- Methods and Projects
- Standards and Classifications
Standardised Methodological Report
Urban Indicators
- 1Contact
- 1.1Contact organisation
National Statistics Institute of Spain
- 1.5Contact mail address
Avenida de Manoteras 50-52 - 28050 Madrid
- 1.1Contact organisation
- 2Metadata update
- 2.1Metadata last certified
07/06/2024
- 2.2Metadata last posted
22/05/2023
- 2.3Metadata last update
07/06/2024
- 2.1Metadata last certified
- 3Statistical presentation
- 3.1Data description
The "Urban Indicators" Statistical Operation is based on a collection of data, providing information and comparable measurements on the different aspects of the quality of urban life in cities.
The final objective of the Project is to contribute to the improvement of urban quality of life: it favours the exchange of experiences among European cities; it helps identify the best practices; it facilitates the comparative assessment at European level and provides information on the dynamics within the cities and with their environment.
Directed by the European Commission Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy via Eurostat and developed by the National Statistics Institutes of the Member States, its main purpose is the collection, estimation and publishing of socio-economic statistical data in order to know and measure the quality of life in a specific amount of territories.
In the scope of the project more than 300 objective variables were obtained, which encompassed 9 dominions or components on the level of life: demography, social aspects, economic aspects, social participation, education and training, the environment, connections and transport, information and culture society and leisure. The scope of the Project is very wide, and not only collects information for cities but also for large metropolitan areas around these cities as well as at district level or similar within them.
The Urban Audit project requires that the INE collects and supplies Eurostat with a wide range of variables regarding the economic, demographic and social situation of most Spanish medium and large-sized cities (municipalities). At said level, Urban Audit currently contains 171 variables and 62 indicators. These indicators are derived from the variables collected by the European Statistical System.
Nevertheless, dissemination via the INE website is restricted to a selection of 39 indicators. From the territorial point of view, the spatial units of the last edition will be selected and the composition of the sub-municipal level (SCD) will be updated according to the "seccionado" on 1st January 20212 and the list of municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants with reference 1st January 2022.
- 3.2Classification system
- Clasificaciones utilizadas
Due to the fact that it is a study that collects information from several social and economic dominions, the classification systems are those corresponding to the numerous surveys and statistics used as sources of information. The following national classifications are used among others: National Classification of Economic Activities CNAE-2009, National Classification of Occupations NCO-11 and National Classification of Education CNED-2014.
Regarding territorial units, they are all encoded according to a series of criteria established by Eurostat and the European Commission Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy.
- Clasificaciones utilizadas
- 3.3Sector coverage
The indicators and variables cover several aspects of the quality of life, such as demography, housing, economic activity, labor market, income, education, the environment and tourism, among others.
- 3.4Statistical concepts and definitions
- Active population or active persons
The active population comprises employed and unemployed persons during the reference week.
- Age
Age in years refers to the number of birthdays reached by the reference date, in other words, the age last birthday.
- Annual rent per square meter
This refers to the annual income from renting the primary residence divided by the square meters of the property's surface area
- Average income per consumption unit
Equivalised income is a measure of household income that takes account of the differences in a household's size and composition, and thus is equivalised or made equivalent for all household sizes and compositions. The equivalised income is calculated by dividing the household's total income by its equivalent size,
which is calculated using the modified OECD equivalence scale.This scale attributes a weight to all members of the household:
1.0 to the first adult;
0.5 to the second and each subsequent person aged 14 and over;
0.3 to each child aged under 14. - Average time
This is the average time (in minutes) taken to travel between the place of residence and the workplace. The workplace must be located within the specified perimeter, whereas the place of residence may be anywhere, including abroad.
- Citizens born in the EU
These are all the persons who have the nationality of an EU country, regardless of the country in which they currently reside.
- Citizenship
Citizenship is defined as the particular legal bond between an individual and his/her State,, acquired by birth or naturalisation, whether by declaration, option, marriage or other means according to the national legislation.
