Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is a measure of economic production, which takes the entire output of a national economy during a year and divides it by the population of that country. In the European Union, Luxembourg, Ireland, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Austria come out on top as the countries which produced the most per capita in 2024. Europe's richest countries benefit from multinational companies Many criticisms have been made of using GDP per capita as away to judge a country's economic wealth in recent years, as global capital flows have come to distort the statistics and to give a warped impression of different countries' wealth. This is most notably the case for Ireland and for Luxembourg, which while certainly high-income countries, have experienced dramatic booms in their GDP over the past two decades due to the accounting practices of the large multinational corporations which have their European headquarters in these member states, such as Facebook and Apple in Dublin, and Amazon in Luxembourg. Will the poorest countries converge towards the EU average? At the bottom of the list, two of the most recent member states of the EU, Romania and Bulgaria, come last in terms of GDP per capita. Whether these countries will be able to capitalize on their relatively low-wages to spur economic growth and experience the convergence towards the older member states of the union shown by countries such as Estonia, Czechia, and Lithuania, remains a pressing issue for these poorer member states.

As of 2025, there are **** official candidate countries for membership in the European Union, as well as Kosovo identified by the European Commission as a potential future candidate. A key element of the Copenhagen Criteria - the conditions which must be fulfilled to join the EU - is the existence of a functioning market economy in the candidate country, with the ability of the country to handle the strong competition and economic pressures which come with joining the European Single Market. While the political and administrative/institutional criteria have been considered the key stumbling block which has prevented the current candidate countries from progressing towards full membership, the current state of the economies of candidate countries is also a cause for concern. According to the most recently available data, all candidate countries have lower GDP per capita than even the poorest EU member state, Bulgaria. Ukraine, the newest candidate country, which was granted candidate status by the EU in response to Russia's invasion of the country in 2022, is the poorest candidate country, as measured by GDP per capita. This represents a serious issue, as the EU has never incorporated a country which is so far from the average economic standards of the Union. On the other hand, the chance to join the EU could provide an economic boost to Ukraine, or any other candidate country, as can be seen with the fast rising GDP per capita of countries which have joined the EU since 2004, such as Czechia, Hungary, and Poland.

This dataset provides values for GDP PER CAPITA PPP reported in several countries. The data includes current values, previous releases, historical highs and record lows, release frequency, reported unit and currency.

For most of the 20th century, Ireland stood out as one of the poorest countries in Western Europe, not experience the same post-war boom in prosperity that was felt by virtually all other countries in the region. At the onset of the 1973-1975 Recession, Ireland's GDP per capita was less than 60 percent of GDP per capita in the European Union and less than a quarter of GDP per capita in the U.S. Catching up in the 1980s By the 1980s, a wave of foreign investment saw Ireland's export sector grow exponentially, and between 1975 and 1990, Ireland had the second-fastest growth of exports in the world (behind Japan). Additionally, as Ireland joined the European Communities in 1973, it became more integrated into the European economy; before 1973, around three-quarters of Ireland's exports went to the United Kingdom, but this fell to one-third by the 1990s. Ireland's period of industrialization was relatively short in comparison to its neighbors, as it transitioned from an agriculture-based economy to a producer of high-tech products and services. Ireland's low tax rate and other incentives also attracted many American tech companies in the 1980s, such as Apple, Intel, and Microsoft, who were keen on establishing a presence in the European Union. The Celtic Tiger Named after the Four Asian Tigers (Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan), which experienced rapid economic growth in the 1970s and 1980s, the period of prosperity between the 1990s and 2000s in Ireland has been dubbed the "Celtic Tiger." Over this time, Ireland's GDP per capita grew to exceed the average in the EU by 10 percent in 2000, and it would eventually surpass that of the U.S. in 2003. Ireland was severely impacted by the financial crisis of 2008 due to the instability of its property sector and extensive lending by banks, and it was the first European economy to go into recession. By the late 2010s, most sectors of the economy had returned to pre-recession levels, and today, Ireland's GDP per capita remains among the top in the world, second in the EU only to Luxembourg.

