Eurostat: Using the EU Statistical Office’s Data Browser and API for Research

Eurostat is the statistical office of the European Union. It publishes harmonised, Europe-wide statistics and indicators, and its datasets can be downloaded from the Eurostat Data Browser or requested programmatically through the Eurostat Statistics API. This guide is for researchers who need to pull EU statistics into an analysis and be able to repeat the pull later. (Sources read 2026-11-07; links in the Sources section.)

What Eurostat is used for in research

Eurostat is part of the European Commission and is based in Luxembourg. According to the Commission’s description of the office, it develops harmonised definitions and methods together with the national statistical authorities, which collect the data; together they form the European Statistical System (ESS). Eurostat calculates aggregates for the EU and the euro area, and these are freely available.

For a researcher, that means one source of comparable country-level and regional indicators across EU member states, instead of assembling figures from many national offices that may define variables differently. Datasets are organised under nine statistical themes in the Data Browser, so the practical first question is which theme and dataset hold your variable.

Keep the data in line with the principles in open data and FAIR data: record exactly which dataset code you used, and cite it as described under data citation.

Access: the official portals

There is nothing to install. Eurostat offers two official routes, both free:

• The Data Browser (ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/main/data/database), a web interface. It lists “Detailed datasets” (multi-dimensional) and “Selected datasets” (two- or three-dimensional tables). You can filter dimensions, create custom views, save bookmarks, and download in several formats. Complete datasets are also offered as compressed tsv files (“dataset compression”), and complete code lists are in the bulk download under the “code lists” tab.
• The Statistics API, a REST service that returns JSON-stat 2.0. It supports CORS, offers English, French and German, and is free to use.

Step-by-step: request a dataset through the Statistics API

The documented URL pattern is:

{host_url}/{service}/{version}/{response_type}/{datasetCode}?{format}&{lang}&{filters}

For the Statistics API, the host URL is https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/api/dissemination, the service is statistics, the version is 1.0, and the response type is data (the API currently returns statistical data only). format=JSON is optional and lang=EN is the default. Datasets with codes beginning DS- (Comext and Prodcom) use a different path, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/api/comext/dissemination.

1. Find the dataset code. In the Data Browser, open the theme and dataset you need and note its code. Eurostat’s own documentation uses DEMO_R_D3DENS (a demography dataset) in its examples.
2. Request the whole dataset.
   https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/api/dissemination/statistics/1.0/data/DEMO_R_D3DENS?lang=EN
3. Narrow by geographic level and start year. Use geoLevel (one of aggregate, country, nuts1, nuts2, nuts3) and sinceTimePeriod:
   .../data/DEMO_R_D3DENS?lang=EN&geoLevel=country&sinceTimePeriod=2020
4. Select one geography and year. Filter any dimension with dimension_code=position_code, and use time=YYYY (repeat the parameter for several years):
   .../data/DEMO_R_D3DENS?lang=EN&geo=EU27_2020&time=2022
5. Other time filters. untilTimePeriod sets an end period and lastTimePeriod=N returns the last N periods.

Output and how to read it

The response is a JSON-stat 2.0 object (version “2.0”, class “dataset”) with a label, source and updated field. Two arrays tell you the shape of the data before you parse any values:

Field	What it tells you
id	The dimension codes in order, for example ["freq","unit","geo","time"].
size	The number of positions in each dimension, in the same order as id, for example [1,1,2031,33].
dimension	For each dimension, a label and a category object with index and label for every position.

Reading id and size together shows the cube: in the example above, one frequency, one unit, 2,031 geographic entities and 33 time periods. The JSON-stat format itself is documented at json-stat.org.

Keeping a pull reproducible

Eurostat’s API documentation states that datasets are updated twice a day, at 11:00 and 23:00 CET, when newer data or structure are available, and that only the latest version of a dataset is held, with no versioning. So the same request can return different values later. Record the full request URL and the retrieval date in your methods notes, and archive the extract you analysed if the analysis must be repeatable. See computational reproducibility. Researchers building portals on EU open-data metadata may also want the DCAT-AP application profile guide.

Troubleshooting

• No data returned for a DS- dataset. Comext and Prodcom datasets use the /api/comext/dissemination path, not /api/dissemination.
• Unexpected dimension codes in a filter. Filters use dimension_code=position_code; read the codes from the dimension object of a first, unfiltered response, or from the code lists in the Data Browser bulk download.
• Values changed since your last run. Only the latest version is held, and datasets refresh at 11:00 and 23:00 CET.

Free alternatives

Source	Documented access
World Bank Indicators API	Calls take the form https://api.worldbank.org/v2/country/all/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL, and per the World Bank’s documentation API keys and other authentication are no longer needed.

The World Bank covers countries worldwide, while Eurostat’s strength is EU-harmonised definitions and EU regional (NUTS) breakdowns.

FAQ

What is Eurostat?

The statistical office of the European Union, part of the European Commission and based in Luxembourg. It publishes harmonised European statistics and indicators.

Is Eurostat data free?

The Commission states that the EU and euro area aggregates Eurostat calculates are freely available, and the Statistics API documentation describes the service as free.

Which format does the API return?

JSON-stat 2.0.

Can I cite an older version of a dataset?

The API holds only the latest version, so keep your own archived extract and the retrieval date.

Sources

• European Commission, “Eurostat – European statistics”: commission.europa.eu/about/departments-and-executive-agencies/eurostat-european-statistics_en (read 2026-11-07)
• Eurostat, “Database” (Data Browser): ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/main/data/database (read 2026-11-07)
• Eurostat, “API – Introduction” and “API – Getting started”: ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/user-guides/data-browser/api-data-access/api-introduction (read 2026-11-07)
• World Bank Data Help Desk, “About the Indicators API Documentation”: datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/articles/889392-about-the-indicators-api-documentation (read 2026-11-07)