Statistics Sweden

Regions and Environment Department

Klostergatan 23

70189 ÖREBRO

SWEDEN

The assessment of costs associated with a statistical product is a rather complicated task since there must exist a mechanism for appointing portions of shared costs (for instance the business register or shared IT resources and dissemination channels) and overheads (office space, utility bills etc). The assessment must become detailed and clear enough so that international comparisons among agencies of different structures are feasible.
For measuring the cost on statistical offices, Eurostat proposes to make use of the following very short calculation, even if Eurostat is aware of the fact that such a measure may be complicated.

Costs summary (optional):

Burden on respondents:

The overall cost on respondents for delivering the information depends on three components:
R = the number of respondents;
T = the time required to provide the information, including time spent assembling information prior to completing a form or taking part in interview and the time taken up by any subsequent contacts after receipt of the questionnaire (‘Re-contact time’);
C = the average hourly cost (in national currency) of a respondent’s time.

Thus, if we neglect costs such as the start-up costs of creating systems to comply with the survey, computing costs or the use of consumables, etc., the cost on businesses should be estimated as follows:
Formula:Total Cost = R x T x C
The formula is confined to respondent cost only. Please do not encounter non-respondents’ time spent on the survey (time spent until they stop dealing with it).

If an estimate on average hourly cost is difficult to make, please provide us with figures for the other two elements, so we derive an estimate about response burden in hours spent:
Formula:Total Hours = R x T

Components of burden and a description of how these estimates were reached (optional):

Specific classification and coding systems have been developed for the spatial units and for the variables and indicators of the Urban Audit project.

Classification system for the spatial units

The city code consists of a 2-digit country code, a 3-digit city code and a final C for City - for FUA an L is used and for Greater City a K.

Classification system for the UA variables

A variable is the raw data collected by the national statistical offices of the countries. The variable data serves as the raw data for the calculation of the indicators. The variables serve as either the numerator or denominator of the indicator equation, depending on how this has been defined.

Classification system for the UA indicators

Indicators are labelled in a similar way to variables, except that the names end with an I to identify them as indicators.

For examples on these classifications please refer to the UA reference metadata.

The indicators and variables cover several aspects of quality of life, for e.g. demography, housing, health, labour market, income disparity, local administration, educational qualifications, environment, climate, travel patterns, information society and cultural infrastructure.

For the complete list of indicators and variables see the Urban Audit Reference Metadata.

For most of the indicators, existing international standards have been followed as far as possible.

Detailed information on concepts and definitions used are available from the Methodological manual on city statistics.

In the Urban Audit data is collected for cities.

The selection of participating towns / cities and the definition of the composition of the FUA and the Greater City in terms of spatial units need to respect certain criteria set by DG Regional Policy and Eurostat and those concerning statistical quality in general:

• the participating towns / cities in each country should represent about 20% of the population in that country
• the participating towns / cities should reflect a good geographical distribution within the country (peripheral, central)
• coverage should include more medium-sized towns / cities than was the case in the Urban Audit Pilot Phase (medium-sized towns / cities are defined as having a population of between 50.000 - 250.000 inhabitants; large towns / cities are defined as >250.000)
• there should be comparability of data to enable comparative analysis between towns / cities
• data should be available

This "sampling" procedure for the Urban Audit project was carefully and specifically designed by Eurostat, DG REGIO, the National Statistical Offices and the towns / cities in the countries. The final selection of participating towns / cities in the Urban Audit was a compromise between all aspects.

The Greater City involves all "non-Urban Audit cities" with more than 100.000 inhabitants in the EU. The list of participating cities was agreed bilaterally with the Member States.

EU Member States, Switzerland and Norway are represented in the data collection.

2018

Not applicable.

The unit of measurement varies from indicator to indicator; from variable to variable. In most cases the unit of measurement is included in the label.

Data collected for the Urban Audit project cover the reference year 2018.

Visit the Portal to European Union Law.

All data supply of urban statistics is based on a voluntary agreement, as there is no Community legislation yet on this topic http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/index.htm.

Not applicable.

Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.

Not applicable.

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The periodicity of the data is 1 year. All indicators are collected annually.

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Important changes in variable definitions in different versions of the Glossary are properly documented.

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Recommendations for improvements

a.Adding variables

Gender perspective. To further describe the living conditions between men and women would be of great interest. For instance some of the variables under the domain Economic Activity (EC2) could be collected for both men and women.

b.Removing variables

Variables very few Cities have been able to collect or produce should be removed from the collection. It is difficult to say which variables that should or could be removed, but it is important that you remove variables when you add new ones so that you keep the audit from growing in number of variables.

Not available.

Not available.

Travel Patterns (TT1)

Some of the variables are not available.

Culture and recreation (CR1)

Some of the variables are not available.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

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Depends on the domain and individual indicator. As a general rule, timeliness is about 24 months.

The first delivery of data was delivered to Eurostat as planned, September 2018. The next delivery was sent in September 2019, according to the Eurostat requirements.

