Document E4/URBAN/2001/6_EN Choice of variables Anastasios Maroudas Eurogramme Working party meeting on “Urban Statistics” Document E4/URBAN/2001/6_EN Luxembourg, 19-20 November 2001 Good (afternoon) ladies and gentlemen. I am … , employee of Eurogramme that has assisted Eurostat on the evaluation of the pilot phase of Urban Audit. Today I am going to talk to you about…

Outline Pilot phase New structure of the list of variables Evaluation of the pilot phase New variables, domains and fields

Pilot phase More than 500 variables collected Response rate very heterogeneous …... Around 100 indicators calculated and published Introduce them to the context of the Urban audit I The list of variables is the input side of the Urban Audit Fields covered by variables Comparison between the pilot and the next phase Standardisation and compliance with the international statistical conventions

Variables Indicators

Pilot phase Three reference years: 1981, 1991 and 1996 5 variable fields were covered: Socio-economic aspects Participation in civic life Training and education Environment Culture and leisure The variable fields were divided into 21 topical domains

Old structure I. Socio-economic aspects III. Levels of training and education 1. Population 12. Levels of education and training (Provision) 2. Nationality 13. Educational qualifications of the population 3. Household structure IV. Environment 4. Labour market and unemployment 14. Air quality and noise 5. Income, disparities and poverty 15. Water 6. Housing 16. Waste management 7. Health 17. Land use 8. Crime 18. Travel patterns 9. Employment 19. Energy use 10. Economic activity 20. Climate/ Geography II. Civic Involvement V. Culture and recreation 11. Civic involvement 21. Culture and recreation

New structure of the list of the variables 5 fields and 21 domains 9 fields and 25 domains

New structure

Evaluation of the pilot phase Workshops Decision criteria Evaluation results Task force

Workshops 2 full day workshops were organised in July and August 2001 Statisticians of urban statistical offices participated Commission experts were consulted

Decision criteria Retention of important information Increase of comparability Substantial reduction on the response burden i.e. Shorten the list Respect of availability (response rate)

Variable xyz High Importance Low importance or superfluous High Comparability Low Comparability High Coverage Low Coverage Definition change Not possible Possible Kept Task Force Changed Discontinued

Evaluation results 1999 2001 Total=514 Total=321

Task force In cases where substantial comparability and availability problems persist Crime Income disparities and poverty Energy use Travel patterns Culture and recreation

New variables, domains and fields “Information society” Domains For example “Local administration” Variables For example in the domain “Labour market” Perception variables For example in the domain “Crime”

eEurope Action Plan December 1999 President Prodi launches eEurope Initiative March 2000 Lisbon European Council asks for eEurope Action Plan June 2000 European Council endorses eEurope Action Plan November 2000 Internal Market Council adopts e Europe indicators March 2001 Communication to European Council on indicators May 2001 Commission launches eEurope website (europa.eu.int/eeurope)

23 eEurope benchmarking indicators (1-12) 1. Percentage of population who regularly use the Internet 2. Percentage of households with Internet access at home 3. Internet access costs 4. Speed of interconnections available between/within national research and education networks 5. Number of secure servers per million inhabitants 6. Percentage of Internet-using public that have experienced security problems 7. Number of computers per 100 pupils in primary/secondary/tertiary levels 8. Number of computers connected to the Internet per 100 pupils 9. Number of computers with high speed connections to the Internet per 100 pupils in 10. Percentage of teachers using the Internet for non-computing teaching on a regular basis 11. Percentage of workforce with (at least) basic IT training 12. Number of places in ICT related third level education

23 eEurope benchmarking indicators (13-23) 13. Percentage of workforce using telework 14. Number of Public Internet Points (PIAP) per 1000 inhabitants 15. Percentage of central government websites that conform to WAI accessibility guidelines 16. Percentage of companies that buy and sell over the Internet 17. Percentage of basic public services available on-line 18. Public use of government on-line services (for information/for submission of forms) 19. Percentage of public procurement which can be carried out on-line 20. Percentage of health professionals with Internet access 21. Use of different categories of web content by health professionals 22. Percentage of EU web sites in the national top 50 visited 23. % of the motorway network equipped with congestion information and management systems

Summary Reduction on the number of variables Harmonisation and clarification Introduction of complementary variables, domains or fields Improved structure Task force