Source: CNA

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On the other hand, staying home alone for days on end brings its own set of challenges as well. In the EU, more than one in three persons (33.0%) lived in under-occupied dwellings in 2018, meaning that the dwellings were deemed to be too large, in terms of excess rooms and more specifically bedrooms, for the needs of the household living in it.

Among the EU Member States, almost half the population in Romania (46.3%) were living in overcrowded households in 2018. This was also the case for around two in every five persons in Latvia (43.4%), Bulgaria (41.6%), Croatia (39.3%) and Poland (39.2%).

Compared to the previous year, the share of the population living in overcrowded dwellings fell slightly in all of these countries except Latvia (+1.5 percentage points), with the strongest fall recorded in Poland (-1.3 pp).

At the opposite end of the scale, the lowest overcrowding rates were recorded in Cyprus (2.5%), Ireland (2.7%), Malta (3.4%) and the Netherlands (4.1%).

The share of young people and children that live in overcrowded dwellings is much higher than for the elderly. In 2018, almost one quarter (24.1%) of people aged 18 year or less lived in overcrowded dwellings in the EU, while only 6.9% of those aged 65 years and older did.

In particular, 40.2% of young people in the EU who were living in households at risk of poverty were also living in overcrowded dwellings.

In 2018, almost three quarters of the population were living in under-occupied dwellings in Malta (73.4%), Ireland and Cyprus (both 71.4%). In Belgium (58.6%), Spain (56.3%), the Netherlands (53.9%) and Luxembourg (53.7%), more than half of the population were living in dwellings deemed too large.

From 2017 to 2018, the largest drops in share of the population living in under-occupied dwellings were recorded in Luxembourg (-1.8 percentage points), Denmark (-1.7 pp) and Sweden (-1.0 pp).

In contrast, less than 15% of the population were living in dwellings deemed to be too large in Romania (7.3%), Latvia (9.9%), Greece (10.4%), Bulgaria (11.5%), Croatia (11.6%), Slovakia (12.7%), Poland (14.4%) and Italy (14.9%).

Close to half of the people aged 65 year or older (46.9%) in the EU were living in under-occupied dwellings in 2018.

This was the case for a vast majority of elderly people in Ireland (92.8%), Cyprus (87.4%) and Malta (86.7%), while relatively few elderly lived in dwellings with too many rooms in Romania (12.0%), Latvia (13.3%), Croatia (16.9%) and Poland (17.8%).

Source: CNA

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More specifically Tertiary educational attainment as “%” of those aged 30 to 34 having successfully completed tertiary education was 58.8% in total for Cyprus, 49.0% for men and 68.2% for women (46% was the national target). For Greece the percentages are 43.1% in total, 36.7% for men and 49.3% for women (32% national target).

Meanwhile, the share of early leavers from education and training (aged 18-24) has steadily decreased in the EU, from 16.9% in 2002 to 10.2% in 2019. Young women (8.4%) are less affected than young men (11.9%). The Europe 2020 target is to reduce the rates of early school leaving in the EU to below 10% by 2020.

In 2019, the proportion of those aged 30 to 34 who had completed tertiary education increased compared with 2002 in every Member State for which the time-series is available.

In 2019, at least half of the population aged 30 to 34 had completed tertiary education in Cyprus (58.8%), Lithuania (57.8%), Luxembourg (56.2%), Ireland (55.4%), Sweden (52.5%) and the Netherlands (51.4%).

At the opposite end of the scale, the lowest proportions were observed in Romania (25.8%) and Italy (27.6%).

Eighteen Member States have already met or exceeded their 2020 national target for this indicator: Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland and Sweden.

In all Member States, the share of women aged 30 to 34 who have completed tertiary education is higher than the share of men.

Compared with 2006, the proportion of early leavers from education and training decreased in 2019 in all Member States, for which the time-series is available, except Czechia (increase from 5.1% to 6.7%) and Slovakia (from 6.6% to 8.3%).

In 2019, the lowest proportions of `early school leavers` were observed in Croatia (3.0%), Lithuania (4.0%), Greece (4.1%), Slovenia (4.6%), Ireland (5.1%), and Poland (5.2%), while the highest shares were recorded in Spain (17.3%), Malta (16.7%) and Romania (15.3%).

Sixteen Member States have already fulfilled their 2020 national target for this indicator: Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Greece (4.1%), France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus (9.2%), Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Slovenia, Finland and Sweden.

In 2019, the share of early leavers from education and training was lower for women than men in every EU Member State, except Czechia and Romania.