The approach of collecting data from existing sources makes it difficult and sometimes impossible to achieve comparability of variables over the entire "population". The National Urban Audit Coordinators did their best to achieve comparability of urban data, at least within their own country. 

Due to the sometimes deviating definitions and different data sources used the comparability of data is limited to some extent. Detailed information is available from the Methodological manual on city statistics or upon request.

For more information please refer to the UA reference metadata.

Not applicable.

Data collected at sub-national level is coherent with the data collected at national level to a limited extent due to the different data sources used.

Internal coherence (e.g. between spatial levels, between indicators like total, male, female population) is ensured through the application of multivariable and univariable validation controls.

Not available.

No preliminary data is published.

As the Urban data cover are very extensive, it cannot be excluded that errors exist in the data. Detected errors will be corrected.

Demography (DE)

Population (DE1)

Data produced by Statistics Sweden from Statistics Sweden's Total Population Register (TPR). The vital statistics in TPR are based on the notifications of births, deaths, migrations etc, which the TPR obtains daily from the Tax Authorities.

Nationality (DE2)

Data produced by Statistics Sweden from the Total Population Register (TPR).

Household Structure (DE3)

Data produced by Statistics Sweden from the Total Population Register (TPR).

Social aspects (SA)

Housing (SA1)

Variables SA1001V, SA1004V, SA1005V, SA1007V and SA1008V; data were produced and estimated by Statistics Sweden Sources used: Dwelling stock (projected). The dwelling stock projected is based upon the Census of Population and housing 1990 and updated yearly with reported new construction, conversion and demolition.

Health (SA2)

Health data were produced and collected by Statistics Sweden.

Variables SA2004V-SA2021V and SA2016V-SA2018V, source: Statistics Sweden, the Total Population Register (TPR).

The data under the domain SA2 have been collected centrally by Statistics Sweden to make sure that the same definitions have been used for all Cities.

Crime (SA3)

Data not available.

Economic Aspects (EC)

Labour Market (EC1)

Data produced and collected by Statistics Sweden.

Variables produced by Statistics Sweden, source: Labour market statistics based on administrative sources (RAMS). The definition used in the register comprises any person who has worked for at least one hour per week during the month of November. Those temporarily absent during the survey period, for instance due to sick leave, are also included. Labour statistics from administrative sources aim to offer annual information on employment, commuters, employees and industrial structures and also to illustrate occurrences and flows on the labour market. The statistics are based on total population surveys and can be broken down into smaller regional areas. Labour statistics based on administrative sources allow data to be presented in great detail. The statistics are produced annually and are presented approximately 12 months after the measuring period (November) each year.

Economie Activity (EC2)

Data produced by Statistics Sweden from registers based on labour market statistics (RAMS) and Structural business statistics.

Training and Education (TE)

Education and Training provision (TE1)

Data produced by Statistics Sweden.

Variable TE1001V; Data were produced with data from Statistics Swedens registers.

Educational Qualifications (TE2)

Data produced by Statistics Sweden from The Swedish Register of Education. The register can roughly be described as consisting of a base of graduation and educational background data from the 1990/1970 censuses, each year updated with graduation/examination data from regular educational institutions in Sweden such as primary and secondary schools, universities etc. The register comprises the population 16-74 years old registered as resident in Sweden 1 January each year. The register contains an essential core of demographic and education data in addition to the Personal Identification Number, necessary as a linking key in building and updating the register. The Register of Education is updated once a year. A new version of the register is usually available in April, e.g. around four months after the time of reference (1 January). For demographic variables, data from current Total Population Register (TPR) are used. The most important sources are the register of graduated from higher education and the registers of school leavers from compulsory and from upper secondary school. These registers are continuously updated with data reported by all primary and secondary schools, universities etc.

Environment (EN)

Air Quality and Noise (EN2)

All data collected centrally.

Land Use (EN5)

All data collected centrally.

Travel and Transport (TT)

Travel Patterns (TT1)

Variables TT1080V: Data were collected from the regional public transport authorities in each region.

Variables TT1057V, TT1013V: data produced by Statistics Sweden, register Registered Vehicles, responsible organization Swedish Institute for Transport and Communications Analysis.

Variables TT1064V, TT1065: data produced by Statistics Sweden from registers based on labour market statistics (RAMS) and Structural business statistics.

Variables TT1060V: Data were colected from the Swedish government agency Transport Analysis.

Culture and Recreation (CR)

Culture and Recreation (CR1)

Variables CR1003V and CR1005V: Data collected from the Swedish Film Institute.

Variables CR1007V: Data collected from the Swedish Agency for Cultural Policy Analysis.

Tourism (CR2)

Data produced and collected by Statistics Sweden.

Not available.

The majority of variables could be collected from different departments within Statistics Sweden, but we have also had help from other Swedish authorities with gathering of data, such as the Swedish Agency for Cultural Policy Analysis

and the Swedish Transport Agency.

Statistics Sweden has conducted a quality and validation control of variables during September 2019.

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