04/10/2004 (Agence Europe) - The Statistical Office of the European Communities has published its annual statistical guide giving data allowing the evolution of the main EU indicators over the past ten years to be measured. This 9th edition opens with data comparable with the United States and Japan, to allow Europe's place in the world to be better situated. It also deals with the theme of sustainable development. The six following chapters review the social data, economic information concerning Member States and businesses, as well as more targeted elements relating to the environment, sciences and technologies, or to agriculture, forestry and fisheries. Among a highly varied collection of data, one learns for example that persons aged at least 65 years of age in the total EU population increased by 2% between 1992 and 2003, to reach 16.3% (or one inhabitant out of six). Another example is that, in 2001, the gap in earnings between men and women was the greatest in Cyprus and in the Czech Republic and was also significantly higher than the EU average in Germany and the United Kingdom, whereas it was the least marked in Portugal and Italy. (Site: http: //europa.eu.int/comm/eurostat/).