Regional GDP Figures Some Considerations Following the June EU Council
New developments concerning regional and urban statistics
/ EUROPEAN COMMISSIONEUROSTAT
Directorate E: Sectoral and Regional Statistics
Unit E-4: Regional indicators and geographical information /
Working Group on Regional and Urban Statistics
Meeting of 8-9 October 2009 in Luxembourg,
BECH building, AMPERE room
Document E4/REG/2009/06
New developments
in National Statistical Offices
on Regional and Urban Statistics
32
Doc E4/REG/2009/06
New developments in National Statistical Offices concerning regional and urban statistics
Belgium
For Belgium, at regional level, there has not been much change.
Work for the micro census is right on track.
Concerning the Urban Audit project, efforts will cover the improvement of quality of the data and if possible the respect of deadlines. Internally, the estimates on labour market statistics could be improved and resulted in some corrections covering the past years.
The spatial unit for Liege will be kept.
Our estimates for certain variables cover the population census of 2001. But the future 2011 census will be based more on administrative files than on surveys. This might imply that certain variables can no longer be supplied.
Bulgaria
General
In 2008 there was a routine revision of the Law on Statistics but it brought an organisational change: a third Deputy-President was introduced. That reflected in an organisational restructuring which lead to 10 directorates, half of which are purely statistical. The division “Regional Statistics” was not affected but the division “Input-Output Tables”, which is producing regional accounts, was aggregated in “Non-financial Accounts”.
Regional
1. Twinning
In September 2009 the twinning project with DESTATIS and INSEE “Sustainable development of the national statistical system – Reorganisation of NSI regional structure” was officially finished. As the title of the project shows the most important component in it should be the reorganization of the regional structure of the NSI. In fact, in the implementation of the project it was decided by the top management not to undertake restructuring of the regional offices and the accent was put on the regional dissemination and improvement of the regional indicators. The twinning on this component was done with INSEE and we appreciate the fruitful atmosphere and discussions on these topics with the French colleagues, especially Mr Patrick Redor.
2. Regional accounts
Table 10 and 12 from the Transmission Programme were produced and sent in due time. In August 2009 revised data for the period 1995-2004 for the total employment (persons) and employees (persons) were sent to Eurostat. After years of methodological difficulties finally a National methodology was defined and the table 13 “Households Accounts by Region (NUTS 2)” for the years 2000-2001 and 2004-2006 will be sent before the current meeting.
The National Accounts for the Energy Consumption are produced in the division “Statistics of the Environment and Energy” after the merge of the two divisions. The colleagues appreciate very much the idea for their regionalization but so far no regional data are produced.
3. Urban Audit
The deadline for the phase IV of the Urban Audit for the Bulgarian cities was the end of 2008. Part of the data were sent in January 2009 and expanded by April 2009.
The NSI of Bulgaria has sent a proposal for the next phase and aims to participate in it.
Czech Republic –2009
The President of the Czech Statistical Office Jan Fischer became prime minister of the caretaker government in April 2009, in the middle of the Czech presidency of the EU. The reason of the quick promotion was the fall of the right-wing government, orchestrated by social democrats during a long-term political stalemate in the country. The term of early election in October 2009 and legislation of the change was disputed by the Constitutional Court in September. The delay of election would affect among others the CzSO, as it is the main processor of all national elections.
In September 2009, the 2nd International Statistical Conference was organised by the CzSO, Czech National Bank and University of Economics in Prague. Among 22 sections, the Regional statistics was one of the most contributed and visited.
The Population census 2011 has been prepared intensively, legislation and funding was secured. The pilot census has been postponed for 2010. Several external companies will participate on data collection, ICT solution and project management.
New ways of data visualisation are successfully tested on the NSI’s web site, e.g. MotionCharts with demographic indicators that are selected on-line on regional and local levels from the public database.
Several EU funded projects were started. The project called StatGIS should implement GIS and Internet tools better into the praxis of the CzSO, including dissemination and analysis of the Census 2011 data. One module is focused on statistics of social and technical infrastructures on the municipal level.
Denmark
From 1 October 2008, the task of preparing election results and compiling statistics on elections to the Danish Parliament, elections to the European Parliament and referendums, was transferred from the Danish Ministry of Social Welfare to Statistics Denmark. In 2009 the task involved the compilation of statistics on elections to the European Parliament and the referendum on the Danish Act of Succession.
With effect from 2008, Statistics Denmark is responsible for collecting, validating and disseminating new information in order to improve the monitoring of activities with regard to the area of elderly people. A system for receiving and processing detailed data on home help, etc. is now in operation. In 2009, it is expected that indicators in the area of elderly people, which are based on the new system, will be published for the first time.
From 1 January 2008, the responsibility of compiling research, development and innovation statistics was transferred from the Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy at the University of Århus. In connection with the transfer to Statistics Denmark, it was made statutory to report data on research, development and innovation as from the collection year 2007.
At the same time, Statistics Denmark also assumed the responsibility for the statistics on the public research budget from the Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy. The research budget is prepared on the basis of material supplied by the Ministry of Finance and supplemented by information collected by Statistics Denmark. The 2008 research budget was published in November 2008.
In connection with the agreements on Danish municipalities in 2006, fact-finding work was initiated for the purpose of improving the primary data in the area of welfare. It has been decided that this work is to be embedded with Statistics Denmark. In 2008, a new reporting system in the area of elderly people came into operation. The system comprises, e.g. detailed personal information on home help. Indicators in the area of elderly people, which are based on the new primary data, will not be published until the spring of 2009. Furthermore, Statistics Denmark participated in the preparation of the coming documentation projects, which relate to disadvantaged children, disabled persons and the area relating to offers of day care services.
