Archive:European cities - spatial dimension
- Data from March 2008, most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database.
Data on European cities were collected in the Urban Audit project. The project’s ultimate goal is to help improve the quality of urban life: it supports the exchange of experience among European cities; it helps to identify best practices; it facilitates benchmarking at European level; and it provides information on the dynamics both within the cities and with their surroundings.
The Urban Audit has become a core task of Eurostat. Even so, the project would not have been possible without sustained help and support from a wide range of colleagues. In particular, we would like to acknowledge the effort made by the cities themselves, the national statistical institutes and the Directorate-General for Regional Policy of the European Commission.
Main statistical findings
10th anniversary
The Urban Audit celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. The ‘Urban Audit pilot project’ was the first attempt to collect comparable indicators on European cities, and was first conducted by the Commission in June 1999. The past 10 years have brought many changes, and we have constantly made efforts to improve the quality of the data — including coverage, comparability and relevance. So, where we are now? The list of indicators has been enhanced to take account of new policy needs; the periodicity has been reduced to satisfy users; and geographical coverage has been extended following successive rounds of EU enlargement.
10th anniversary
Data sources and availability
Enhanced list of indicators
There have been three major revisions of the list so far. Policy relevance, data availability and experience with previous collections have been reviewed to produce the current list of more than 300 indicators. These indicators cover several aspects of quality of life, such as demography, housing, health, crime, labour market, income disparity, local administration, educational qualifications, the environment, climate, travel patterns, the information society and cultural infrastructure. They are derived from the variables collected by the European Statistical System. Data availability differs from domain to domain: in the domain of demography, for example, data are available for more than 90 % of the cities, whereas for the environment data are available for less than half of the cities. In 2009 we will introduce new indicators to symbolise the relationship between the city and its hinterland.
Moving from five-year periodicity to annual data collection
Four reference years have been defined so far for the Urban Audit: 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2004. For the years 1991 and 1996, data were collected retrospectively only for a reduced number of 80 variables. Where data for these years were not available, data from adjacent years were also accepted. In 2009 Eurostat launched an annual Urban Audit, requesting data for a limited number of variables. The annual data will help users to monitor certain urban developments more closely.
Extended geographical coverage
The pilot study in 1999 covered 58 cities from 15 countries. Since then the number of participating countries has doubled and the number of cities has grown sixfold. At present the Urban Audit covers 362 cities from 31 countries — including the EU-27, Croatia, Turkey, Norway and Switzerland. The 321 Urban Audit cities in the EU-27 have more than 120 million inhabitants, covering approximately 25 % of the total population. This extended sample ensures that the results give a reliable portrait of urban Europe.
The number of cities was limited and the ones selected should reflect the geographical crosssection of each country. Consequently, in a few countries some large cities (over 100 000 inhabitants) were not included. To complement the Urban Audit data collection in this respect, the Large City Audit was launched. The Large City Audit includes all ‘non-Urban Audit cities’ with more than 100 000 inhabitants in the EU-27. For these cities a reduced set of 50 variables is collected.
We invite all readers to explore the wealth of information gathered in the past 10 years by browsing the Urban Audit data on Eurostat’s website.
Context
Improving the attractiveness of regions and cities is one of the priorities targeted by the renewed Lisbon strategy and the Community strategic guidelines on cohesion for 2007–13. Quality of life is crucial in attracting and retaining a skilled labour force, businesses, students, tourists and, most of all, residents in a city. Assessing the current situation is a prerequisite for any improvement, development and future monitoring. The Urban Audit is a response to this demand for assessment. This data collection provides information on the different aspects of the quality of urban life in Europe’s cities.
The Urban Audit is the result of a joint effort by the participating cities, the statistical offices belonging to the European statistical system and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Regional Policy. The success of this data collection depends on their contributions and continued support.
What makes the Urban Audit unique?
The Urban Audit exercise can now look back over almost a decade of trials, errors, and achievements. Several concepts were tested and large volumes of data were collected during the pilot study in 1999, the first large-scale data collection round of 2003/04 and the most recent collection round of 2006/07. The data which passed the quality control procedures has, since April 2008, been available in Eurostat’s statistical databases. The uniqueness of the Urban Audit data set lies in the extent of its three main dimensions: its wide choice of indicators, its large geographical coverage and its decade-long time series.
What makes a city attractive? Residents are attracted to cities with a high quality of life, businesses are attracted to cities with a good skills base and infrastructure, students are attracted to cities with a good university or college, and tourists are attracted to cities with cultural values and mild weather, etc. As a result, a city’s attractiveness is determined by a number of factors. In the previous paragraphs we mentioned a few, such as demographic characteristics, economic structure, the environment and social aspects. However, several other elements could be analysed. We encourage readers to probe deeper into the Urban Audit database and discover which cities they find attractive.
Further Eurostat information
Publications
- The Urban Audit — measuring the quality of life in European cities - Statistics in focus 82/2008
Main tables
- Urban audit, see:
- Demographic indicators - Total resident population
- Demographic indicators - Households with children aged 0-17
- Social indicators - Average living area in square meter per person
- Social indicators - Mortality rate for <65 from heart diseases and respiratory illness
- Social indicators - Number of car thefts per 1000 population
- Training and Education indicators - Students in higher education (ISCED 97 levels 5-6) per 1000 population
- Economic indicators - Activity rate
- Economic indicators - Unemployment rate
- Travel and Transport indicators - Number of registered cars per 1000 population
- Environment indicators - Collected solid waste per capita per year
- Cultural indicators - Total annual tourist overnight stays in registered accommodation per year
Database
- Urban audit, see:
- Key indicators for core cities
- Derived indicators for core city
- Derived indicators for larger urban zones
- Derived indicators for sub-city districts
- Reduced set of derived indicators for 570 cities
- Data collected for core city
- Data collected for larger urban zones
- Reduced set of data collected for 570 cities
- Perception survey results
Dedicated section
- Regions and cities, see:
- City statistics - Urban Audit