With a Gross Domestic Product of over 4.18 trillion Euros, the German economy was by far the largest in Europe in 2023. The similarly sized economies of the United Kingdom and France were the second and third largest economies in Europe during this year, followed by Italy and Spain. The smallest economy in this statistic is that of the small Balkan nation of Montenegro, which had a GDP of 5.7 billion Euros. In this year, the combined GDP of the 27 member states that compose the European Union amounted to approximately 17.1 trillion Euros. The big five Germany’s economy has consistently had the largest economy in Europe since 1980, even before the reunification of West and East Germany. The United Kingdom, by contrast, has had mixed fortunes during the same period and had a smaller economy than Italy in the late 1980s. The UK also suffered more than the other major economies during the recession of the late 2000s, meaning the French economy was the second largest on the continent for some time afterward. The Spanish economy was continually the fifth-largest in Europe in this 38-year period, and from 2004 onwards, has been worth more than one trillion Euros. The smallest GDP, the highest economic growth in Europe Despite having the smallerst GDP of Europe, Montenegro emerged as the fastest growing economy in the continent, achieving an impressive annual growth rate of 4.5 percent, surpassing Turkey's growth rate of 4 percent. Overall,this Balkan nation has shown a remarkable economic recovery since the 2010 financial crisis, with its GDP projected to grow by 28.71 percent between 2024 and 2029. Contributing to this positive trend are successful tourism seasons in recent years, along with increased private consumption and rising imports. Europe's economic stagnation Malta, Albania, Iceland, and Croatia were among the countries reporting some of the highest growth rates this year. However, Europe's overall performance reflected a general slowdown in growth compared to the trend seen in 2021, during the post-pandemic recovery. Estonia experienced the sharpest negative growth in 2023, with its economy shrinking by 2.3% compared to 2022, primarily due to the negative impact of sanctions placed on its large neighbor, Russia. Other nations, including Sweden, Germany, and Finland, also recorded slight negative growth.

Since the early 1970s the European Commission´s Standard & Special Eurobarometer are regularly monitoring the public opinion in the European Union member countries. Principal investigators are the Directorate-General Communication and on occasion other departments of the European Commission or the European Parliament. Over time, candidate and accession countries were included in the Standard Eurobarometer Series. Selected questions or modules may not have been surveyed in each sample. Please consult the basic questionnaire for more information on country filter instructions or other questionnaire routing filters. In this study the following modules are included: 1. Poverty and social exclusion, 2. Mobile phone use in other EU countries, 3. Financial and economic crisis, 4. International trade.
Topics: 1. Poverty and social exclusion: own life satisfaction (scale); satisfaction with family life, health, job satisfaction and satisfaction with standard of living (scale); personal definition of being poor; estimated spread of poverty in the own country; estimated proportion of poor in the total population; people who live in poverty in the own residential area; estimated increase of poverty: in the living area, in the own country, in the EU and in the world; reasons for poverty in general; social and individual causes of poverty; population group with the highest risk of poverty; absolutely neccessary long-lived assets for a minimum acceptable standard of living (heating facility, adequate housing, plenty of room to life and privacy, varied meals, repair or replacement of a refrigerator, an annual family vacation, medical care, dental care, access to banking services as well as to public transport, access to modern means of communication, to leisure and cultural events, electricity, gas and tap water); perceived impairments (deprivation) caused by poverty in the own country: access to decent housing, education, health care, regular meals, bank service, modern means of communication to the labor market, maintaining a network of friends and acquaintances, as well as the chance to start the own business; assessment of the financial situation and level of future generations compared to parents’ and grandparents’ generation; attitude towards poverty: the need for action by the government, too large income differences, duty of the government for the fair redistribution of wealth, more taxes for the rich, automatic reduction of poverty through economic growth, poverty will always exist, income inequality is necessary for economic development; perceived conflict groups: rich and poor, employers and workers, young and old, different racial and ethnic groups; general trust in people and trust in the parliament and the government (scale); trust in institutions in poverty reduction: EU, national government, local authorities, NGOs, religious institutions, private companies, citizens; causes of poverty in the own country: globalisation, low economic growth, profit motive, global financial system, politics, immigration, poor social system; primarily responsible for poverty reduction; importance of the role of the EU in combating poverty; prioritized policies of the state government to combat poverty; assessment of the effectiveness of public policies to reduce poverty; opinion on the extent of financial support for the poor; preference for state or private provision of jobs; attitude towards education fees; controlling for social spending; individual responsibility or responsibility of the government (welfare state) for the supply of citizens; attitude towards the minimum wage; optimistic about the future vs. personally perceived social exclusion; perceived difficulties to get access to financial services: bank account, bank card, credit card, consumer loans and a mortgage; personal risk of over-indebtedness; attitude towards loans: easy access to interest free loans for the poor, stronger verification of borrowers by credit institutions, easier access to start-up loans for unemployed, free financial advice for the poor, possibility for every individual to open a basic bank account; affordable housing in the residential environment; extent of homelessness in the residential environment and its recent change; reasonableness of the expenditure for the homeless by the national government and the local authorities; assumed reasons for homelessness: unemployment, no affordable housing, destruction of the living space by a natural disaster, indebtedness, illness, addiction to drugs or alcohol, family breakdown, loss of a close relative, mental health problems, lack of access to social services and support facilities, and lack of identification papers or free choice of this life; probability of own homelessness; personal charity actions to support poor people: monetary donations to charities, volunteer work in charities, help with recording in emergency shelters and with job search, giving clothes to poor people, buying...

