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Archive:Water supply and recycling statistics - NACE Rev. 1.1

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This article introduces a set of statistical articles which analyse the structure, development and characteristics of the economic activities in the water supply and recycling sector in the European Union (EU). According to the statistical classification of economic activities in the EU (NACE Rev 1.1), this sector covers NACE Divisions 37 and 41, and its activities are treated in more depth in two further articles which cover:

Table 1: Recycling; collection, purification and distribution of water (NACE Divisions 37 and 41). Structural profile, EU-27, 2006 (1)
Map 1: Recycling; collection, purification and distribution of water (NACE Divisions 37 and 41). Persons employed in recycling and water supply (NACE Divisions 37 and 41) as a proportion of those employed in the non-financial business economy (NACE Sections C to I and K), 2006
Figure 1: Recycling; collection, purification and distribution of water (NACE Divisions 37 and 41). Evolution of main indicators, EU-27 (2000=100)
Figure 2: Recycling; collection, purification and distribution of water (NACE Divisions 37 and 41). Share of employment by enterprise size class, EU-27, 2006
Figure 3: Recycling; collection, purification and distribution of water (NACE Divisions 37 and 41). Employment characteristics, 2007
Table 2: Recycling; collection, purification and distribution of water (NACE Divisions 37 and 41). Expenditure, productivity and profitability, EU-27, 2006
Figure 4: Recycling; collection, purification and distribution of water (NACE Divisions 37 and 41). Investment rate, EU-27, 2006 (%).
Figure 5: Recycling; collection, purification and distribution of water (NACE Divisions 37 and 41). Analysis of operating expenditure, EU-27, 2006 (%)
Figure 6: Recycling; collection, purification and distribution of water (NACE Divisions 37 and 41). Share of expenditure on energy products in total purchases of goods and services, EU-27, 2006 (%)
Table 3: Collection, purification and distribution of water (NACE Division 41). Main indicators, 2006 (1)
Table 4: Recycling (NACE Division 37). Main indicators, 2006 (1)

Main statistical findings

Structural profile

There were 24.7 thousand enterprises with water supply or recycling (NACE Divisions 41 and 37) as their main activity within the EU-27 in 2006, which together employed 521.2 thousand persons. Paid employees represented a 97.3 % share of all persons employed in the EU-27's water supply and recycling sector in 2006, above the non-financial business economy average (NACE Sections C to I and K) of 86.5 %. This workforce was equivalent to 0.4 % of the non-financial business economy's total workforce in the EU-27, a share that was slightly less than the 0.6 % share of value added that this sector generated from a total value added of EUR 31.4 billion. In terms of value added and employment this was the smallest of all of the industrial structural business statistics sectors, and the second smallest among the non-financial business economy sectors, larger only than research and development activities. Recycling (NACE Division 37) accounted for around one quarter of the value added in this sector and a slightly larger share of employment, while water supply (NACE Division 41) accounted for the remainder.

The United Kingdom and Germany had the highest levels of output among the Member States in this sector, with 23.3 % and 20.0 % shares of EU-27 value added respectively, while France (14.0 %) was the only other Member State with a double-digit share. However, France had the largest workforce, 65.1 thousand persons employed, equivalent to 12.5 % of the EU-27 total, followed by Germany (11.7 %), Poland (10.9 %, 2005) and Romania (9.4 %), while the United Kingdom's 9.0 % share of the workforce was less than half its value added share. In both value added and employment terms this sector's contribution to the non-financial business economy was highest in Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria (both 2005)[1].

Regional specialisation in the water supply and recycling sector in employment terms is shown in the map, although statistical confidentiality limits the exact data availability. Almost all of the regions most specialised in recycling and water supply were in Member States that joined the EU in 2004 or 2007, particularly in Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, the latter treated as one region in the map, the only other region being in Germany.

The index of production for recycling for the EU-27 is available since 2000 and shows that output grew most years, contracting strongly in 2001 and more gently in 2005. Despite these two negative annual rates of change, over the period 2000 to 2007 the recycling activity saw its output expand at an average annual rate of 4.2 %, far ahead of the industrial (NACE Sections C to E) average over the same period (1.6 %). As such, based on the production index, this was the fastest growing industrial NACE division during this period. Growth was particularly strong in 2006 and 2007, reaching 11.1 % and 9.5 %. This performance was confirmed by the employment index which grew by 5.8 % per year on average over the same seven year period, and by 4.7 % per year over the ten years to 2007: only six industrial NACE divisions recorded overall employment growth during this ten-year period and recycling had by far the fastest growth rate among them.

