EUROSTAT
Directorate E: Sectoral and regional statistics
Unit E-4: Regional statistics and geographical information
E4/REG/2013/9
(Only available in EN)
Working Party on Regional Statistics and Rural Development
to be held in Luxembourg on 30.09.2013 and 01.10.2013
State of play of rural development statistics
Item 8.2 of the agenda
Document available on CircaBC:
target="_self" title="Documents">Documents</a>
The members of the Regional Statistics and Rural Development Working Group are asked:
- to take note of the update of the urban-rural typology
- to reflect on the interim results of two projects
- to express their views on the dissemination activities of Eurostat
- to endorse the planned future actions
Abstract
Rural development statistics aim at measuring economic, social and environmental issues related to rural areas. In order to calculate appropriate indicators for this domain, Eurostat used data already at its disposal and has launched additional data collection covering the further information needed.
In 2013 two new projects are being carried out. One focuses on data collection and the second on data quality of aggregates.
The urban-rural typology has been updated taking into account the NUTS 2010 and the most recent (2006) grid based population data.
In 2013 the visibility of the domain has been improved further.
1.Introduction
Rural development is a broad concept mainly covering the improvement of the quality of life and encouraging diversification of the economy in rural areas. Rural development represents the second pillar of the Common Agricultural Policy. Moreover, the urban-rural aspects of the EU regions play an important role in the EU regional policy.
The European Annual Statistical Work Programme for 2013[1] in particular includes under Objective 08.1 Support policy-making by the use of spatial information combined with social, economic and environmental statistics specific actions dedicated to the rural development statistical domain.
Rural development statistics focus especially on socio-economic fields such as demography, the labour market, employment, education, economic accounts or economics activities (e.g. agriculture, industry, tourism, etc.). The rural development also refers to agricultural and environmental areas. However, these areas are not under the scope of this paper. "Rurality" for statistical purpose has been defined at NUTS3 level using the urban-rural typology. Data used in order to estimate indicators or aggregates for rural development are data by NUTS 3 regions.
The rural development indicators are mostly derived from the Annex VIII of the Commission Regulation (EC) n°1974/2006 and from discussions with the Members states in particular during previous rural development working groups. In order to calculate appropriate statistical indicators for rural development, Eurostat uses data already at its disposal. To provide further information needed, Eurostat launched a data collection in 2010 supported by grants. In December 2012 Eurostat signed a contract for the supply of statistical information in the field of rural development.
2.Data collection - Project on supply of statistical information in the field of rural development
The overall objective of this project is to complete the information in the socio-economic domains mainly at regional level for statistics on rural development without increasing the burden on National Statistical Institutes (NSIs). The data will be used to improve the existing statistics with the aim to update and complement the existing datasets. The work and the selection of variables are mainly based on the analysis of reports provided by several EU Member States in the framework of a grant agreement (2009 and 2010).
Project execution and coverage
The project is executed by Artemis Information Management Luxembourg and lasts twelve months. It is divided into several tasks and has been started with a data gap analysis. This gap analysis was followed by the collection of data and metadata from public sources (National Statistical Institutes or other national public institutions such as ministries). Then, the collected data and metadata is validated and finally prepared for their integration into the corresponding domains of Eurobase (planned for December 2013). At the moment the data preparation and validation is ongoing. Data collection includes all EU Member States. Data have to be prepared at NUTS 3 levelcoming from different data collections such as demography, accounts, labour force, agriculture and fishery, enterprise, education, health, tourism and environment statistics. Ideally the final datasets should contain data for the period 2005 to 2012.
Results and encountered difficulties
For a large part of the variables requested in the context of rural development policy, data are available either at Eurostat, on the websites of the National Statistical Institutes or other public institutions. The collection of data and complementary information (metadata) for the requested variables from national sources (NSI websites, websites of ministries) is relatively time consuming and not always easy due to different reasons:
- Data identification is difficult (data are not published in a separate section on regional data, data dimensions are often not mentioned in the table/variable titles).
- Presentation of regional levels on NSI websites not harmonised across countries (only national regional coding, different regional data disaggregation, only names of regions without any codes, data published at LAU level or according to urban/rural typology).
