Archive:SDG 11 - Sustainable cities and communities (statistical annex)

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Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable (statistical annex)

Data extracted in May 2021.

Highlights

EU trend of SDG 11 on sustainable cities and communities

This article provides an overview of statistical data on SDG 11 ‘Sustainable cities and communities’ in the European Union (EU). It is based on the set of EU SDG indicators for monitoring of progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in an EU context.

This article is part of a set of statistical articles, which are based on the Eurostat publication ’Sustainable development in the European Union — Monitoring report on progress towards the SDGS in an EU context — 2021 edition’. This report is the fifth edition of Eurostat’s series of monitoring reports on sustainable development, which provide a quantitative assessment of progress of the EU towards the SDGs in an EU context.

Full article

Table 1: Indicators measuring progress towards SDG 11, EU
Table 2: Explanation of symbols for indicating progress towards SD objectives and targets

Overcrowding rate

This indicator measures the share of people living in overcrowded conditions in the EU. A person is considered to be living in an overcrowded household if the house does not have at least one room for the entire household as well as a room for a couple, for each single person above 18, for a pair of teenagers (12 to 17 years of age) of the same sex, for each teenager of different sex and for a pair of children (under 12 years of age). The data stem from the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC).

Figure 1: Overcrowding rate, EU, 2010-2019 (% of population)
Compound annual growth rate (CAGR): – 1.1 % per year in the period 2014–2019.
Source: Eurostat (sdg_11_10)

Figure 2: Overcrowding rate, by country, 2014 and 2019 (% of population)
Source: Eurostat (sdg_11_10)

Population living in households suffering from noise

This indicator measures the proportion of the population who declare they are affected either by noise from neighbours or from the street. Because the assessment of noise pollution is subjective, it should be noted that the indicator accounts for both the levels of noise pollution as well as people’s standards of what level they consider to be acceptable. Therefore, an increase in the value of the indicator may not necessarily indicate a similar increase in noise pollution levels but also a decrease of the levels that European citizens are willing to tolerate and vice versa. In fact, there is empirical evidence that perceived environmental quality by individuals is not always consistent with the actual environmental quality assessed using ‘objective’ indicators, particularly for noise. The data stem from the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC).

Figure 3: Population living in households considering that they suffer from noise, EU, 2010–2019 (% of population)
Compound annual growth rate (CAGR): – 1.3 % per year in the period 2014–2019.
Source: Eurostat (sdg_11_20)

Figure 4: Population living in households considering that they suffer from noise, by country, 2014 and 2019 (% of population)
Source: Eurostat (sdg_11_20)

Exposure to air pollution by particulate matter

The indicator measures the population weighted annual mean concentration of particulate matter at urban background stations in agglomerations. Fine and coarse particulates (PM₁₀), i.e. particulates whose diameters are less than 10 micrometres, can be carried deep into the lungs where they can cause inflammation and exacerbate the condition of people suffering heart and lung diseases. Fine particulates (PM_2.5) are those whose diameters are less than 2.5 micrometres. They are therefore a subset of the PM₁₀ particles. Their deleterious health impacts are more serious than PM₁₀ as they can be drawn further into the lungs and may be more toxic. Based on the annual submission of Member States’ measured concentrations, the data are processed by the European Environment Agency (EEA) with the help of the European Topic Centre on Air Pollution, Transport, Noise and Industrial Pollution (ETC/ATNI) (and its predecessor ETC/ACM).

Figure 5: Exposure to air pollution by particulate matter, EU, 2000-2019 (µg/m³)
Compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for PM2.5: – 2.3 % per year in the period 2004–2019; – 4.3 % per year in the period 2014–2019.
Source: EEA, Eurostat (sdg_11_50)

Figure 6: Exposure to air pollution by particulate matter (PM_2.5), by country, 2014 and 2019 (µg/m³)
Source: EEA, Eurostat (sdg_11_50)

Road traffic deaths

This indicator measures the number of fatalities caused by road accidents, including drivers and passengers of motorised vehicles and pedal cycles, as well as pedestrians. Persons dying on road accidents up to 30 days after the occurrence of the accident are counted as road accident fatalities. After these 30 days, the reason for dying might be declared differently. For Member States not using this definition, corrective factors were applied. The average population of the reference year (calculated as the arithmetic mean of the population on 1st January of two consecutive years) is used as denominator (per 100 000 persons).The data come from the CARE database managed by DG Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE).

Figure 7: Road traffic deaths, EU, 2000-2019 (number of killed people)
Compound annual growth rate (CAGR): – 4.4 % per year (observed) and – 6.6 % per year (required to meet target) in the period 2004–2019; – 1.2 % per year (observed) and – 7.8 % per year (required to meet target) in the period 2014–2019.
Source: European Commission services, DG Mobility and Transport, Eurostat (sdg_11_40)

Figure 8: People killed in road accidents, by country, 2014 and 2019 (rate)
Source: European Commission services, DG Mobility and Transport, Eurostat (sdg_11_40)

Settlement area per capita

This indicator captures the amount of settlement area due to land-take, such as for buildings, industrial and commercial areas, infrastructure and sports grounds, and includes both sealed and non-sealed surfaces.

Figure 9: Settlement area per capita, EU, 2009-2018 (m²)
Compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the EU: 1.1 % per year in the period 2015–2018.
Source: Eurostat (sdg_11_31)

Figure 10: Settlement area per capita, by country, 2015 and 2018 (m²)
Source: Eurostat (sdg_11_31)

Recycling rate of municipal waste

This indicator measures the tonnage recycled from municipal waste divided by the total municipal waste arising. Recycling includes material recycling, composting and anaerobic digestion. Municipal waste consists mostly of waste generated by households, but may also include similar wastes generated by small businesses and public institutions and collected by the municipality. This latter part of municipal waste may vary from municipality to municipality and from country to country, depending on the local waste management system. For areas not covered by a municipal waste collection scheme the amount of waste generated is estimated. The Member States report each year the amount recycled and the total municipal waste generated to Eurostat. Data collection, validation and dissemination are performed by the Environmental Data Centre on waste hosted at Eurostat.

Figure 11: Recycling rate of municipal waste, EU, 2000-2019 (% of total municipal waste generated)
Compound annual growth rate (CAGR): 2.7 % per year (observed) and 2.5 % per year (required to meet target) in the period 2004–2019; 1.9 % per year (observed) and 2.0 % per year (required to meet target) in the period 2014–2019.
Source: Eurostat (sdg_11_60)

Figure 12: Recycling rate of municipal waste, by country, 2013 and 2018 (% of total municipal waste generated)
Source: Eurostat (sdg_11_60)