In 1950, at the end of the recovery period that followed the Second World War, GDP per capita across the Eastern Bloc varied greatly by country. Czechoslovakia, the most industrialized country in the Bloc after East Germany, had a GDP per capita that was 69 percent of the rate across Western European** countries. In contrast, Romania's GDP per capita was less than a quarter of the Western European average in 1950. 1950-1989 Generally speaking, Eastern European economies grew faster and made gains on those of the west (not including Mediterranean region) in the 1950s and 1960s, however, a series of recessions and increasing debts meant that this gap widened in the 1970s and 1980s. By 1989, as communism in Europe came to an end, the difference between overall GDP per capita in the Eastern and Western Blocs returned to a similar rate as in 1950, although it varied by country. The Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and Poland, three of the larger economies of those given, had a lower share of western GDP per capita in 1989 than in 1950, while the smaller economies of the Balkans saw an increase. 1989-2000 Between 1989 and 2000, the European Union's GDP per capita grew faster than in the former Eastern Bloc countries. However, the end of communism did negatively impact EU economies in the early 1990s. Poland was the only Eastern Bloc country to make gains on the west in these years, although this was more to do with its poor economy in the 1980s. The former-Soviet states, in particular, saw GDP per capita drop below one-quarter of the European Union's rate over this decade, as post-Soviet economic recovery did not realistically begin until the late 1990s.

European Fresh Poor Cod Production in Capture Fisheries by Country, 2023 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

Stochastic Dominance techniques are adapted and employed to study the extent and progress of Polarization, Welfare and Poverty of 101 nations over the period 1970-1995. The adaptations provide methods of comparing mass relocation by evaluating various degrees of right and left separation between distributions. The results reveal that, whilst welfare increased and then diminished and poverty diminished and then increased, polarization between rich and poor countries continued unabated throughout the period emphasizing the distinction between polarization and inequality.

