European Union
 | European Union |  Population Government Economy Geography Communication Transportation | |
 Population | Top of page | |
| Inhabitants | Life expectancy | |
| 490,426,060 (July 2007 est.) | total population: 78.7 years
male: 75.6 years female: 82 years (2007 est.) | |
| Ethnic groups | Religions | |
| Roman Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish | ||
| Languages | Literacy | |
| Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, Gaelic, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish; note - only official languages are listed | ||
 Government | Top of page | |
| Government type | Capital | |
| Brussels (Belgium), Strasbourg (France), Luxembourg | ||
| Independance | National day | |
| 7 February 1992 (Maastricht Treaty signed establishing the EU); 1 November 1993 (Maastricht Treaty entered into force) | Europe Day 9 May (1950); note - a Union-wide holiday, the day that Robert SCHUMAN proposed the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community to achieve an organized Europe | |
| Constitution | Legal system | |
| based on a series of treaties: the Treaty of Paris, which set up the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1951; the Treaties of Rome, which set up the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) in 1957; the Single European Act in 1986; the Treaty on European Union (Maastricht) in 1992; the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1997; and the Treaty of Nice in 2003; note - a new draft Constitutional Treaty, signed on 29 October 2004 in Rome, gave member states two years for ratification either by parliamentary vote or national referendum before it was scheduled to take effect on 1 November 2006; defeat in French and Dutch referenda in May-June 2005 dealt a severe setback to the ratification process, though it has continued more slowly with Finland ratifying in December 2006; as of January 2007, 18 countries have ratified the Constitutional Treaty; Germany has made revival of the EU Constitution a goal of its EU Presidency in 2007 | ||
 Economy | Top of page | |
| GDP (purchasing power parity) | Growth rate | |
| $13.74 trillion (2006 est.) | 2.8% (2006 est.) | |
| GDP per inhabitant | Unemployment rate | |
| $29,400 (2006 est.) | 8.5% (2006 est.) | |
| Population below poverty line | Inflation rate | |
| see individual country listings | 1.8% (2006 est.) | |
| Exports | Imports | |
| $1.33 trillion (2005) | $1.466 trillion (2005) | |
| Reserves of foreign exchange and gold | Currency | |
| NA | euro, British pound, Bulgarian lev, Cypriot pound, Czech koruna, Danish krone, Estonian kroon, Hungarian forint, Latvian lat, Lithuanian litas, Maltese lira, Polish zloty, Romanian leu, Slovak koruna, Swedish krona | |
| Military expenditures | ||
 Geography | Top of page | |
| Location | Area | |
| Europe between the North Atlantic Ocean in the west and Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine to the east | ||
| Climate | Natural resources | |
| cold temperate; potentially subarctic in the north to temperate; mild wet winters; hot dry summers in the south | iron ore, natural gas, petroleum, coal, copper, lead, zinc, bauxite, uranium, potash, salt, hydropower, arable land, timber, fish | |
 Communication | Top of page | |
| Cellulars | Internet code | |
| 466 million (2005) | .eu (effective 2005); note - see country entries of member states for individual country codes | |
| Internet hosts | Internet users | |
| 50.5 million (2005); note - sum of individual country Internet hosts | 247 million (2006) | |
 Transportation | Top of page | |
| Airports | Railways (in km) | |
| 3,393 (2006) | 235,199 km | |
| Roadways (in km) | Pipelines (in km) | |
| 2,394,641 km (includes 61,522 km of expressways) | ||
