European Regional Statistics

Gunter SchäferEurostat Unit E4 - Regional statistics and geographical information

Eurostat’s tasks in the domain of regional and urban information

Regular collection of regional and urban data from

National Statistical Offices

Estimation of missing data (if possible)

Assure the comparability of the data

Development of appropriate methodology of data

collection and compilation

Consultancy of major users (DG REGIO)

Purpose of regional data

Quantitative information = basis for objective and

unbiased cohesion policy

Definition, implementation and monitoring of EU regional

policies (2007-2013: 347 billion euros)

Commission (DG REGIO) is main user

– Selection of eligible regions

– Ex-post evaluation

Regions are increasingly in focus of general public

Example Italy of regional aid

Allocated funds 2007-13 : Total: €28.8 billion– Convergence: €21.6 billion– Regional Competitiveness and Employment: €6.3 billion– European Territorial Cooperation: €846 million

Focus of programmes– Developing knowledge networks; – Increasing living standards; – Security and social inclusion;– Fostering business clusters, services and competition;– Internationalising and modernising the economy

Targets– Contribute to average annual GDP growth of between 2.4 and

3.1% in the ‘Convergence’ regions– Increase employment from roughly 45% to 50% in these regions

NUTS regions in Italy

Available regional Statistics

Domain ContentNUTSLevel

Legal Base

Economicaccounts

Gross Value Added and GDPGrowth of real GDPCompensation of employeesEmploymentGross Fixed Capital FormationHousehold accounts

NUTS 2 or NUTS 3

European System ofNational AccountsRegulation

Demography Population and area Population changePopulation projectionsRegional level census 2001 round

NUTS 2 orNUTS 3

Regulation forcensus every 10years, gentleman'sagreement

LabourMarket

Economically active populationEmployment and unemploymentSocio-demographic labour force statisticsLabour market disparities

NUTS 2 or NUTS 3

Yes

Labour Cost Labour cost surveys (1996, 2000, 2004) NUTS 1 Yes

Domain Content NUTS Level Legal Base

Migration Internal migration: arrivals, departures by sex, origin and destination

NUTS 2 Gentleman's agreement

Health Causes of deathHealth care infrastructure, Health status,Hospital patients

NUTS 2 Gentleman's agreement, legal basis in preparation

Education Number of students by sex, age, education level, orientation,Educational attainment, lifelong learning

NUTS 2 Yes

Structural Business

SBS yearly and multi yearly dataCredit institutions

NUTS 1 or NUTS 2r

Yes

Tourism Tourist accommodation, arrivals, nights spent NUTS 2 or NUTS 3

Yes

Information Society

Internet accessComputer usage

NUTS 1 or NUTS 2

Yes (mandatory for NUTS 1)

Agriculture Land use/coverFarm Structure SurveysAnimal and crop productionEconomic accounts for agricultureAgri-environmental indicators

NUTS 2 or NUTS 3

Regulations, gentleman's agreement

Domain Content NUTS Level Legal Base

Maritime Policy

Spatial data and indicators relevant to the coast and the sea

NUTS 2 or NUTS 3

EU's Integrated Maritime Policy

Transport Road, rail, maritime, inland waterways and air transportTransport infrastructure, stock of vehicles and road accidents

NUTS 2 or NUTS 3

Yes

Environment Water resourcesWastewater treatmentSolid waste

NUTS 1 or NUTS 2

yes for waste statistics

Science and Technology

R&D expenditure and staffHuman resources in science and technologyEmployment in high technology sectorsEuropean patent applications to EPO

NUTS 1 or NUTS 2

Yes

In addition: Urban Statistics

Since about 1990 the Urban Audit pilot project collected a wide range of statistical variables for about 350 cities

Different concepts (Core City, Larger Urban Zone, Sub-city Districts)

Many issues of data availability, organisation in Member States, types of use of the data

Urban Audit was perhaps too ambitious Currently initiative is ongoing to redefine Urban Statistics

in a simplified but also more homogenous way (e.g. definition of city)

UrbanStatistics:ExampleItaly

Challenges for Regional (and Urban) Statistics

Tight resource situation in European Statistical System Additional indicators are requested by policy makers

(e.g. government finance, enterprise demography, innovation activities)

Increasing focus of functional areas (rural-urban, mountain, coastal areas, etc.)

Exploring ways of efficiency gains and better exploiting existing information:– Flexible use of geocoded data from surveys, e.g. for

functional regions– Small area estimations– Spatial analysis to combine geographic and statistical data

New Urban Rural Typology

Agreed with OECD Avoids problems of previous method based on NUTS 3 Units: 1 km² grid cells Population grid: registered population when available,

otherwise disaggregation grid (JRC) Identify population living in urban areas:

– Selection of grid cells with density > 300 inh./km²– Only groups of grid cells, representing a total population of

> 5000 inhabitants– Contiguity is evaluated including diagonals

Rural-UrbanTypologyapplied to NUTS 3

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION

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