"Statistics are the bedrock of democratic market societies. EU statistics are indispensable for decision-makers at all levels - for planning, implementing and monitoring policy. They provide businesses with vital market information and also give the public and the media an objective view of how society is evolving.

With European integration and Economic and Monetary Union, statistics at EU level are increasingly important. Eurostat�s mission is to provide the EU with a high-quality statistical information service, which means statistics that are impartial, reliable and comparable between Member States. Eurostat is the key source of statistics at European level - harmonized statistics that enable you to make international comparisons.

Eurostat was established in 1953 to meet the requirements of the Coal and Steel Community. Over the years its task has broadened and when the European Community was founded in 1958 it became a Directorate-General (DG) of the European Commission. Eurostat�s key role is to supply statistics to other DGs and supply the Commission and other European Institutions with data so they can define, implement and analyse Community policies.

The result: Eurostat offers a whole range of important and interesting data that governments, businesses, the education sector, journalists and the public can use for their work and daily life.

With the development of Community policies, Eurostat�s role has changed. Today, collecting data for EMU and developing statistical systems in candidate countries for EU membership are more important than ten years ago."

europa.eu.int/comm/eurostat/