1. 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, 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…

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

3. 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

4. Variables
Indicators

5. 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

6. 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

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

8. New structure

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

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

11. 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)

12. 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

13. Evaluation results
1999
2001
Total=514
Total=321

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

15. 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”

16. 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)

17. 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

18. 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

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