- Sometimes no metadata available.
Next steps
At the moment data and metadata for a number of variables are already compiled and in the validation phase. The work for remaining variables is still ongoing. It is planned to finish the data and metadata collection and the validation process by beginning of November 2013. Transmission of the final set of data and metadata to Eurostat is planned for December 2013. Eurostat plans to process these datasets in the first half of 2014.
3.Data quality - Project on Quality improvements of regional aggregates
Eurostat disseminates statistics at the level of aggregations of NUTS 3 regions. The aggregations are formed by grouping together the NUTS 3 regions of each Member State according to their type; e.g. predominantly rural NUTS 3 regions. The data at NUTS 3 level is called ‘input data’ and the data for groups of NUTS 3 regions is called ‘output data’. Sometimes data for individual NUTS 3 regions are missing. In this case, the statistics for the regional aggregates each such region belongs to are not computed either. Therefore, even if only one NUTS 3 component of an aggregate is missing, the aggregate will be missing too. The project ‘Quality improvements of regional aggregates’ aimed at improving this situation by analysing the following issues:
What is the extent of missing input and output data? Do they tend to concentrate in particular countries, regions or types of region? What is the impact of missing input on the output data?
Can a procedure for imputation of the missing input data be proposed? What is its performance and impact on the resulting output data?
What dissemination flags appear in the input and output data? Can a procedure be proposed for assigning flags to the output based on the flags of the input data?
Project execution and coverage
The project is executed by Agilis. It is divided into several tasks and has been started with a missing data analysis. This was followed by the overview of flag management and imputation methods. The project will propose guidelines for flag managements and imputation methods to be used in the future. Domains covered include: demography, accounts, labour force and patents.
Results
The report on missing values and flag management have been delivered and approved by Eurostat. The proposals on flag management and imputation methods are still under elaboration. All results will be published on CircaBC.
Next steps
It is planned to finish the project in 2013 and implement the recommendations concerning flag management and data imputation in the first half of 2014.
4.Update of the urban-rural typology
The urban-rural typology is a geographical typology based on the definition of urban versus rural grid cells of 1 km² each. The typology classifies the NUTS 3 regions into three groups: predominantly urban, intermediate and predominantly rural regions. The type of region depends on the share of the regional population living in rural grid cells, also called the rural population. According to the definition, the predominantly urban regions have less than 20% rural population, intermediate regions between 20% and 50% and predominantly rural regions more than 50%.
The main inputs used for establishing this typology are the NUTS classification and the population grid. Both of these inputs have been updated. NUTS 2010 replaces NUTS 2006 and the 2006 population grid replaces the2001 population grid. The urban-rural typology has been recalculated taking these changes into account. The methodology applied to classify the regions has not been changed. So the differences are due to the new version of the NUTS classification and the new population grid used to define grid cells.Among the 1294 NUTS 3 regions included in NUTS 2010, 316 are classified as predominantly urban, 496 as intermediate and 482 as predominantly rural. Moreover, the geographical coverage of the typology has been extended to EFTA and candidate countries, more specifically to the level 3 statistical regions of these countries, as shown in Map 1. For more information on the update of the urban-rural typology see the Statistics in focus 16/2013: Updated urban-rural typology: integration of NUTS 2010 and the latest population grid .
Map 1: Updated urban-rural typology for NUTS 3 regions, using 2006 population grid and according to NUTS 2010
Dissemination and contact
- Dedicated section
Dedicated section for the Rural development statistics has been enriched in 2013 and is available under the theme of general and regional statistics.
- Online data
Datasets using the urban-rural typology are available in the data navigation tree under the general and regional statistics.
- Latest publications
- Statistics in focus 16/2013: Updated urban-rural typology: integration of NUTS 2010 and the latest population grid
- Statistical Atlas / Regional yearbook: Focus on rural development
- Statistic explained / Regional yearbook: Focus on rural development
- Statistic explained: Territorialtypologies (including updated maps and tables on population and land area)
- Contact
In order to improve communication a functional mailbox is available for rural development statistics
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