Resource productivity measures how efficiently natural resources are used by the economy and is defined as the ratio of GDP to domestic material consumption. The indicator is expressed in euros per kg.
Resource productivity in the EU has improved since 2008 because economic activity has increased and resource consumption decreased. In the period between 2000 and 2008 productivity was more or less stable because both GDP and resource consumption had increased.
According to the new estimates for 2015, 13.2 tonnes of crops, minerals and metals were consumed per inhabitant in the EU, compared with 15.5 tonnes in 2000. This reduction is equivalent to savings of 2.3 tonnes per person, meaning that in 2015 more than 6 kg less was consumed per person and per day than in 2000.
"The level of resource productivity varies widely between the EU Member States, depending on countries' natural resources, the diversity of their industrial activities, the role played by the services sector and by construction activities, the scale and patterns of consumption and the different energy sources," Eurostat said.
The highest resource productivity in 2015 was recorded in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom (both 3.44 €/kg), ahead of Luxembourg (3.39 €/kg) and Italy (3.04 €/kg).
The lowest resource productivity was recorded in Bulgaria (0.28 €/kg), Romania (0.31 €/kg), Estonia and Latvia (both 0.50 €/kg).
In Croatia, resource productivity last year was 1.10 €/kg, considerably behind the EU average of 2.00 €/kg. Croatia ranked with Portugal (1.10 €/kg), Finland (1.12 €/kg) and Slovakia (1.04 €/kg).
The Croatian economy consumed 40 million tonnes of natural resources, which put it alongside Lithuania and Latvia which consumed 42 million tonnes each.
By far the biggest consumer was Germany (1,320 million tonnes), followed by France (744 million tonnes), Poland (652 million tonnes) and Italy (509 million tonnes). The least amount of natural resources - 6 million tonnes - was consumed by Malta.
In the EU, resource productivity increased to 2.00 €/kg in 2015 from 1.48 €/kg in 2000, an increase of 35.4% in real terms.
Compared with 2000, an overwhelming majority of EU Member States have seen their resource productivity in 2015 rise, with the highest increases being observed in Spain and Cyprus (both +120.3%), followed by Ireland (+98.2%), Italy (+85.4%), Slovenia (+65.9%), the United Kingdom (+64.2%) and the Czech Republic (+62.1%). In contrast, decreases were recorded in Romania (-35.8%), Estonia (-19.1%) and Malta (-7.6%).
In Croatia, resource productivity between 2000 and 2015 increased by a modest 5.1%. This is due to an increase in resource consumption of 18.6% and a GDP increase of 24.6% during that period.