- Company
The company is the smallest combination of legal units that is an organizational unit producing goods or
services, which benefits from a certain degree of autonomy in decision-making, especially for the
allocation of its current resources. A company carries out one or more activities at one or more
locations. A company may be a sole legal unit. - Conjunctural fertility indicator or Number of children per woman
It is defined as the average number of children a woman belonging to a specific scope would have throughout her fertile age in the case the fertile intensity by age remains
- Daycare centres
This includes all those public or private institutions that look after children during the day (for example: pre-school, kindergarten, nursery school or the equivalent - ISCED 2007 level 0). The aim is to measure the demand, and not the supply, of daycare (for all children aged <5 years old and who are not at home during the day). The data must include special schools, or the equivalent, for children with special needs (e.g. children with disabilities). In turn, the data must not include cultural/sporting/etc. activities, if undertaken for recreational purposes rather than childcare purposes. Child minders (qualified or unqualified) must be included if a direct payment or employment arrangement exists between the child minder and the parents. Babysitters and au pairs must also be included.
- Death
The statistical concept death used traditionally in Spain comprised the deaths of all persons that had lived for more than 24 hours. As of 1975, this concept has been broadened to include live births that die during the first 24 hours.
- Dwelling
Structurally separate and independent building that, due to the way in which it was built, rebuilt, transformed or adapted, is conceived to be inhabited by persons, or even if was not initially conceived as such, constitutes the regular residence of one or more persons during the reference period of the Statistical Operation. As an exception, the following are not considered dwellings: those buildings that, despite having been initially conceived for human inhabitation, at the time of the Statistical Operation are totally dedicated to other purposes (for example, those that are being used solely as locales, such as a doctor's office or an attorney's office).
- Employment
A set of tasks and duties performed, or meant to be performed, by a person, in her or his job post.
- Empty (unoccupied) dwelling
A family dwelling is considered to be unoccupied or empty when it is not the regular residence of any person, nor is it used seasonally, periodically or sporadically by anyone. These are uninhabited (vacant) dwellings.
- Estimated bedplaces in tourism accommodation
The number of bedplaces estimated by the survey in establishments open for the season.
The number of bedplaces is equal to the number of fixed beds in the establishment. Extra beds therefore are not included and double beds equal two bedplaces. - EU nationals
These are citizens from other EU countries.
- Foreign-born
This refers to a person who was born outside of the country of current regular residence, regardless of the person's citizenship.
- Hotel establishments
Hotel establishments are understood to be those establishments that offer collective accommodation services for payment, with or without other complementary services (hotel, hotel-apartment or apart-hotel, motel, inn, pension, etc.).
- Household according to residence criterion
A human group formed by one or more persons who regularly reside in a family dwelling for the entire year or most of it. There does not necessarily have to be kinship relations among the members of the group.
- Inactive population or inactive persons
The economically inactive population comprises all persons 16 years old and older who do not classify as employed, unemployed or population counted separately during the reference week.
- Job
Is defined as an explicit or implicit contract between a person (who can live in other economic territory) and a resident institutional unit to perform work in return for compensation for a defined period or until further notice. Job concept differs from employment since a person (employment) can carry out more than a job; one after another, during a given period (usually a week), or in parallel, as it happens when someone has a job during the day and another one at night. For measuring labour input to domestic economic activity, only the residence of the producer institutional unit is relevant, because resident producers alone contribute to gross domestic product.
- Journey to work
This refers to the shortest route (from the place of residence to the workplace, including changes of means of transport) by commuters travelling to their workplaces, located within certain boundaries, and it must include the journeys by workers who do not reside within the urban boundary, but who work therein.
- Life expectancy at birth
This is the average number of years that an individual is expected to live from the time of birth, if the mortality pattern of the observed period is maintained.
- Median age
Exact age that divides the distribution of ages of the resident population into two parts, leaving the same number of persons below and above this age.
- Mensual rent
This refers to the annual income from renting the primary residence divided by the 12 months of the year
- Nationals
These are the citizens of the country; this does not necessarily mean that they were born there.
- Native-born
This refers to a person who was born in the country of current regular residence, regardless of the person's citizenship.
