Evolution of Urban Audit Gunter Schäfer (Eurostat) Regional Statistics and Geographic Information

Urban Audit background Urban Audit has been started more than 10 years ago Ambitious objective to provide a comprehensive statistical picture of urban life Voluntary data collection largely based on existing or ‘easily’ estimatable data The Urban Audit data intensively used in EU Policy contexts and analyses (5th Cohesion Report, State of European Cities Report) Urban Audit has been very useful in defining harmonised concepts for core cities, larger urban zones and sub-city districts Currently the 4th data collection is ongoing. Data dissemination to be expected by end 2011. New round of data collection in 2012/13 based on grants in preparation

Urban Audit Data Collection (until now) More than 300 variables collected from Member States Cover many demographic, economic and social aspects in European cities Data collections Exhaustive collection every three years – 2004, 2007, 2010 Annual data collection of 38 variables since 2010 Three spatial units 369 core cities larger urban zones (=including the city hinterland) sub-city information (reduced dataset)

Many issues related to Urban Audit Low general data availability (< 60%) Large heterogeneity of the availability across countries Heterogeneous origin of data Methodology of the data not always clear Need for estimation of data (not generally implemented) Comparability of indicators across cities and countries Quality of the data Complex structure of data collection in Europe (different set up of partners in Member States) Communication of results and use by national bodies, cities and citizens

Difficult context Severe resource constraints in Member States and Eurostat Recent re-focusing of priorities in statistics (Economic governance, Europe 2020, etc.) The importance of Urban Audit for EU policy making and national policy is not fully accepted in the ESS governing boards Need to fit Urban Audit better into the ESS strategy

Position of Eurostat management Clear signs that of low level of support from Member States Need for putting the subject of Urban Audit into a larger statistical and policy context Larger effort for revising the Urban Audit (programme of 10 points) Broad discussions with Member States and Commission bodies prior to consultation of ESSC

Programme for a revision of Urban Audit Consistent list of cities Consistent spatial definition of cities Revised frequency of data collections Focused list of indicators Reach an overall 80% response rate Improve the data validation process Increase direct cooperation with cities Improve communication with users Increase awareness of urban statistics Exploit synergies with other statistical data collections

Consistent list of cities The list of cities was over-complex: standard list, additional list for some countries, Large City Audit etc. New target: include all European cities above a threshold in the Urban Audit: All cities > 50 000 inhabitants Advantage: Revision of the Degree of Urbanisation” will create country values for all cities in LFS and EU-SILC Country values can be used in combination with other information (administrative data), to improve the quality of the city estimates

Consistent spatial definition of cities Comprehensive analysis of all European Core Cities and Larger Urban Zones (LUZ) Cooperation DG REGIO and Eurostat Basis is the newly developed urban-intermediate-rural typology Objective criteria, will significantly increase the comparability of Urban Audit statistics List of European core cities (urban centres) and LUZ (agglomerations) on harmonised methodology

Copenhagen as example

Revised frequency of data collections Timeliness of data is critical quality aspect for many indicators Stronger focus on annual data collection (= timely data) Decreased frequency of more exhaustive data collection to every five years

Focused list of annual indicators Detailed analysis to find good compromise between: Policy relevance Availability Quality Measures to reduce the burden on NSIs Less diversity of indicators Reduced list of sources Urban Audit included (since 2010) about 40 annual variables and 330 variables every three years Starting from 2012 a focused list of annual variables and an enlarged list of variables every five years

Where are we now? Need for a consolidated consistent and convincing concept/strategy to sub-national statistics Need to show clearly the added value of Urban Audit within the larger context of statistics, EU policy and national policy Need to implicate National Statistical Offices in the debate on sub-national statistics Data collection round 2012/13 is assured and preparation is well under way Development programme will take about 2 years as approximate timeframe

Revision of the technical and dissemination system Closer contact to users with feedback possibilities, ideally cities themselves Strengthened validation system Attractive information on cities geographic information some background information statistical data Complementarity to public data (general Wikipedia) Revised publication strategy of urban data

Action plan 2012/13 data collection via grant system in preparation based on existing concept but with new indicators Until early 2012: Concept for a reworked system (with external assistance) During 2012 Discussions with Member States (consultation of ESSC) Checking for possibility of written agreement with Member States During 2013 Preparation and running in of new system

Thank you for your attention