Statistics Explained

Archive:Europe 2020 indicators - Germany

Data extracted in August 2019.

No planned update.


This Statistics Explained article is outdated and has been archived - for recent information on Europe 2020 strategy see here.


Figure 1: Change since 2008 in relation to national targets
Source: Eurostat (see dedicated web section: Europe 2020 headline indicators) and DESTATIS
Explanations on this radar chart are available here.

This article is part of a set of statistical articles on Europe 2020 strategy, focusing on the situation in Germany.

Full article

Overview

Long-term unemployment, used in Germany as a national target in the area of poverty and social exclusion, went down by 63.0 % between 2008 and 2018. This allowed the country to significantly exceed its target of reducing long-term unemployment by 20 % by 2020. Germany had already met its 77 % employment target in 2013 and continued to increase its employment rate until 2018. In 2018, Germany also surpassed its national target on tertiary educational attainment by 7.8 percentage points, with 49.8 % of 30- to 34-year-olds having completed post-secondary education or equivalent. Germany’s national target differs from that of other Member States because it includes post-secondary non-tertiary education (ISCED level 4) in addition to ISCED levels 5 to 8. In addition, Germany was only 0.3 percentage points away from meeting its target for early leavers from education and training in 2018. In 2017, the country surpassed its national targets for R&D expenditure by 0.2 percentage points. Between 2008 and 2017, Germany reduced the distance to its national targets on primary energy consumption and renewable energy by half but remained further from its energy efficiency target than any other Member State. In addition, a gap of 11.3 percentage points to its target on GHG emissions in ESD sectors persisted in 2017.

Table 1: National Europe 2020 indicators: most recent data and targets
Source: Eurostat (see dedicated web section: Europe 2020 headline indicators and (lfsa_ugad))

Data sources

More information about the origin of the data and the calculation of indicators can be obtained via the Europe 2020 indicators dedicated website.

Under 'Main tables', click on the icons next to the indicators:

  • 'Explanatory texts (metadata)' for a detailed overview of the collection and compilation methods;
  • 'Information on the leaf' for data availability per country.

A more general overview of quality procedures can be found in Implementation of standard reference metadata for indicators - the ESMS Indicator Profile (ESMS-IP) (PDF file).

Context

Europe 2020 is the EU’s agenda for jobs and growth for the current decade. It emphasises smart, sustainable and inclusive growth as a way to strengthen the EU economy and prepare its structure for the challenges of the next decade. As a main objective, the strategy strives to deliver high levels of employment, productivity and social cohesion in the Member States, while reducing the impact on the natural environment.

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