People in the EU, who are they and how do they live?

One of the main objectives of the European Commission is to ensure that the 500 million people living in the EU fully participate in society.  Nobody should be left behind at the heart of EU policies. For this reason European Commissioners are always interested in knowing more about the different population groups — children, elderly, disabled, single parents, and migrants -. The idea behind is to design, adapt and improve their policies.

“Good policy-making takes into account many different factors that impact the lives and work of individuals and families. We have to know who the people in the EU are, where they live, how they live, what their skills are and their level of mobility”, Marianne Thyssen Commissioner Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility, European Commission.

In this course, we will look closely to different data and information that show how diverse people are in the Europe.  We will look at the different life stages, origin,  educational background,  employment patterns and family structure in order to understand the demographic, social and economic situation of people in the EU. We will see what they have in common and where are the main differences.