Source: CNA

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More specifically, the first estimate for euro area (EA19) exports of goods to the rest of the world in February 2020 was €189.3 billion, an increase of 1.6% compared with February 2019 (€186.3 bn).

Imports from the rest of the world stood at €166.3 bn, a fall of 1.0% compared with February 2019 (€167.9 bn). As a result, the euro area recorded a €23.0 bn surplus in trade in goods with the rest of the world in February 2020, compared with +€18.5 bn in February 2019. Intra-euro area trade fell to €161.5 bn in February 2020, down by 0.6% compared with February 2019.

In January to February 2020, euro area exports of goods to the rest of the world rose to €373.2 bn (an increase of 0.9% compared with January-February 2019), and imports fell to €348.4 bn (a decrease of 0.7% compared with January-February 2019). As a result the euro area recorded a surplus of €24.8 bn, compared with +€19.1 bn in January-February 2019. Intra-euro area trade fell to €326.4 bn in January-February 2020, down by 0.9% compared with January-February 2019.

In Cyprus exports of goods reached €0.4 bn for the same two month period, recording a -40% decrease compared to the same period of last year ( €0.1 bn with the EU or -70% decrease and €0.3 bn with the rest of the world or 26% increase). Meanwhile, imports amounted to €1.5 bn, a 6% increase (€0.8 bn with the EU, or 16% increase and €0.6 with the rest of the world or -5% decrease). As a result Cyprus recorded a trade deficit of  -€1.0 bn, compared  to -€0.7 bn last year.

The first estimate for extra-EU exports of goods in February 2020 was €170.7 billion, up by 1.0% compared with February 2019 (€169.0 bn). Imports from the rest of the world stood at €148.3 bn, down by 2.8% compared with February 2019 (€152.5 bn). As a result, the EU recorded a €22.4 bn surplus in trade in goods with the rest of the world in February 2020, compared with +€16.4 bn in February 2019. Intra-EU trade rose to €253.3 bn in February 2020, +1.0% compared with February 2019.

In January to February 2020, extra-EU exports of goods rose to €337.0 bn (an increase of 0.7% compared with January-February 2019), and imports fell to €316.8 bn (a decrease of 1.6% compared with January-February 2019). As a result, the EU recorded a surplus of €20.2 bn, compared with +€13.0 bn in January-February 2019. Intra-EU trade rose to €510.2 bn in January-February 2020, +0.4% compared with January-February 2019.

Source: CNA

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Considering the location of the customers, it was most common to sell to clients in the own country (19% of enterprises), with sales to clients in other EU countries (9%) and the rest of the world (5%) less frequent.

Moreover, in 2018, 16% of EU enterprises conducted online sales using websites or apps (web sales), either to private consumers (B2C) (13%) or to business and government (B2BG) (11%), and 6% used EDI-type sales in order to sell mainly to their business customers. The enterprises performed their web sales either through the enterprises’ own website or app (14% of enterprises) or through an e-commerce marketplace (6%).

Meanwhile, a 60% of people in the EU aged 16 to 74 shopped online during the year prior to the 2019 survey, compared with 56% in the 2018 survey. Compared with 2009, the share of online shoppers had almost doubled from 32%. In Cyprus and Greece this rate was 39%.

Men tend to shop online slightly more than women, with 61% of men and 59% of women shopping online. However, the share of online shoppers has increased more among women over the last 10 years (from 29% in 2009 to 59% in 2019) than among men (from 35% in 2009 to 61% in 2019).

The share of online shoppers has increased substantially among all age groups over the last 10 years, in particular for the age groups between 16 and 54 years old. The highest share and the highest increase was among internet users aged 25 to 34 years (from 46% in 2009 to 79% in 2019), followed by the age groups 16 to 24 years (up from 41% to 73%), 35 to 44 years (up from 41% to 71%) and 45 to 54 years (up from 31% to 61%). The share of online shopper rose also in the group of persons aged 55 to 64 years,  from 19% in the 2009 survey to 45% in the 2019 survey, as well as for those aged 65 to 74 years (up from 8% to 28%).

Looking at the 2019 figures for the EU member states, high shares of people who shopped online during the previous year were recorded in particular in the Scandinavian countries. The highest shares were found in Denmark (84%) and Sweden (82%), followed by the Netherlands (81%), Germany (79%) and Finland (73%). However, the highest increase over the last 10 years was in Estonia, with the share of online shoppers up 51 percentage points from 17% in 2009 to 68% in 2019.

Source: CNA

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Source: CNA

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