Berthold Feldmann

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The shift of Eurostat to Urban statistics

• Berthold Feldmann

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Content of my talk

• Eurostats mandate
• Focus on comparability
• Work on behalf of other Commission users
• Focus on small area data
• Urban
• rural

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Chapter 1

• The mandate

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Our Mandate

• Eurostats mission is to provide the European
  Union with a high-quality statistical information
  service.
• Eurostat is the Statistical Office of the
  European Communities situated in Luxembourg. Its
  task is to provide the European Union with
  statistics at European level that enable
  comparisons between countries and regions.
• This is a key task. Democratic societies do not
  function properly without a solid basis of
  reliable and objective statistics.

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Eurostat tasks in the domain of regional and
urban information

• Regular collection of regional and urban data
  from National Statistical Offices
• Half based on a Regulation/Directive
• Half based on gentleman agreement
• Harmonisation of results (as far as possible)
• Quality control
• Accuracy, timeliness, comparability, completeness
• Development of appropriate methodology
• Satisfy (ad-hoc) user needs, mainly
  methodological questions

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Quality assurance (1)

• Relevance
• Can the Commission and other policy makers make
  use of the information?
• Accuracy
• Do the data show the true evolution of regional
  economic and social life?
• Timeliness
• Is the data up-to-date?
• Clarity
• more stringent definition of variables clear
  classifications?

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Quality assurance (2)

• Comparability
• Comparability with national data comparability
  over time
• Coherence
• International standards and conventions? Other
  data collections?
• Completeness
• Exhaustive picture of reality?

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Comparability

• Eurostats main role is to process and publish
  comparable statistical information at European
  level. We try to arrive at a common statistical
  language that embraces concepts, methods,
  structures and technical standards
• The bottom line is we try to provide you with
  data that are comparable because apples have to
  be compared with apples - not with pears

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Chapter 2

• The stakeholders

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Our main client the Commission
DG REGIO
DG Environment
DG Transport
DG Enterprise
DG Employment
DG Agriculture
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Chapter 3

• Small area statistics

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Regional Statistics

• Traditionally orientated to the regional
  classification NUTS (3 levels)
• Main purpose eligibility criteria for Structural
  Funds (GDP/head)
• Collection of comparable statistics for many
  economic and social domains, mainly at NUTS level
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• Partly base on legislation, often voluntary data
  transmission

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Why Urban Statistics ?

• Cohesion is the basis of Regional EU Policy,
  aiming at fewer disparities between European
  regions
• Cities (urban agglomerations) play a specific and
  important role in this policy goal
• Hence In the mid 90s, the Commission saw a
  growing need for reliable, quantitative urban
  data
• Eurostat was commissioned by DG REGIO to carry
  out the Urban Audit project
• Until then, no comparable urban statistics
  existed at a EU level, very little at national
  levels

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Focus on small area data

• Start of the Urban Audit in 1999
• UA declared core business by Eurostat end of
  2004
• Growing demand for small area data might in
  future be satisfied with grid data
• The other side of the coin a pilot project to
  collect quality of life indicators for rural
  areas started in 2005

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Outlook

• Regular Urban Audit data collection every 3 years
• Increased focus on quality assurance
• Comparability is the key quality aspect for
  Eurostat
• Legislation?

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Thanks for listening !

• Any Questions ?

Any questions?