The HICP has been worked out at Eurostat for receiving internationally comparable consumer price indices. Regarding Estonia, the main difference between the Consumer Price Index and the HICP lies in the fact that the weighting system of Consumer Price Index corresponds to the average consumption of inhabitants of Estonia, but in the HICP the expenditure in the territory of Estonia is taken into account, i.e. private consumption expenditure of foreign visitors has been added.

On Friday, 25th July, at 13.00, there will be a presentation of the yearbook to journalists in the Information Centre of Statistics Estonia (15 Endla St, ground floor).