EU Statistics on Income & Living Conditions
The EU-SILC database provides comparable, cross-sectional and longitudinal multi-dimensional data on income, poverty, social exclusion and living conditions in the European Union. EU-SILC stands for 'European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions.'
[See also the Library description page for the related EUROMOD tax and benefits' microsimulation model for the EU developed by the University of Essex Institute for Social & Economic Research, using EU-SILC.]
EU-SILC data is gathered by the member states of the European Union and collated by Eurostat. There are two kinds:
Cross-sectional Data pertaining to a fixed time period, with variables on income, poverty, social exclusion and other living conditions, and
Longitudinal Data pertaining to individual-level changes over time – observed periodically – usually over four years.
Social exclusion and housing-condition information is collected at household level. Labour, education and health information is obtained for persons aged 16 and over. Income at a very detailed component level is collected at personal level, but some components are included in the 'household' section.
EU-SILC is established to provide data on structural indicators of social cohesion (at-risk-of-poverty rate, S80/S20 and gender pay gap) and to provide relevant data for the two Open Methods of Coördination in the field of social inclusion and pensions. For social inclusion, the most important output is the computation of the 'Laeken indicators', including poverty rate, persistent poverty rate (crossed by age, gender, household type, activity status, work intensity and tenure status) S80/S20 and Gini coëfficient.
EU-SILC 2009 cross-sectional (rev.1 August 2011)
EU-SILC 2009 longitudinal (August 2011)
EU-SILC 2008 cross-sectional (rev.2 March 2011)
EU-SILC 2008 longitudinal (rev.1 March 2011)
EU-SILC 2007 cross-sectional (rev.4 March 2011)
EU-SILC 2007 longitudinal (rev.3 March 2011)
EU-SILC 2006 cross-sectional (rev.1 March 2010)
EU-SILC 2006 longitudinal
EU-SILC 2005 cross-sectional (rev.1 September 2009)
EU-SILC 2005 longitudinal
Note that Eurostat periodically issues revisions of earlier SILC waves, with instructions that hosting institutions replace earlier versions. Revisions are indicated above.
Further information is available on this CIRCA library page .
An overview of EU-SILC is provided on this Eurostat EU-SILC page .
GESIS (Leibnitz) provides a list of papers of interest and tools for EU-SILC .
EUROMOD – using underlying EU-SILC data is explained on this ISER page .
Access to EU-SILC is restricted to current EUI members who have completed the registration procedures, as follows:
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Very Important Notice: Current EUI members who wish to use EU-SILC data must first send a project proposal (as a Word or PDF attachment) to econlibrary@eui.eu . This is forwarded to Eurostat. The proposal should include the scholar's name, academic status (eg. PhD Researcher, Professor, Fellow &c.), name of Supervisor (where applicable) and an outline of the research project (approx. one page). Eurostat requests that the proposal include: (a) Country and years of data required; (b) Variables and breakdowns required; (c) A short description of methodology. Further details on the data set and variables – can be found on this EU-SILC page .
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The application is sent to Eurostat by the EUI Economics & Statistics Information Specialist. Note that the total application process can take up to two months – due to Eurostat's clearing procedures with national statistical agencies.
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If the project proposal is approved by Eurostat, the EUI data applicant must complete the online EUI Data Registration Form (selecting 'EU-SILC' from the dropdown menu).
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The applicant must then sign two forms at the Library Economics Office : (i) the EUI 'Conditions of Use' agreement and (ii) the Eurostat 'Confidentiality Declaration.'
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The user then receives instructions on how to access EU-SILC via EUI secured server.
Member State statistical agencies, and Eurostat, reserve the right to decline access to EU-SILC data.
This data set is not available to short-term visitors to the EUI Library.
Before using the data, please read Section II of this Eurostat PDF on Data Access and Use .
Access to EU-LFS micro data from Eurostat is also available at the EUI.
Access to the EUROMOD microdata simulation model for EU tax and benefits' research is also available via the EUI's contract with ISER.
For other statistical resources on Europe, the EU and the Eurozone please read this EUI Library directory .
Contact: Thomas Bourke at econlibrary@eui.eu