Archive:Coastal regions - population statistics
Coastal regions: people living along the coastline, integration of NUTS 2010 and latest population grid
Statistics in focus 30/2013; Author: Isabelle COLLET, Andries ENGELBERT
ISSN:2314-9647 Catalogue number:KS-SF-13-030-EN-N
This Statistics Explained article is outdated and has been archived - for recent articles on Coastal regions see here.
This article presents recent statistics on the population of the coastal regions of the European Union (EU). Among the 1 294 NUTS 3 regions included in the NUTS 2010 classification, 439 were defined as coastal regions. In 2011, 40.8 % of the EU-27 population lived in coastal regions which covered 40.0 % of EU-27 territory. The geo-spatial data analysis below highlights the disparities in population distribution patterns along the coastline.
Main statistical findings
In the EU, a coastal region is defined as a NUTS 3 region with either a sea border or without a coastline but where more than half of the population lives within 50 kilometres (km) of the sea. Coastal regions are distributed along oceans and seas (also called sea basins) bordering the EU coastline, i.e. the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, the North East Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea and outermost regions, as Map 1 shows.
The inputs used for defining a region as coastal or non-coastal are the NUTS classification and the population grid (GEOSTAT). Both of these inputs have been updated. NUTS 2010 replaces NUTS 2006 and the 2006 population grid replaces the 2001 population grid. In order to take these changes into account, the selection of coastal regions in the EU has been updated. The definition of a coastal region has not changed thus any differences are due to the new version of the NUTS classification and the new population grid used. Moreover, the geographical coverage of the definition of coastal regions has been extended to EFTA and candidate countries, specifically the level 3 statistical regions of these countries, as shown in Map 1.
The 439 coastal regions of the EU are located in the 22 Member States with a coastline. All NUTS 3 regions in the island countries of Cyprus, Malta and Iceland are coastal, as are all regions in Denmark; in Estonia and Ireland all regions except one are coastal regions. Among the 439 European coastal regions, 375 regions have a sea border as shown in Table 1.
Distribution of the population within coastal strips
In addition to the update of coastal region typology, a spatial analysis has been carried out to look more closely at the distribution of the population within areas of different widths along the coastline (also called coastal strips). The analysis was applied to coastal strips of 5, 15 and 50 km. Using the latest population grid (GEOSTAT) and several sizes of coastal strips, the analysis provided a breakdown of the population living within a coastal strip and the areas of the coastal strips. The area was calculated and the population figures were estimated by NUTS 3 regions. Thus, for example, it has been possible to evaluate that around 59 500 people lived within 50 km of the sea in the northern Finnish region of ‘Lappi’ accounting for 32 % of the total population of the region, as shown on Map 2. The proportion of the regional population living within a coastal strip of 50 km, in particular, was used for updating the coastal region typology.
The share of the regional population living in a coastal strip of 5, 15 or 50 km as the share of the regional area within 5, 15 and 50 km of the sea could also be estimated and mapped. It is noteworthy that in all countries with a sea border the majority of the population in coastal regions lived within 50 km from the sea. However, the share of the population in coastal regions living within 15 km and 5 km from the sea showed wide disparities between the countries. Thus, as shown in Table 2, 6 % of the population in Belgian coastal regions lived within 5 km from the sea, while this share was about 98 % for Maltese coastal regions.
As the map series show (Map 3), the share of the population in coastal regions living within the coastal strips depends greatly on the strip amplitude and on the region. Thus, for the Italian region of Napoli 51 % of the people lived within 5 km from the sea, 93 % within 15 km and 100 % within 50 km. For the Italian region of ‘Campobasso’ these percentages were 17 % (5 km strip), 27 % (15 km strip) and 51 % (50 km strip), respectively.
