Press Releases

Imaginative videos on ‘Europe reflected in statistics’ 

After weeks of waiting, the results of the European Statistics Competition (ESC) are in. A big round of applause to the winning teams from Belgium and Estonia!

The ESC promotes the awareness and use of official statistics by students and encourages teachers to use these statistics as part of their educational materials.

With the support of National Statistical Institutes, Ministries of Education and non-governmental organisations, over 12 000 students from 14 countries signed up to solve mathematical problems or carry out and interpret statistical analyses using official data. Split into two age groups (14-16 and 16-18), the best two teams per age group went forward to the European competition as national champions.

At European level, the national champions had to make a two-minute video on the topic 'Europe reflected in statistics'. By using appropriate statistics, contestants had to demonstrate how their country or region compares with its European counterparts, highlighting interesting characteristics in relation to the European average.

Finally, a jury of European experts assessed over 50 submissions to choose the top three videos per age group. Given the high quality of the videos, this was no easy task. However, after lengthy deliberation and discussion, the jury was swayed by two contributions in each age group that stood out for their ability to tell a compelling, fun and accurate story.

Winners of the 14-16 age group

Team Ansofi(Belgium) takes first prize in the junior age group (14-16). Their creative video departs from a simple idea: what will the lives of young people look like in 10, 20, 30 years. Using official statistics, the students take us through their estimated futures with regard to the labour market and health care sector. The jury loved the team’s personal and extremely well-executed approach.

Team Viikki9 (Finland) finishes in second place, while the third place goes to team MAKAO (Poland). Both are examples of the wide range of videos submitted, in this case an animation and a student presentation respectively. The jury felt that both submissions showed a level of creativity, content and messaging that earned the teams a place in the top three. Places 4 and 5 from team CATALINA03 (Spain) and team Trilussa's Chicks (Italy) display similar levels of quality.

Winners of the 16-18 age group

In the senior age group (16-18), the first prize goes to team Radiaator (Estonia). Their video effectively compares Estonia to its European neighbours in a fresh and extremely well executed animated production. Taking into account the clever visuals and overall message, the jury was compelled to rank it first.

The second and third place were an extremely close call. In the end, team igorove (Croatia) takes home second place, while team Outlier (Greece) finishes strongly in third place. The jury was impressed by the way the teams transposed theoretical content into creative and engaging videos. The jury was also very positive about the remaining two contributions KUFLOWE (Poland) and team JuNi (Germany).

The two winning teams will be invited to an award ceremony in Luxembourg, which will take place at Eurostat on 11 June 2019.

This year’s jury was composed of excellent journalism, communication and data visualisation experts:

Aeidín Sheppard, Communications Manager, Central Statistics Office Ireland

Alberto Cairo, Knight Chair in Visual Journalism at the School of Communication of the University of Miami

Eva Zeglovits, Director of the Institute for Empirical Social Studies (IFES)

Laurent Monnard, Head of the Business Communication Section at the Swiss Federal Statistical Office

Maarten Lambrechts, Visual data journalist and consultant

Mariella de Crouy, Data journalist at the Luxemburger Wort

Martin Maška, Office Manager at the European Youth Press

Sylvia Mann, Attachée of the communications unit at Statistics Luxembourg (Statec)

Thomas Molén, Visual data journalist for the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD)

Tim Allen, Head of Dissemination in Eurostat, chairman of the jury

For more information, go to https://esc2019.eu/esc.htm

(AM/SCH)