The employment index for water supply displayed a similar profile to that for industry as a whole, but with a slower rate of decline: for water supply the index fell by 0.2 % per year on average between 1997 and 2007, compared with a fall of 1.2 % for industry as a whole.

A size class analysis of water supply and recycling in the EU-27 indicates very different structures in these subsectors. In recycling, small enterprises (with between 10 and 49 persons employed) and medium-sized enterprises (with between 50 and 249 persons employed) collectively employed 65.4 % of the workforce in the EU-27 in 2006, well above the non-financial business economy average of 37.7 %. In fact, the 35.0 % share of small enterprises was the second highest employment share recorded by small enterprises among any of the NACE divisions of the non-financial business economy[2]. In contrast, in water supply, large enterprises (with more than 250 persons employed) were responsible for more than three fifths of employment in the EU-27 and around two thirds of value added.

Employment characteristics

The labour force of the EU-27's water supply and recycling sector was characterised by a high proportion of male employment, 78.4 % in 2007: this was 13.4 percentage points higher than the non-financial business economy average. The two subsectors recorded fairly similar proportions of the workforce that were male – however, in other respects the two workforces were quite different. The incidence of full-time employment in the water supply subsector was 95.3 %, whereas for recycling the full-time employment rate was 89.7 %, these two being either side of the industrial average of 92.7 % but both above the non-financial business economy average. In terms of the age profile of the workforce the differences were more substantial, with workers aged less than 30 accounting for 20.2 % of the recycling workforce, but just 14.7 % of the water supply workforce. In compensation the proportion of older workers (aged 50 or over) was 29.6 % for water supply compared with 22.2 % for recycling. As such, the water supply subsector had the fourth lowest proportion of younger workers of any non-financial business economy NACE division, and the second highest proportion of older workers.

Expenditure, productivity and profitability

Investment by the EU-27's water supply subsector was EUR 11.4 billion in 2006, dwarfing the EUR 2.1 billion of investment by the recycling subsector, the combined total equivalent to 1.3 % of non-financial business economy investment. Nevertheless, relative to their size (in value added terms), both subsectors had high levels of investment: the recycling subsector's investment rate was 25.9 %, above the non-financial business economy average of 18.4 %, while that for the water supply subsector was 49.2 %, the highest of any industrial NACE division and the fourth highest among all non-financial business economy NACE divisions. Nearly every Member State[3] recorded a higher investment rate for the water supply and recycling sector than for the non-financial business economy as a whole, the exceptions being Bulgaria (2005) and Portugal.

An analysis of operating expenditure also shows diversity between the two subsectors: personnel costs accounted for 28.5 % of operating expenditure in the EU-27's water supply subsector in 2006, and 9.6 % in the recycling subsector, both far from the non-financial business economy average of 16.1 %. As a percentage of the total purchases of goods and services, purchases of energy were more than twice as important for the water supply subsector as for the recycling subsector.

In other respects the two subsectors were remarkably similar in the EU-27. They had identical average personnel costs in 2006, EUR 27.3 thousand per employee, slightly below the non-financial business economy average of EUR 28.8 thousand per employee. They also both had above average apparent labour productivity, particularly water supply where value added averaged EUR 62.8 thousand per person employed. As a consequence, both subsectors recorded high wage-adjusted labour productivity ratios, as value added per person employed was equivalent to 197.6 % of average personnel costs in the recycling subsector and 229.8 % for water supply.

In terms of operating profitability, measured here by the gross operating rate, the EU-27's water supply subsector recorded a rate of 28.1 % in 2006, equivalent to 2.6 times as high as the non-financial business economy average rate of 10.8 %, and the third highest rate among the industrial NACE divisions. In contrast, the gross operating rate for the recycling subsector was 9.8 %, just below the non-financial business economy average.

Data sources and availability

The main part of the analysis in this article is derived from structural business statistics (SBS), including core, business statistics which are disseminated regularly, as well as information compiled on a multi-yearly basis, and the latest results from development projects.

Other data sources include short-term statistics (STS) and the Labour force survey (LFS).

Further Eurostat information

Publications

Main tables

Database

Dedicated section

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Bulgaria, Poland and Romania, 2005; Ireland, Greece, Cyprus, Malta and the Netherlands, incomplete or not available.
  2. ↑ NACE Divisions 16, 32, 60 and 73, 2005; NACE Divisions 11 and 12, not available.
  3. ↑ Bulgaria, Poland and Romania, 2005; Ireland, Greece, Cyprus, Malta and the Netherlands, not available.
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