Concentration of the population along the sea borders
Access to the sea and by extension a coastal strip can be seen as an economic good, not a usual consumption good but an asset enjoyed by the inhabitants of a particular coastal strip. However living along the sea border may also be a risk (flood, spill), and the different concentration of the population or human activities along the coast also interact with the maritime environment. In order to evaluate the distribution and concentration of the coastal strip area (the asset) among the coastal strip inhabitants, a Gini coefficient has been calculated by country, as shown in Figure 2. The Gini coefficient measures the inequality among values of a frequency distribution. A Gini coefficient of zero expresses perfect equality, where all values are the same. For example, when 10 % of the coastal strip population live in 10 % of the coastal strip areas, 20 % of the coastal strip population live in 20 % of the coastal strip area, etc. A Gini coefficient of 1 expresses maximal inequality among values.
The Gini coefficient is based on the Lorenz curve which plots the proportion of the total coastal strip area (y axis) that is cumulatively occupied by the bottom x% of the population of the coastal strip. A line at 45 degrees thus represents the perfect equality of area distribution. The Gini coefficient can then be considered as the ratio of the area that lies between the line of equality and the Lorenz curve.
In order to draw the Lorenz curve, the coastal strip of 50 km has been considered. For each country, the area and population figures were ranked by increasing area per inhabitant, i.e. the figures from the region with the smallest coastal strip area per inhabitant was considered first, and so on to build the cumulative curves. The areas taken into account were the surface of the coastal strip, not the surface of the region.
Thus according to the figures the distribution of the coastal strip area was more equally distributed in France than in the United Kingdom as an example.
The Lorenz curve mapped for the United Kingdom, Spain and France seems to underline the different patterns of the area distribution. As shown in Figure 1, around 50 % of British inhabitants living within 50 km of the sea were concentrated in less than 10 % of the coastal strip area. In Spain, 50 % of the inhabitants living within 50 km of the sea were concentrated in 20 % of the coastal strip area. In France, 50 % of the inhabitants living within 50 km of the sea were concentrated in 30 % of the coastal strip area.
Impact of NUTS 2010 and the new population grid
NUTS 2010 includes 1 294 NUTS 3 regions while NUTS 2006 included 1 303. There are now 39 new regions replacing 48 old regions. The new regions have come about as a result of mergers, splits or boundary shifts. These changes occurred in 5 Member states: Germany, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Of the 48 old regions, 14 were considered as coastal as shown in Table 3. These regions have been replaced by 39 new regions, 15 of which are coastal. The net impact of these changes (i.e. one additional coastal region) can be called ‘the NUTS’ effect and is presented in Figure 3.
The other changes in NUTS 2010 compared with NUTS 2006 comprise code or label changes. In term of their boundaries, 1 255 NUTS 3 regions remained the same in NUTS 2010 compared with NUTS 2006. Of these 1 255 regions, only 10 regions belonging to 4 Member States (highlighted in Table 4) have been reclassified: 9 former coastal regions can now be considered as non-coastal and the German region of Bremen can be considered as coastal. The net impact of these changes can be termed ‘the grid effect’, and is presented in Figure 3.
The use of NUTS 2010 and the new population grid has affected the coastal regions’ typology in two ways: the NUTS effect, due to the classification of the 39 new regions, and the grid effect, whereby some of the 1 255 unchanged regions have been reclassified as shown in Figure 3. Taking into account both these effects, the updated typology now includes 7 fewer coastal regions and 2 fewer non-coastal regions, as shown in Figure 4.
Impact of the update on the distribution of area
The update has also modified the area allocated to coastal regions. In order to evaluate the impact, the distribution of area under the updated typology can be compared with the distribution under the previous typology for a single reference year, namely 2011.
In 2011, the coastal regions covered 40.0 % of EU territory; under the former typology coastal regions accounted for 40.4 % of EU territory. The update affects the distribution of area in only 4 Member States: Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and the United Kingdom. However, there was only a limited impact at EU level and in the Member States, except in the Netherlands.
Impact of the update on the distribution of population
Concerning the area analysed in the previous paragraph, the update has also affected the proportion of the population living in coastal regions. In order to evaluate the impact, the same method of using the population for a single reference year (2011) is applied.
