13-Jul-07 The Urban Audit – a combination of hard facts and a perception survey Dr. Berthold Feldmann Eurostat – the statistical office of the European Union

International Forum on Metropolitan Statistics in Beijing Name of the presentation 2 / 26 Structure of the talk  What is the Urban Audit  The perception surveys  Some examples

13-Jul-07 Chapter 1 Since 1999: Comparable European Urban Statistics

International Forum on Metropolitan Statistics in Beijing Name of the presentation 4 / 26 Dimensions of the Urban Audit dataset  More than 260 indicators (derived series) calculated  Reference years  1991 reduced data set  1996 reduced data set  2001 complete data set  2004 latest data set We also use neighbouring years, if the reference year is not available  Three spatial units  321 cities in EU27, plus cities from NO, CH, HR and TR  larger urban zones (LUZ)  sub-city information

International Forum on Metropolitan Statistics in Beijing Name of the presentation 5 / 26 Data availability (for the core city)

International Forum on Metropolitan Statistics in Beijing Name of the presentation 6 / 26 Covered domains 1. DEMOGRAPHY 1.1 Population 1.2 Nationality 1.3 Household Structure 2. SOCIAL ASPECTS 2.1 Housing 2.2 Health 2.3 Crime 3. ECONOMIC ASPECTS 3.1 Labour Market 3.2 Economic Activity 3.3 Income, Disparities and Poverty 4. CIVIC INVOLVEMENT 4.1 Civic Involvement 4.2 Local Administration 5. TRAINING AND EDUCATION 5.1 Education and Training (Provision) 5.2 Attainment of Education & Training 6. ENVIRONMENT 6.1 Climate/ Geography 6.2 Air Quality and Noise 6.3 Water 6.4 Waste Management 6.5 Land Use 6.6 Energy Use 7. TRAVEL AND TRANSPORT 8. INFORMATION SOCIETY 9. CULTURE AND RECREATION 9.1 Culture and Recreation 9.2 Tourism

International Forum on Metropolitan Statistics in Beijing Name of the presentation 7 / 26 Examples of Indicators Obvious indicators  Population  Income  GDP  Unemployment  Poverty Unusual indicators  Crime rate  Days of sunshine  Cinema places  Noise level  Mode of transport to work

13-Jul-07 Chapter 2 The perception surveys

International Forum on Metropolitan Statistics in Beijing Name of the presentation 9 / 26 The first Urban Audit perception survey 2004 Opinion poll in 31 cities of old MS, January 2004 Complementary to hard facts  For example: feeling of safety ≠ small number of recorded crime 300 respondents per city

International Forum on Metropolitan Statistics in Beijing Name of the presentation 10 / 26 Telephone survey with many questions Perception of.. satisfied with public transport satisfied with schools satisfied with hospitals satisfied with doctors satisfied with green space satisfied with sport facilities satisfied with cinemas satisfied with cultural facilities satisfied with public internet access satisfied with internet access at home it is easy to find a good job here foreigner here are well integrated administrative services help efficiently air pollution is a big problem here noise is a big problem here this is a clean city resources are spent in a responsible way satisfied to live in this city difficulty paying the bills at the end of the month Feel safe in this neighbourhood feel safe in this city

International Forum on Metropolitan Statistics in Beijing Name of the presentation 11 / 26 The perception survey 2006 Repeated in December 2006 for 75 cities in 29 countries  Instead of 31 cities in 15 countries Exactly the same questions asked Sample size increased to 500 telephone interviews per city Again: use of fixed telephones only  bias of respondents?

People are satisfied to live in this city

It is easy to find a good job

Air pollution is a big problem

It is easy to find good housing at a reasonable price (only the capitals)

Satisfied with the cultural facilities (selection of cities)

International Forum on Metropolitan Statistics in Beijing Name of the presentation 17 / 26 The synthetic index (SI) In order to express the perception in the cities by 1 single figure, a simplified index was calculated: This index is between -1 (all are unsatisfied) and +1 (all are satisfied). To make it more readable, it was multiplied by 50, then 50 added Hence the SI can have values between 0 and 100. At the value of 50 half are satisfied, half are unsatisfied

Foreigners are well integrated

Foreigners are well integrated (worst and best cases)

People feel safe in the city

People feel safe in this city (worst and best cases)

Correlations: air pollution - noise

Weak correlations: unemployment – easy to find a job

No correlations: recorded crime – feeling safe

International Forum on Metropolitan Statistics in Beijing Name of the presentation 25 / 26 Comparison 2006 to 2004 On average, opinions remained stable from January 2004 to December 2006 There are however some significant changes of opinion in individual cities For two questions, also the average opinion moved:  “it is easy to find a good job”32% to 41%  “this is a clean city”42% to 49%

Thank you for your attention! Any questions?