A composite indicator to assess sustainability of agriculture in European Union countries

In this paper, we propose a composite indicator to measure sustainability of agriculture in European Union (EU) countries, based on the geometric aggregation of twelve indicators through weights endogenously determined according to the Benefit of Doubt (BoD) approach. We considered a broad set of indicators covering the economic, social and environmental dimensions, a comprehensive set of countries (25 in total), and data over a long period (15 years) to explore not only the level of sustainability, but also its evolution in time. The results show that Finland, Germany, Austria and Sweden have the highest average score, but also an average annual growth below the median. Instead, Czechia, Slovakia, Italy, Romania, Portugal and Spain have the lowest average score but, excepting Portugal, they show a higher average annual growth than the countries with the highest average score.