At the end of 2008, Statistics Denmark gained access to data from the eIncome register, and these data will imply that there will be considerably better primary data in the future for compiling statistics on employment and income. In 2009, Statistics Denmark will on the basis of data from the administrative eIncome register establish a central eIncome statistical register. This register is to form the basis for a number of new statistics. In establishing the central eIncome statistical register, important data will be processed centrally. This is carried out to ensure that the most important concepts are compiled in a uniform way in the various statistics.
Data from the eIncome register opens up e.g. the possibility of compiling new statistics on employment for monitoring short-term trends. At the end of 2009, statistics monitoring the number of jobs, employment volume and total wage and salary costs will be compiled for the quarters of 2008 and for the first quarters of 2009. The statistics on the number of jobs are compiled for the very first time and are consequently completely new statistics.
Germany
Census 2011
The 2011 census in Germany will for the first time take a mixed-mode approach rather than that of an exhaustive survey. This means that, in Germany, the data to be relied on for the next Europe-wide census planned for 2011 will largely be administrative records already in existence. The German census 2011 or population census will be mainly register-based, and the entire population will no longer be questioned by interviewers as it was in the past. The census variables to be recorded, such as population numbers, labour-market participation and households, will be obtained as far as possible from existing registers. Only data on variables for which there are no other data sources and data for correcting "undercoverage" and "overcoverage" in population registers will still be collected or adjusted using primary statistics from sample surveys. The census will thus consist of several modules: register analyses, a postal survey of home-owners, and complementary sample surveys. The concepts, methods and procedures to be applied in the census 2011 have been laid down in the 2011 Census Act, which entered into force in July 2009.
In accordance with the legal provisions, the size of the household sample must not exceed 10% of the population. In line with EU provisions, the sample variables relating to education and employment, and cross combinations of demographic and sample variables are determined down to the level of administrative regions. Further options and framework conditions for providing more detailed results are presently still under discussion.
The German concept of a register based census 2011 with additional sample surveys has led to objections by institutions responsible for regional and urban planning, research and statistics. They point out that contrary to all previous censuses this coming census will not provide for sufficiently small territorial units (neighbourhoods) the necessary information on the socio-economic characteristics of persons and households, like household structure, educational attainment, the dominant source of income, occupational status and job characteristics, which is needed for targeted policies of integration, qualification and social cohesion. As professional and political discussions have not come to an end, the German census law has not yet been passed.
Regional atlas
Since May 2009, the statistical offices of the Federation and the Länder have provided a new regional atlas on the web page http://ims.destatis.de/indikatoren. The regional atlas presents more than 80 indicators relating to a multitude of topics of official statistics for all rural districts and towns not attached to an administrative district in Germany (NUTS3 regions) in the form of thematic maps. Each map offers the user a wide range of interactive options for information visualisation and retrieval. The atlas mostly draws upon data which can also be found in the regional database on Germany (GENESIS-Online) maintained by the statistical offices of the Federation and the Länder at https://www.regionalstatistik.de/genesis/online/logon. The new regional atlas replaces the online-atlas of regional statistics and, owing to the map server technology, as it is called, it can be used without a browser plug-in having to be installed first.
Urban Audit
The new Urban Audit collection round (UA IV) in Germany is managed again by KOSIS, the association of the German cities involved in this project. They have now increased their working capacity by a person employed especially for these tasks. The cities involved decided to improve coverage and consistency by an annual collection of the exhaustive list of variables, including data on sub-city districts. The Federal and the State Statistical Offices will provide more detailed data from the Micro-census which can be used as input for improved estimates. Data collection from the cities is now facilitated by a technical tool for internet transmission with quality checks and immediate corrections.
GV-ISys
On its new web page, the Federal Statistical Office provides data free of charge for all regional levels of Germany. Included is information on the settlement structure and other non-administrative and administrative territorial units at NUTS 3 and LAU 2 levels. In January 2011, that web page will be supplemented by an extended online search function for the information system of the list of municipalities.
http://www.destatis.de/jetspeed/portal/cms/Sites/destatis/Internet/DE/Content/Statistiken/Regionales/Gemeindeverzeichnis/Gemeindeverzeichnis,templateId=renderPrint.psml
Estonia
The number of population published by Statistics Estonia is based on the 2000 Population and Housing Census data and is complemented by the annual data on registered births and deaths. Since 2000 Statistics Estonia has not used immigration and emigration in the estimation of the population because 2000 Population Census showed that the quality of migration data is low. It was mainly caused by the voluntary registration of the place of residence from the beginning of the 1990s up to 2005. Since 2006 the quality of migration data has improved. Therefore, Statistics Estonia published the population number as of 1 January with migration for the years 2000–2008.
Statistics Estonia will organise the pilot census of the 2011 Population and Housing Census in nine local governments of Estonia in autumn 2009. About 10000 persons and their dwellings will be enumerated during the census. In the course of the pilot census the methodology and software worked out for the main census will be tested. The pilot census as well as the main census will last six weeks — first two weeks are for e-census and face-to-face interviews will be conducted during the three last weeks.
The Regional Statistics Council was formed for a better and user-friendlier arrangement of the production of regional statistics and for more effective use of the limited resources allocated for the production of regional statistics. Besides the representative of Statistics Estonia, the Council is composed of the representatives from ministries, Association of Estonian Cities and enterprises. The tasks of the Council include: regular work on the list of official statistical surveys, presentation of grounded suggestions for improvement of the list, support to the introduction of administrative databases into the production of statistics in co-operation with the administrators of sources, co-operation in analysing regional developments, conducting surveys, training users and promoting the integrated use of regional statistics and other spatial data.