The distribution of the EU population by coastal region typology was only slightly affected by the update. In 2011, 502 million people lived in the EU, of which 40.8 % lived in a coastal region under the updated coastal region typology. Under the previous typology, 41.4 % of the EU population lived in a coastal region. Thus, the impact was less significant in terms of population than in terms of area, except in the United Kingdom where the population in coastal regions decreased by 3.0 percentage points while the area decreased by 1.7 percentage points, as can be seen in Figure 5.
Data sources and availability
Geo-spatial data analysis
The data created in this analysis represent the population living in coastal NUTS 3 regions, at specific distances from the coastline. The population values have been extracted from a population grid that contains population density values from 2006. The original data was contained in the population grid file, which is a raster file containing pixel values. These values needed to be displayed on a NUTS 3 level, requiring a transition from the raster to vector format. A further requirement was that the population was to be calculated for coastal strips 5, 15 and 50 km wide.
The first step was to create zones along the coastline at the specified distances (also called coastal strips). Then the coastal regions layer had to be clipped with each coastal strip, yielding four new layers for the coastal regions. From the population grid three clips were created, containing only the pixels existing within the coastal regions’ 5, 15 and 50 km coastal strips. The population density values from the grid were extracted to points, so that every point generated contained the value of the underlying one grid pixel. In order to calculate the population values per NUTS regions, the points must be associated with their respective NUTS 3 regions. This was done by performing a spatial join, which adds the appropriate NUTS code to all points.
At this point in the analysis, each point still had its own population value, so the values were summarised by NUTS code. This gave the total population per coastal NUTS 3 region in a table. To display these total population values on a map, the values had to be joined to the coastal strips from polygons of NUTS regions. This gave the coastal strips with their population values allowing them to be displayed in the right colours on a map.
Population grid
Statistical grid data are data which are geographically referenced to a system of (usually squared) grid cells in a grid net with Cartesian coordinates. One of the first results of the GEOSTAT project has been a prototype European population grid dataset for the reference year 2006 at 1 km2 resolution. The GEOSTAT 2006 dataset contains the total population of the four EFTA countries and all EU countries, with the exception of Cyprus, for which no LAU2 population data were available for the reference year 2006. 12 European countries provided national statistical grid data derived from point data sources, in most cases geo-referenced population and address registers. The remaining 18 grid datasets were produced using a spatial disaggregation model.
Population on 1 January should be based on the concept of usual resident population, and is the number of inhabitants of a given area on 1 January of the year in question (or, in some cases, on 31 December of the previous year). The population figures can be based on data from the most recent census adjusted by the components of population change produced since the last census, or based on population registers.
Total area represents the total area of the region including inland waters; it is expressed in km2.
A coastal strip is a land area of x km wide along the coastline.
Context
The EU and EFTA countries have an enormous coastline along the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans and several sea basins: the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. The Atlantic Ocean coastal regions border the Celtic seas on one hand and the Bay of Biscay and the Iberian coast on the other. None of the EU Member States have a coastal region classified to the Arctic Ocean basin. The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs provides more information about each of these sea basins in the European Atlas of the Seas, as well as information about strategies for each area.
Fishing, shipbuilding, maritime transport, ports and offshore energy-related activities (such as the extraction of fossil fuels and electricity generation) are major coastal and maritime economic activities; furthermore, tourism plays an important role in many coastal economies, while the oceans and seas have important recreational, cultural and ecological functions.
Maritime and coastal policies
Competition for marine space and the cumulative impact of human activities on marine ecosystems require a collaborative and integrated approach to the wide range of policy areas affecting maritime issues. In October 2007, the Commission adopted the Blue Paper launching an 'integrated maritime policy for the European Union’(Commision Final 0575/2007). The aims of this policy are to maximise the sustainable use of oceans and seas, enhance Europe’s knowledge and innovation potential in maritime affairs, ensure development and sustainable growth in coastal regions, strengthen Europe’s maritime leadership and raise the profile of maritime Europe. This policy stresses the importance of coastal regions due to their geographic location and aims to develop sea basin strategies.
