Introduction of EU 'Zaragoza' Integration Indicators

The EU’s 11th Common Basic Principle on Immigrant Integration policy (2004) states that developing clear goals, indicators and evaluation mechanisms are necessary to adjust policy, evaluate progress on integration and to make the exchange of information more effective.

The EU’s migrant integration indicators use Eurostat data and come from the Zaragoza Declaration, adopted in April 2010 by EU Ministers responsible for integration, and approved at the Justice and Home Affairs Council on 3-4 June 2010.

The aim is to support the monitoring of the situation of immigrants in order to enhance comparability between the EU Member States. The Member States agreed that the indicators should be on existing and comparable data for most Member States, limited in number, comparable over time, productive and cost-effective, simple to understand and easy to communicate and focused on outcomes.

4 areas of integration have been currently identified as priority areas, building on national experiences and key areas for the common basic principles. Employment is a vital part of the integration process, and efforts in education are essential in helping immigrants to become successful and more active participants in society. Social inclusion is important not only for access to the labour market, but also for entry into society more generally. The participation of immigrants in the democratic process as active citizens supports their integration and enhances their sense of belonging.

As recommended, the indicators compare specific age groups of the general and immigrant population: for both third-country nationals and the foreign-born as well as for men and women. The indicators are meant to be in line with the Europe 2020 headline indicators that aim for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.

There are three key policy purposes for using integration indicators: understanding integration contexts and immigrants’ integration outcomes, evaluating the results of policies, and mainstreaming integration into general policies.

Get the data

Eurostat’s interactive database allows users to calculate and download data for the EU Integration Indicators for:

• their own country with notes about data reliability
• in comparison to other European countries and EU averages
• disaggregated by country of birth/citizenship and by gender and age group
• over time (since 2006) and regularly updated

Click here for Eurostat’s database.

Eurostat’s ‘Statistics Explained’ section provides an introduction to the European-wide results in the four areas of integration: employment, education, social inclusion and active citizenship. In addition to the main headline findings, this series of specific articles provides a detailed descriptive analysis in each area, including comparative tables and charts. Notes and links are provided on the data sources and availability

Click here for Eurostat’s ‘Statistics Explained’.

EU ‘Zaragoza’ Integration Indicators: Latest available data (2013/4)

More recent data is regularly available through the Eurostat website. The summary tables below were created by the European Website on Integration's EU Integration Expert in order to present this data on key indicators in each of the 4 policy areas: employment, education, social inclusion and active citizenship. As recommended in the Zaragoza Declaration, these summary tables present the data by country of citizenship (third-country nationals a.k.a. TCN) and country of birth (born outside the EU a.k.a. TCN-born). This data is disaggregated for men and women where possible based on sample sizes. The data from one country is compared to the EU average (EU28) and compared over time (since 2006). The notes contain relevant methodological information from Eurostat, which may be important for the interpretation of the results.

Source: Eurostat

Source: Eurostat

EU ‘Zaragoza’ Integration Indicators: Time-series data (2006-2014)

Source: Eurostat

Source: Eurostat

Definitions

Employment rate: The employment rate is calculated by dividing the number of persons aged 20 to 64 in employment by the total population of the same age group. Employed population consists of those persons who during the reference week did any work for pay or profit for at least one hour, or were not working but had jobs from which they were temporarily absent. The employment rate is the headline indicator to monitor the EU 2020 Strategy employment target.

Early leaver from education and training: The early school leaver generally refers to a person aged 18 to 24 who has finished no more than a lower secondary education and is not involved in further education or training; their number can be expressed as a percentage of the total population aged 18 to 24. Early school leaving is one of the two headline indicators to monitor the EU2020 Strategy education target.

Tertiary education: Tertiary education, provided by universities and other higher education institutions, is the level of education following secondary schooling. Tertiary education is one of the two headline indicators to monitor the EU2020 Strategy education target.

At risk of poverty or social exclusion: Abbreviated as AROPE, this statistic refers to the situation of people either at risk of poverty, or severely materially deprived or living in a household with a very low work intensity. The AROPE rate, the share of the total population which is at risk of poverty or social exclusion, is the headline indicator to monitor the EU 2020 Strategy poverty target.

Long-term residence: The share of third country nationals residing in each EU Member State on the grounds of a valid national or EU long-term legal residence permit. The nominator includes EU long-term residence permits as regulated by Council Directive 2003/109/EC. The denominator is the total number of valid permissions to stay held by third country nationals. Statistics on residence permits are based entirely on administrative sources in compliance with the Council Regulation (EC) 862/2007 and following guidelines and instructions provided by Eurostat. Long-term residence is one of the two Zaragoza migrant integration indicators dedicated to active citizenship, as this status grants non-EU citizens with near-equal rights to participate in social and economic life.

Naturalisation rate: Naturalisation rate as defined by Eurostat is the ratio between the number of persons who acquired the citizenship of a country during a calendar year and the stock of non-EU citizen residents in the same country at the beginning of the year. Here the rate is presented as the number of citizenship acquisitions per 1000 people. Naturalisation is one of the two Zaragoza migrant integration indicators dedicated to active citizenship, as this status grants non-EU citizens with equal rights to participate in democratic and public life.