This round of Eurobarometer surveys queried respondents on standard Eurobarometer measures, such as how satisfied they were with their life, whether they attempted to persuade others close to them to share their views on subjects they held strong opinions about, whether they discussed political matters, and what the goals of the European Union (EU) should be for the next ten years. Additional questions focused on the respondents' knowledge of and opinions on the EU, including how well-informed they felt about the EU, what sources of information about the EU they used, and whether their country had benefited from being an EU member. Other areas of investigation were education and training, the common European currency, Third World development, food product quality labels, the 1996 InterGovernmental Conference, and the European Parliament. Questions concerning education and training throughout life were asked only of respondents 15-24 years old and covered topics such as reasons for learning throughout life, the likelihood that continuing training throughout life would improve the respondent's work and personal life, participation in a training course in the last year, the main role of schools, and satisfaction with the way schools help develop children's personalities, broaden their abilities, and teach children to live in society and adapt to changes. Also covered were the most important qualities for a person to have and the importance of the parent, school, and working environment in developing those qualities. Parents' level of involvement in education was also explored, with questions on choosing children's schools, following their school work, talking to teachers, and helping children if they have difficulties. Respondents were also queried on the role businesses should play in schools and vocational training, the role of the EU in continuing education, and the influence of technology and new communication techniques on education and instruction. Questions on the common European currency included respondents' preference for or against having one currency in all EU member states, how well-informed respondents were about the common European currency, their knowledge of the conditions member countries must meet to join the European Economic and Monetary Union, and their opinions on when European currency would be introduced. Opinions were also elicited on the effects of the European currency on economic growth, jobs, shopping, currency exchange, cross-border travel, the costs of doing business between Monetary Union member states, the degree of turmoil and volatility in international currency markets, inflation, and the disparity between the rich and the poor. In addition, respondents were queried about Third World development, including what the important development problems were and whether decisions about those problems should be made by member countries of the EU acting together or by each country separately, information sources about Third World countries and the main topics covered by those sources, attitudes toward helping Third World countries, what the principal aim should be in relations with Third World countries, whether industrialized countries were currently helping Third World countries to become less poor, to lead the Third World to economic independence, or to enable them to solve their own problems, who provided the most help to Third World countries (the EU, international organizations, the United Nations, private companies, or non-governmental agencies), what conditions should be met before help is given, and whether the major part of the EU's assistance to the Third World was devoted to emergency humanitarian action or to longer-term development. Questions concerning quality labels for food products included how often the household bought various categories of food products, the three most important things people take into account when buying food products, awareness of and trust in quality labels on food products, awareness of and purchase frequency for food products with a "Designation of Origin" label and what the label means, willingness to pay more for food products of guaranteed origin, consumption frequency for food products made or produced in the traditional way, and confidence level if a food product were guaranteed by the EU as to origin and traditional method of production. Regarding

• Most important problems in Spain. Problems that affect you the most.
• Degree of information about the European Union and interest in news related to it.
• Assessment of the effect for Spain of membership of the European Union: in general and on various socio-economic aspects.
• Current and prospective European sentiment.
• Attitude towards the European Union. Opinion on European Union policy: contributes to widening the gap between rich and poor countries or contributes to narrowing it.
• Opinion on the economic position of Spain compared to the most developed countries of the European Union. Influence of Spain's membership of the European Union.
• Evaluation of the balance between what Spain contributes to the Budgets of the European Union and what it receives.
• Opinion on the Spanish Government's defence of Spanish interests vis-à-vis the European Union.
• Opinion on the degree of influence of Spain on the decisions taken in the European Union.
• Opinion on the type of government that the European Union should have.
• Attitude towards: the creation of a common army, a common government, the appointment of a European president and the harmonisation of the legal and tax systems of EU member countries.
• Degree of satisfaction with the way in which the construction of the European Union is being carried out.
• Assessment of the effects that may have, for Spain and for Europe, the incorporation of the Eastern countries to the European Union. Opinion on whether the European Union is supporting Spain in the fight against terrorism.
• Assessment of the economic situation in Spain, current, retrospective and prospective to one year.
• Evaluation of the political situation in Spain, current, retrospective and prospective to one year. Knowledge and scale of assessment of political leaders.
• Evaluation of the management of the PP Government.
• Evaluation of the performance of the PSOE in the opposition. Knowledge and scale of assessment of the ministers that make up the Government.
• Degree of confidence inspired by Prime Minister José Ma Aznar.
• Intention to vote in general elections.
• Ideology scale of the interviewee.
• Remembrance of vote in general elections in March 2000.
• Voting fidelity in the March 2000 general election.
• Electoral volatility in March 2000 general elections.