The Marine strategy framework Directive Commision Final 0575/2007 was adopted in 2008 within the overall context of the integrated maritime policy and aims to protect the marine environment and natural resources and create a framework for the sustainable use of marine waters.
The Recommendation 2002/413/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the implementation of integrated coastal zone management in Europe defines the principles of sound coastal planning and management and dates from 2002; in other words before the integrated maritime policy. The recommendation was established in response to the perception that coastal planning activities or development decisions were often taken in a sectoral, fragmented way, leading to inefficient use of resources, conflicting claims on space and missed opportunities for more sustainable coastal development. Given the need for coherent planning of coastal and maritime areas, a proposal for a follow-up to the 2002 recommendation is, at the time of writing, being prepared.
Maritime transport and ports
Maritime transport provides the main mode for EU imports and exports to the rest of the world: around two fifths of the EU’s external freight trade is seaborne; short sea shipping also plays a significant role in intra-EU trade. The quality of life on islands and in peripheral maritime regions depends on maritime transport services.
The EU’s maritime transport policies aim to prevent substandard shipping, reducing the risk of serious maritime accidents and minimising the environmental impact of maritime transport. EU legislation also concerns working conditions within the maritime transport sector and the protection of consumers’ rights.
In 2009, the European Commission updated its Strategic goals and recommendations for the EU’s maritime transport policy until 2018’ (Commision Final 0008/2009). The two main recommendations concerned:
- the ability of the maritime transport sector to provide cost-efficient maritime transport services adapted to the needs of sustainable economic growth of the EU and world economies;
- the long-term competitiveness of the EU shipping sector, enhancing its capacity to generate value and employment in the EU, both directly and indirectly, through the whole cluster of maritime industries.
In October 2007, the European Commission adopted a ‘Communication on a European ports policy’ (COM(2007) 616), focussing on capacity, freedom of access, competition, flexible employment and the environment. It aims to help concentrate efforts so that the EU’s ports can face future challenges, attract new investment and fully contribute to the development of intermodal transport.
Coastal tourism
Tourism in coastal regions can provide employment opportunities and also contribute to regional development and economic and social integration. In its 2010 communication on tourism (see the article on regional tourism statistics for more information) the European Commission recognised the importance of maritime and coastal tourism as a catalyst for economic development and indicated its intention to carry out actions to encourage tourism development as part of an integrated maritime policy.
See also
- Population grids (background article)
Further Eurostat information
Data visualisation
- Regional Statistics Illustrated - select statistical domain 'Population' (top right)
Publications
- Eurostat Regional yearbook 2010 - Chapter 14 - Coastal regions - November 2010
- Eurostat Regional yearbook 2011 - Chapter 2 - Population - December 2011
- Eurostat Regional yearbook 2011 - Chapter 13 - Coastal regions - December 2011
- Eurostat Regional yearbook 2012 - Chapter 13 - Coastal regions (online article June 2012 paper version end 2010)
- Maritime service areas - Statistics in focus 41/2011
- Nearly half of the population of EU countries with a sea border is located in coastal regions - Statistics in focus 47/2009
- Portrait of EU coastal regions - Statistics in focus 38/2010
- The Mediterranean and Black Sea basins - Statistics in focus 14/2011
Database
- Maritime coastal regions, see:
- Maritime regions (mare)
- Demography statistics by coastal regions (mare_demo)
- Area of the regions (mare_d3area)
- Population density (mare_d3dens)
- Population by sex and age groups on 1 January (mare_pjanaggr3)
- Demographic balance and crude rates (mare_gind3)
- Demography statistics by coastal regions (mare_demo)
Dedicated section
Methodology / Metadata
Source data for tables, figures and maps (MS Excel)
External links