# Eurostat

Thousands of tables that put the Netherlands next to other EU countries: prices, jobs, population, health, energy. Often down to regional level.

- Publisher: Eurostat
- Area: Europe · Finest detail: region (NUTS 3)
- Period: 1960 – 2026 · Refreshed: monthly
- Access: Open · Licence: CC BY 4.0
- Join keys: landcode (NL), NUTS-code (NL329 …)
- Status: ok (2026-10-01)
- URL: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat

## What can you do with it?
- **The Netherlands next to its neighbours.** Pick an indicator and put NL next to Belgium, Germany and the EU average.
- **Regions across the border.** Compare Limburg with Liège and Aachen at NUTS 2: unemployment, income, life expectancy.
- **Real house prices.** Divide the house price index by HICP and see if the rise holds up.

## How to process it
1. **Find the table code.** Every table has a code such as prc_hpi_a. Search the Data Browser and copy it.
2. **Filter in the URL.** Pass each dimension as a parameter: geo=NL&geo=EU27_2020&unit=…
3. **Unpack JSON-stat.** Values are in one flat list; the position follows from each dimension's size. Libraries like eurostat (Python) do this for you.
4. **Watch the flags.** Letters next to values mean provisional (p), estimated (e) or break in series (b).

## Interesting combinations
- How does my region compare to Europe? → [cbs-kwb](https://www.opendataindex.nl/en/bron/cbs-kwb.md) via NUTS → gemeente. Aggregate municipalities to COROP (NUTS 3) and compare with European regions.

## Similar sources
- [worldbank](https://www.opendataindex.nl/en/bron/worldbank.md): All countries in the world, less regional detail.
- [OECD Data Explorer](https://data-explorer.oecd.org): Rich countries worldwide, strong on economy and education.

## What to watch out for
- **An index, not a price.** The index shows how fast prices rose, not how expensive homes are. A German home can be cheaper at the same index.
- **Nominal.** Inflation is still included. For real prices, divide by the consumer price index (HICP).
- **Dutch figures come from CBS and Kadaster.** Eurostat only collects. If a figure differs from CBS, it's usually a revision or a different base year.

## How to fetch it
```bash
curl "https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/api/dissemination/statistics/1.0/data/prc_hpi_a?geo=NL&geo=EU27_2020&purchase=TOTAL&unit=I15_A_AVG&format=JSON"
```