Social impact of the crisis.
Topics: development of poverty in the last twelve months in: residential area, own country, European Union; estimated share of poor people in the own country (in percent); financial difficulties of the own household; changes in the last six months with regard to the affordability of: personal healthcare, childcare, long-term care; expected impact of economic and financial events on personal future pension; concern regarding the appropriateness of personal income in old age (scale); financial difficulties during the last year; expected development of the own financial situation in the next twelve months; assessment of the risk to not being able to: pay rent or mortgage on time, cope with unexpected expense of 1,000 €, repay consumer loans, pay daily consumer items; likelihood to be obliged to leave current accommodation within the next twelve months due to financial reasons; confidence to keep current job in the next twelve months; likelihood to find a new job within six months (scale).

Demography: sex; age; age at end of education; occupation; professional position; type of community; household composition and household size; current living standard (scale).

Additionally coded was: interviewer ID; language of the interview; country; date of interview; time of the beginning of the interview; duration of the interview; type of phone line; call history; region; weighting factor.

To help achieve our goal of eradicating poverty and hunger in the world’s poorest countries, the Government allocates significant funding to our aid programme. Most of this funding is managed by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade through Irish Aid. Our Irish Aid 2016 Annual Report gives a detailed analysis of how and where this money is spent.

Survey concerning public opinion regarding the unification of Europe. Themes: Most important problems for one's country: domestic, agriculture, labour market, economy, standard of living, housing, education, world peace, European unity / Being abroad, travelling, countries one has visited / European unification: involvement with it, expectations regarding it's realization, expected time of realization, favouring or disapproving unification, reasons for being in favour: abolition of war, fight against communism, third power formation, bare survival of small states, economic advantages, improving standard of living, socio-political and cultural integration, historical trend, solidarity of rich and poor, scientific efficiency / Expected risks or dangers: internal tensions, dominance of certain states, cultural differences, loss of independence, economic problems, industrial relations damaged / Agreements, institutions and treaties known to respondent: European Common Market, Euratom, Coal and Steel Community, Agricultural agreement, Brussel's agreement, European Defense Community, Benelux and others / Most important issues for European community at present: entry of Great Britain, joining by other countries, agricultural policy, common market formation, adjustment of wages, differences of opinion, east-west relations, political unification, colonial relationships / Media through which respondent stays informed about these matters / Achievements regarding unification: tariffs, borders, labour mobility, trade, industrial cooperation, traffic & transport, scientific & cultural exchange, agriculture, contacts politicians, defense cooperation / Perceived effects of European cooperation / Memberhip of EC advantageous or not and for which social groups specifically / Preference regarding several policy alternatives: abolition of tariffs, labour mobility, harmonizing educational qualifications, joint foreign policy, joint scientific research, agricultural policy, harmonized social benefits, support for poor regions, helping african countries / Are they already provided for? / Main purpose of united Europe / Knowledge of foreign languages / Extra background variables for Germany only: social status, household size, marital status, religious denomination and refugee status. Background variables: basic characteristics/ residence/ household characteristics/ occupation/employment/ income/capital assets/ education/ politics

Portugal, Spain and Bulgaria are the countries most at risk of energy poverty in the European Union. As of 2023, over ********* of households in each country were unable to adequately heat their homes. They were followed Lithuania, where another ** percent of households struggled to keep their houses warm.