- Native-born nationals
These are the citizens who were born in the country of their nationality, and in which they are still resident.
- Newborn
A foetus will only be classified as born if it has a human-like appearance and lives for twenty-four hours completely outside the mother's womb
- Non-EU nationals
This refers to those persons who have the citizenship of a country outside the EU.
- Non-EU nationals born in the EU country of residence
These are all the persons who have the nationality of a non-EU country, but were born in the EU country in which they have their current residence.
- Overnight stays or occupied bedplaces in tourism accommodation
An overnight stay is understood to be every night that a guest stays in the establishment. As occurs with the checking in of guests, occupied bedplaces are broken down according to place of residence.
- Passenger car
This is a motor vehicle, excluding motorcycles, intended for transporting passengers, and designed to seat no more than nine persons, including the driver. Therefore, the term ¿passenger car¿ includes micro-cars (which need no permit to be driven), taxis and hired passenger cars, provided that they have fewer than ten seats. This category may also include pick-ups.
- Public transport
This is a network of buses, trains, trams, etc., that run according to a planned time schedule, and that anyone can use. The provider of such services may be either the municipal authority or privately-owned companies.
- Regular residence according to Municipal Register
Place where a person normally spends his or her daily rest period, regardless of temporary absences for leisure purposes, holidays, visiting friends or relatives, business, medical treatment or religious pilgrimage.
- Resident population
The population resident in a given geographical scope is defined as those persons who, on the reference date, have established their usual residence therein.
- Total disposable household income
This is calculated by adding the income received by all the members of the household.
The disposable household income (net after taxes and social security contributions paid) includes:
- All income from work (wages of wage earners and income from self-employed workers)
- Capital and property income
- Transfers between households
- All the social benefits received in cash, including retirement pensions
- Income from private pension plans
The disposable household income does not include:
- Social benefits in kind
- Imputed rent
- Income in kind, with the exception of company cars
- Auto-consumption
- Tax on wealth
It is possible to find information broken down for each component of income in Commission Regulation (EC) no. 1980/2003, and in the EU-SILC guidelines. - Unemployed persons
All those persons aged over 16 years old who, during the reference week were:
a) out of work, in other words, they had no paid employment or freelance work,
b) available for work, in other words, available to carry out a job as an employee or freelance work within the two weeks following the reference week,
c) actively jobseeking during the month prior to the Sunday of the reference week.
Persons are also considered unemployed when they are out of work but are about to start a new job within the three months subsequent to the reference week and are currently available for work. Therefore in this case it will not be necessary to demand active jobseeking as a necessary condition for being unemployed.
The search methods considered active are to be found listed in the European Commission Regulation 1897/2000. - Unrecognised citizenship
These are the persons who are not citizens of the reporting country, nor of any other country, but who have established links to that country, including some, but not all, rights and obligations of full citizenship.
- Active population or active persons
- 3.5Statistical unit
Since the information is collected from different registers, censuses and social and economic surveys, the statistical unit is applicable to each one of these statistics.
- 3.6Statistical population
As the information is collected from different registers, censuses and social and economic surveys, it is not applicable to a single statistical population. The statistical population corresponds to these registers, censuses and surveys used as sources of information. The indicators refer to the statistical population established in each one of the statistics and surveys. Nevertheless, It may be stated that for most of the variables, the objective statistical universe are the regular residents of a specific geographical area.
- 3.7Reference area
EU Member States, Switzerland, Norway and Turkey are represented in the data collection. In Spain, the publication "Urban Indicators" collects information at the following spatial levels, similar to those of the European project, although the number of territorial units in some of the aforementioned levels is slightly lower:
- At national level.
- At supramunicipal level, with 70 FUAs (Functional Urban Areas).
- At conurbation level, with 9 areas.
- At municipal level, with 126 cities (municipalities).
- At sub-municipal level, for a total of 17 cities (with over 250,000 inhabitants).
- For all Spanish municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants (this is a relatively new territorial group that was introduced in the 2018 edition of the publication "Urban Indicators").
