The EU in the world 2016 — A statistical portrait is an online and printed Eurostat publication, also downloadable in pdf format, ISBN 978-92-79-59231-7, doi: 10.2785/745946, Cat. No KS-EX-16-001-EN-N.

“Eurostat is the statistical office of the European Union (EU), situated in Luxembourg. Its task is to provide the EU with statistics at a European level that enable comparisons between countries and regions. Eurostat’s mission statement is: ‘Trusted statistics. Informed Europeans. Better decisions. We provide high-quality statistics for Europe’. Eurostat aims:

• to provide other European institutions and the governments of the EU Member States with the information needed to design, implement, monitor and evaluate Community policies;
• to disseminate statistics to the European public and enterprises and to all economic and social agents involved in decision-making;
• to implement a set of standards, methods and organisational structures which allow comparable, reliable and relevant statistics to be produced throughout the EU, in line with the principles of the European Statistics Code of Practice;
• to improve the functioning of the European Statistical System (ESS), to support the EU Member States, and to assist in the development of statistical systems at an international level…”