Eurostat: Making Europe Commensurate and Comparable

Abstract

Numbers are crucial to the modern systems of government, because they make objects of government commensurate and comparable and reduce complexity. In this chapter, I outline the making of a European statistical apparatus and a Europe-wide space of equivalence. I argue that the present situation, where all member states and even applicant states can be represented by rows, bars and lines in statistical releases, is not self-evident but has taken decades of costly investment in the statistical regime before it became commensurable and comparable.