The thorough revision of the

Urban Audit project

Berthold Feldmann

Eurostat

berthold.feldmann@ec.europa.eu

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Structure of the talk

Why a fundamental reform?

Major elements of the reform

Time table

Why do we need a

thorough revision of

the Urban Audit?

Chapter 1

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Dimensions of the Urban Audit

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, 2013 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)

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Current situation of Urban Audit The Urban Audit project was started more than 10

years ago as a pilot project (58 cities)

It has grown to an ambitious voluntary data collection in order to give a comprehensive statistical picture of urban life in more than 350 cities with over 300 indicators

The Urban Audit data has been intensively used in EU Policy context and analyses

Urban Audit has been very useful in defining harmonised concepts for core cities, larger urban zones and sub-city districts

Overall response rate: only 60%

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Major challenges in the Urban Audit Data delivery delays

As a consequence to these delays of data inflow, the quality control, which needs a critical mass of data, is very delayed

Comparability of the data is questioned by some This reduces the usability of the data for political

analysis

Missing data is a problem for all countries Different gaps in different countries due to diverging

social and statistical history

Estimations required – some countries estimate a lot, others don‘t estimate at all

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Part of estimation in data delivery

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

DE ES SK SI PL TR LT LV GR MT UK IE CY SE NL RO PT FR LU EE FI BG CH IT AT NO BE CZ HU DK

was available

estimated

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Where the Urban Audit data comes from Large countries

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

DE ES FR IT PL UK

Other

by City

by regional stat. Office

by NSI

EU27 + CH, NO

by regional stat. office

17.1%

by central stat. office

63.2%by city8.0%

other11.7%

Inevitably a complex data collection system

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Several Stakeholder meetings in 2010/11

Peer Review summer 2010

Conclusion: Actions are needed to raise awareness about the data collection and to reduce the amount of missing data

Working Party meeting September 2010

Conclusion: there are a still several unresolved challenges related to the Urban Audit data collection

High level stakeholder meeting December 2010

Conclusion: The Urban Audit should be continued. DG REGIO is ready to continue providing substantial financial support

Think tank meeting March 2011 Conclusion: The proposed thorough revision of the Urban

Audit found unanimous support

Ten proposed

actions of the

Urban Audit

revision

Chapter 2

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1. Create a consistent list of cities The current list of cities is over-complex: standard

list, additional list for some countries, large city Audit etc.

New target: include all European cities with more than 50 000 inhabitants in the Urban Audit

Advantage: Thanks to the revision of the “degree of urbanisation”, LF and EU-SILC will provide country level values for all cities

These figures can be used in combination with other information, primarily administrative data, to improve the quality of the city specific estimates

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2. Create consistent spatial definitions of cities

Eurostat and DG REGIO are currently conducting a comprehensive analysis of all European core cities and Larger Urban Zones (LUZ), based on the newly developed urban-intermediate-rural typology

This approach, based on objective criteria, will significantly increase the comparability of Urban Audit statistics

As a result, there will be a list of European core cities (urban centres) and LUZ (agglomerations) following a harmonised methodology

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3. Create a focused list of indicators

Currently we collect 40 variables annually and 330 variables every three years

In order to ease the burden on data suppliers, we will collect in future 85 variables annually and 175 variables every five years

Policy relevance and response rate were the guiding principles for deleting or keeping variables

Future Urban Audit data collection

future annual26.3%

in addition exhaustive

24.0%collected centrally

11.1%

deleted38.6%

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4. Revise the frequency of data collections

There is a trade-off between response burden and timeliness of data

Eurostat proposes to increase the scope of the annual data collection (=timely data)

Decrease the frequency of the exhaustive data collection to every five years

With a significantly shorter list than at the current stage

These measures will considerably reduce the burden on NSIs

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5. Reach an overall 80% response rate

Reduce the number of required variables by deleting those with a poor response rate

Increase the number of centrally collected variables, i.e. data put together by Eurostat from existing Europe wide source (EEA, Urban Atlas of DG REGIO etc.)

Foster estimations of the data suppliers

Grants for estimating missing data

Create a Board of Urban Audit Advisers that gives advice on estimation techniques

Collect at least data for all urban areas in each country (using the new “degree of urbanisation”)

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6. Improve the data validation process

Fine tuning of Eurostat’s validation tools

Encourage validation by the data suppliers

7. Increase direct cooperation with cities

After each collection round, the data set for each city should be sent to the individual cities

Cities will be asked to confirm or improve the data

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8. Improve communication with users

Restructure the public Eurostat database (Eurobase), taking more into account the user perspective and the possibilities offered by the data explorer

Intensify the dialogue with the cities involved

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9. Increase awareness of urban statistics

A joint Eurostat / DG REGIO publication on the "State of European Cities" should be launched starting 2012

This publication should have descriptive and analytical elements

It should have an annual frequency

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10. Exploit synergies with other statistical data collections

Harmonised definitions shall be used as much as possible to support the analysis of functional regions, metropolitan regions, coastal regions, etc.

Using the new “degree of urbanisation” concept, statistics can be produced for all urban areas in a country

These figures can then be used as benchmarks for city specific estimations

Next steps and

time table

Chapter 3

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Next steps in the Urban Audit revision

DM discussion May 2011

Meeting of all nationalUrban Audit coordinators June 2011

Present strategy at ESS-Com. Oct 2011

Implementation Jan 2012

Thank you for

your attention!

Any Questions ?