The German Internet Panel (GIP) is a long-term study at the University of Mannheim. The GIP examines individual attitudes and preferences that are relevant in political and economic decision-making processes. To this end, more than 3,500 people throughout Germany have been regularly surveyed online every two months since 2012 on a wide range of topics. The GIP is based on a random sample of the general population in Germany between the ages of 16 and 75. The study started in 2012 and was supplemented by new participants in 2014 and 2018. The panel participants were recruited offline. The GIP questionnaires cover a variety of topics that deal with current events.
The questionnaire contains numerous experimental variations in the survey instruments. Further information can be found in the study documentation.

Opinion on the need for reform of the healthcare system in Germany; favored measures for financing the healthcare system (increase contributions to health insurance, increase co-payments by patients, general tax increases, reduce remuneration of doctors, reduce remuneration of pharmacies and the pharmaceutical industry, limit medical services, other, do not favor any of these measures); preference for GP model vs. free choice of doctor; opinion on the need to reform social security for the unemployed in Germany; conditions for receiving unemployment benefit II (Hartz IV) (no other conditions, neediness, actively seeking work, accepting reasonable job offers, accepting any job offer, having previously worked in Germany, German citizenship, other conditions, unemployment benefit II should be abolished without replacement, unemployment benefit II should be abolished and replaced by something else); opinion on the regulation of the German labor market; opinion on the need to reform the pension system in Germany; most and least favored proposals for financing statutory pensions (increase contributions to statutory pension insurance, raise retirement age, general tax increases, reduce the amount of statutory pension, none of these); opinion on the need to reform the education system in Germany; federal government should spend more or less money on the education system than at present; most important area of the education system on which the federal government should spend more money and especially less money (childcare for 1 to 5-year-olds (kindergarten, nursery), primary and secondary schools (Hauptschule, Realschule, Gymnasium), vocational training (apprenticeships and vocational schools), academic education (universities, universities of applied sciences and teacher training colleges), further education for working people, other areas); eligible areas of education; opinion on the need to reform the tax system in Germany; government should take measures to reduce income disparities; acceptance of tax evasion; opinion on reforms to the labor market and social systems in the member states of the eurozone; opinion on the EU´s power to make decisions on reforms in the member states; policy areas in which the European Union should make more or should decide more or less than at present (foreign and security policy, economy and finance, justice and home affairs, labor and social affairs, competition policy, agriculture and fisheries, environment, education, other areas); areas in which the state should most likely expand and most likely reduce services (health services, basic security for the unemployed, job promotion for the unemployed, old-age pensions, education, childcare facilities, in none of these areas); assessment of the debt brake, preferred timetable (year) for the debt brake; expected date of return to the debt brake; opinion on the reform of the debt brake (debt should generally be limited even more strictly, debt should generally be made easier, debt should be allowed if it finances climate policy, debt should be allowed if it finances investments in public infrastructure, debt should be allowed if it is used to finance social benefits in areas such as pensions or health, debt should be allowed if it is used to finance financial aid for poor regions in Germany, no more limits on permitted debt in future, debt rules should remain as they are); evaluation of the European Stability Pact; opinion on the reform of the European Stability Pact (debt in Europe should generally be even more strictly limited, debt in Europe should generally be made easier, debt should be allowed in Europe if it is used to finance climate policy, debt should be allowed in Europe if it is used to finance investments in public infrastructure, Debt should be allowed in Europe if it is used to finance social benefits in areas such as pensions or healthcare, debt should be allowed in Europe if it is used to finance financial aid for poor countries in the EU, no more limits on permitted debt in Europe in future, the European Stability Pact should remain as it is).

Health: diseases; likelihood of sharing personal health data via...

