New rural development data sources released

The release of new European Commission rural development data sources is important given that rural statistics are essential implementation tools for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Data is described as ‘digital soil’ because of its significance in supporting existing levels of prosperity and stimulating new growth. The value of data is often emphasised in high-level expertise provided during governance meetings of EU rural networking stakeholders - as the CAP relies on indicators to guide and measure its performance.

Context indicators are always useful during different phases of a programming period’s lifecycle and forward planning is already embryonic for the CAP that follows on from the current (2023-2027) CAP period. Eurostat’s Rural Europe publication covers many context data sources. It compares rural and urban sub-national data sources with “different territorial typologies and using intuitive visualisations, innovative data presentations and concise text”. Chapters include demographic developments in rural regions and areas, women and men living in rural areas, quality of life in rural areas, education and training, labour market, income and living conditions, digital society and economy.

More new developments with rural data also came on stream last month in the form of the European Commission’s rural observatory. It was launched with the headline of ‘Getting to know EU’s regions’ and features ‘digital soil’ such as population density, average distance to healthcare facilities or the broadband speed in any rural area, municipality or region in the EU. 

This new rural observatory provides users with more and better data to help us all understand the rural dimension of economic, social and demographic conditions and to act on them. The observatory makes it possible to compare diverse territories to reflect the multiple dimensions and the diversity of rural areas. It can be used to inform policy-making relating to rural areas, to evaluate the impact of EU initiatives in a variety of policy domains (promoting rural proofing) and to track progress on relevant indicators for the EU Rural Action Plan and the Rural Pact. It will also regularly provide updated evidence, including for further policy-making.

Other useful data sources monitoring the socio-economic situation of people living in rural areas, includes the Social Scoreboard of indicators regularly updated by Eurostat and the Energy Poverty Advisory Hub (providing national indicators for energy poverty).