- 3.8Time coverage
The time coverage of the European project is 1990-2022. The Spanish publication presents information from 2010 to the latest available. See the details in point 5 regarding the reference period.
- 3.9Base period
The data has the base period of the surveys and statistics that serve as a source of information.
- 3.1Data description
- 4Unit of measure
- 4.1Unit of measure
The unit of measurement varies from indicator to indicator; from variable to variable. For most indicators the unit of measures are number of persons or percentage.
- 4.1Unit of measure
- 5Reference period
- 5.1Reference period
2020 and 2021 are the reference years for the main data collection of the European project, currently in process. It exist information of all the years after 2001, as well as for 1996 and 1991, that were the reference of the compilation denominated "historical". However, the publication on the INE website will only present information from 2010 onwards, and it offers results as up-to-date as possible based on the availability of information.
Data referred to the period: Anual A: 2023
- 5.1Reference period
- 6Institutional mandate
- 6.1Legal acts and other agreements
The compilation and dissemination of the data are governed by the Statistical Law No. 12/1989 "Public Statistical Function" of May 9, 1989, and Law No. 4/1990 of June 29 on “National Budget of State for the year 1990" amended by Law No. 13/1996 "Fiscal, administrative and social measures" of December 30, 1996, makes compulsory all statistics included in the National Statistics Plan. The National Statistical Plan 2009-2012 was approved by the Royal Decree 1663/2008. It contains the statistics that must be developed in the four year period by the State General Administration's services or any other entity dependent on it. All statistics included in the National Statistics Plan are statistics for state purposes and are obligatory. The National Statistics Plan 2021-2024, approved by Royal Decree 1110/2020, of 15 December, is the Plan currently implemented. This statistical operation has governmental purposes, and it is included in the National Statistics Plan 2021-2024. (Statistics of the State Administration).
The Urban Audit Project has been in operation for over 15 years, and despite the fact that it still does not have its own regulation, it constitutes a consolidated task between European regional and urban statistics. However, there is already a legal basis for certain territorial classifications and typologies, some of which are part of Urban Audit.
- 6.2Data sharing
The exchanges of information needed to elaborate statistics between the INE and the rest of the State statistical offices (Ministerial Departments, independent bodies and administrative bodies depending on the State General Administration), or between these offices and the Autonomic statistical offices, are regulated in the LFEP (Law of the Public Statistic Function). This law also regulates the mechanisms of statistical coordination, and concludes cooperation agreements between the different offices when necessary.
- 6.1Legal acts and other agreements
- 7Confidentiality
- 7.1Confidentiality - policy
The Statistical Law No. 12/1989 specifies that the INE cannot publish, or make otherwise available, individual data or statistics that would enable the identification of data for any individual person or entity. Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics 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
- 7.2Confidentiality - data treatment
INE provides information on the protection of confidentiality at all stages of the statistical process: INE questionnaires for the operations in the national statistical plan include a legal clause protecting data under statistical confidentiality. Notices prior to data collection announcing a statistical operation notify respondents that data are subject to statistical confidentiality at all stages. For data processing, INE employees have available the INE data protection handbook, which specifies the steps that should be taken at each stage of processing to ensure reporting units' individual data are protected. The microdata files provided to users are anonymised.
- 7.1Confidentiality - policy
- 8Release policy
- 8.1Release calendar
The advance release calendar that shows the precise release dates for the coming year is disseminated in the last quarter of each year.
- 8.2Release calendar access
The calendar is disseminated on the INEs Internet website (Publications Calendar)
- 8.3User access
The data are released simultaneously according to the advance release calendar to all interested parties by issuing the press release. At the same time, the data are posted on the INE's Internet website (www.ine.es/en) almost immediately after the press release is issued. Also some predefined tailor-made requests are sent to registered users. Some users could receive partial information under embargo as it is publicly described in the European Statistics Code of Practice
- 8.1Release calendar
- 9Frequency of dissemination
- 9.1Frequency of dissemination
In the European project, the frequency of the data is 2 years at the moment, however, some indicators are compiled annually. The Eurostat database is updated every quarter, depending on the availability of new and revised data. The dissemination in the INE will also depend on the availability of information, but it has been done once a year.