Social impact of the crisis.
Topics: number of children under the age of 15 in own household; self-rated living standard of own household (scale); development of poverty in the last twelve months in: residential area, own country, European Union; estimated share of poor people in the own country (in percent); financial difficulties of the own household; changes in the last six months with regard to the affordability of: personal healthcare, childcare, long-term care; expected impact of economic and financial events on personal future pension; concern regarding the appropriateness of personal income in old age (scale); financial difficulties during the last year; expected development of the own financial situation in the next twelve months; assessment of the risk to not being able to: pay rent or mortgage on time, cope with unexpected expense of 1,000 €, repay consumer loans, pay daily consumer items; likelihood to be obliged to leave current accommodation within the next twelve months due to financial reasons; confidence to keep current job in the next twelve months; likelihood to find a new job within six months (scale).

Demography: age; sex; nationality; age at end of education; occupation; professional position; type of community; own a mobile phone and fixed (landline) phone; household composition and household size.

Additionally coded was: respondent ID; type of phone line; language of the interview; country; date of interview; time of the beginning of the interview; duration of the interview; region; weighting factor.

Georgia: Seizing the Opportunity to Prosper suggests a path towards sustainable and shared growth. Georgia’s story is associated with three stylized facts: high growth with persistent unemployment currently at nearly 15 percent after 10 years of annual growth that averaged above 5.5 percent; a doing business rank of 8 out of 189 countries achieved without recovery to 1990 levels of per capita income suggesting a relatively difficult transition experience in spite of noteworthy success with several governance and business environment reforms; and obstinate socio-economic vulnerabilities reflected in Georgia’s status as one of the poorest countries in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region of the World Bank with a relatively weak performance on reducing poverty and inequality. Georgia is well positioned to achieve its development objectives. The main challenge is persistent joblessness, which must be addressed to establish a sustainable basis for the pro-poor development model outlined in the Government’s Socio-Economic Strategy 2020. This report, which is anchored in the Government’s Socio-economic Development Strategy 2020, explores the potential for improved export competitiveness to strengthen employment growth in Georgia and is intended to inform a policy agenda mainly focused on the demand side of the labor market.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moldova faced the deepest and most prolonged recession among transition countries, and the resulting increase in poverty has made it the poorest country in Europe today. The main objective of this report is to update and assess poverty in Moldova in its multiple dimensions, with a view to informing public policies. It focuses on the period of recession that followed the Russian crisis and the subsequent recovery. It draws mainly on the Household Budget Surveys, collected quarterly by the Department of Statistics and Sociology, between 1997 and 2002, although the analysis is supplemented as needed by information from other surveys collected by Moldova's Department of Statistic s and Sociology, from administrative data sources, from existing qualitative studies, and from studies by local researchers and other donor organizations. It should be noted that the HBS is a population based survey. By providing detailed information on the consumption of households, it permits an analysis of income (consumption) based welfare. In addition, by providing information on those who do not use public services or programs, in addition to those who do, it provides additional value to administrative data in the analysis of non-income dimensions of poverty such as access to health care or education. As such, the distribution of users of public services such as health care services (for example by rural and urban location) is likely to be different from that obtained from administrative data (typically based on information from facilities). Finally, due to data limitations, the analysis focuses on the Right Bank of Moldova.

This special Eurobarometer gauges Europeans' views on the future of development cooperation in a time of far-reaching changes; against the backdrop of the economic crisis and the Arab Spring, it is most timely to ask Europeans if they still believe in international solidarity and help. Europeans continue to regard helping the poor as a priority. 84% of respondents support development aid to help people across the world out of poverty. The majority of EU citizens (84%) also support a strong focus of EU aid on good governance and human rights in developing countries, a direction proposed by EU Development Commissioner Piebalgs in his recent policy proposal, 'Agenda for Change'. Europeans are also ready to actively participate in helping the poor — half of the EU citizens are willing to pay more for their daily shopping, if they know that this would benefit developing countries. #####The results by volumes are distributed as follows: * Volume A: Countries * Volume AA: Groups of countries * Volume A' (AP): Trends * Volume AA' (AAP): Trends of groups of countries * Volume B: EU/socio-demographics * Volume C: Country/socio-demographics ---- Researchers may also contact GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences: http://www.gesis.org/en/home/