"Trends" is a conscientious pocketbook, intended to be of general interest and is aimed at a wide audience of users. In this publication, statistical information is presented in two ways:

1. an economic and social "country profile" for each of the 55 member countries of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe; and
2. statistical overviews under a range of topics (listed in the left hand side menu) that compare data between the countries of the UNECE region.

Where possible, maps illustrating the data have been made available under the various topics. These maps have the advantage of clearly illustrating statistical data in a spatial context, but there are limits in displaying information in this format. They should be considered in conjunction with the tables and charts provided.

The data used for "Trends" 2005 is the most recent year available at the time of preparing the publication, usually 2003. For further study and updates, the users may wish to visit numerous web sources used for the 2003 and 2005 publications.