ESA Space Economy – Partnering with Eurostat and the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC) to produce official statistics on the European space sector • Nov 2025
The evolution of the space economy is attracting more attention, increasing the demand for reliable and timely statistics. Yet, the measurement of the sector’s contribution to, notably, economic growth and employment, remains a challenging exercise due to the scarcity of appropriate data and specific methodologies.
A thematic account, which is based on the System of National Accounts (SNA), can provide new and robust indicators on the space economy, with data comparable with different economic sectors in a national economy. The construction of statistical thematic accounts (previously known as ‘satellite accounts’) is meant to highlight specific areas of the economy that are not visible in the current set of official statistics. Their development requires the participation of sectoral experts and specialists of national accounts (official statistics).
Under the auspices of the United States’ Department of Commerce (DOC) in 2020, the thematic accounting approach was first explored by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) to improve the measurement of the U.S. space economy. In December 2020, the BEA successfully published a first ever set of results showing the contribution of the U.S. space economy to the U.S. economy in fully comparable terms. Updated results were published by the BEA in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025.
In March 2022, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched a cooperation project with Eurostat, to investigate the development of a European space economy thematic account. In July 2022, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) joined the project team, followed by the Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space (DEFIS), and the EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA). This cooperation is the first of its kind at the European level. The project is receiving strong and continuous support from all ESA and EU Member States, as well as from the OECD (see OECD Partnership page) and the BEA.
The cooperation project consists
of three initial work packages, forming a pragmatic, stepped approach with
concrete deliverables at completion of each work package:
Work Package 1 | Methodology and Roadmap
→ Develop a methodology for a European space economy thematic account (work package built on United Nations guidelines and led by Eurostat and JRC)
Work Package 2 | A common European space economy definition
→ Establish a definition of the space economy in Europe for statistical purposes (work package built on the US BEA definition and led by ESA)
Work Package 3 | Set of teams across Europe
→ Establish national teams in volunteering Member States to test the applicability of methodology and definition developed in WP1 & WP2. This work is on-going in a number of countries, where the National Statistical Institute set up a team with the national space agency (notably Italy, Latvia, Denmark, or Spain).
The cooperation has already led to the successful publication in December 2023, of two first ever reports on the topic of space economy thematic account:
- Developing
a space economy thematic account for Europe concluding Work Package 1 and jointly written by Eurostat, the JRC and ESA.
- International,
North American and European Statistical Classifications for Space Economy
Measurement concluding Work Package 2 and jointly written by the OECD, the US BEA, ESA, Eurostat and the
JRC.
Both reports were released at a
launch
event hosted by the OECD on 15 December 2023.
A first set of experimental
statistics was published by Eurostat in December 2023 as well, presenting
the level of European exports of complete satellite systems across a decade (2010
to 2021). A briefing note on A
decade of European space exports was jointly released by Eurostat, JRC,
ESA and with the support of Eurospace in February 2024. Updated statistics are annually released and available on the Eurostat Space Economy page.
To know more about the work of ESA Space Economy team partnership with Eurostat and JRC, please do not hesitate to contact us!
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