- 9.1Frequency of dissemination
- 10Accessibility and clarity
- 10.1News release
The results of the statistical operations are normally disseminated by using press releases that can be accessed via both the corresponding menu and the Press Releases Section in the web
- 10.2Publications
The links will be available further on.
- 10.3On-line database
INEbase is the system the INE uses to store statistical information on the Internet. It contains all the information the INE produces in electronic formats. The primary organisation of the information follows the theme-based classification of the Inventory of Statistical Operations of the State General Administration . The basic unit of INEbase is the statistical operation, defined as the set of activities that lead to obtaining statistical results on a determined sector or subject based on the individually collected data. Also included in the scope of this definition are synthesis preparation.
During 2022 there were a total of AC1=36,611 accesses, to the statistical operation "Urban Indicators".
- 10.4Micro-data access
A lot of statistical operations disseminate public domain anonymized files, available free of charge for downloading in the INE website Microdata Section
Not available
- 10.5Other
Not available
- 10.6Documentation on methodology
Methodological manual on city statistics, 2017 edition:
https://ine.es/ss/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobheadername1=Content-Disposition&blobheadervalue1=attachment%3B+filename%3DMethodologicalManualonCityStatistics.pdf&blobkey=urldata&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=530%2F391%2FMethodologicalManualonCityStatistics.pdf&ssbinary=true - 10.7Quality documentation
This standardized methodological report contains all of the elements of what is considered a "User-oriented quality report" for this operation.
- 10.1News release
- 11Quality management
- 11.1Quality assurance
Quality assurance framework for the INE statistics is based on the ESSCoP, the European Statistics Code of Practice made by EUROSTAT. The ESSCoP is made up of 16 principles, gathered in three areas: Institutional Environment, Processes and Products. Each principle is associated with some indicators which make possible to measure it. In order to evaluate quality, EUROSTAT provides different tools: the indicators mentioned above, Self-assessment based on the DESAP model, peer review, user satisfaction surveys and other proceedings for evaluation.
Ensuring the quality of the Urban Audit is a comprehensive process. Three main validation controls are performed regularly: univariate, multivariate and detection of irregular values.
To ensure a high quality of the data, certain validation procedures that already exist have been analysed and adapted to the latest standards. A complete set of validation rules has been developed.
- 11.2Quality assessment
The collection of "Urban Audit" data provides information and comparable measurements on the different aspects of the quality of urban life in European cities. The indicators selected to be published on the INE website are among the most relevant, and many of them are disseminated via the main websites and publications of the EU.The main appeal is based on providing information at municipal, supramunicipal and sub-municipal levels for most of the socio-economic scopes in said territories. Many of those indicators come from variables that have been object of estimation, which adds value to the Project since few or no surveys include information for such geographical levels.
The Population Census is one of the main sources of information. Many other information comes from administrative registers, which decreases the burden and cost. The main inconvenience appears in the inter-census years since the availability of data decreases.
Some data have limitations that are inherent to sampling statistical operations, such as non-response and sampling errors or variation coefficients of the estimates.
The information is not only subjected to an internal validation but is also object of a strict validation check by Eurostat in order to detect inconsistencies or errors.
- 11.1Quality assurance
- 12Relevance
- 12.1User needs
Users' needs and the requirements of the interested party are compiled in several forums (Work groups, Conferences, meetings with administrative bodies, etc). In general, it may be said that the 2 main users are Eurostat and the European Commission Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy. OECD and other EU bodies also make a substantial use of the Project data. Each country, however, has its own set of users.In Spain, the dissemination of the Project was very scarce, but it has improved markedly since the publication of the publication on the INE website. This opening has allowed us to better understand the needs of many users according with the consultations that are received.
One of the main needs of the Project that was not fulfilled in the past was the availability of updated information. This problem has been corrected with the insertion of annual cycles of data collection.
- 12.2User satisfaction
The INE has carried out general user satisfaction surveys in 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019 and it plans to continue doing so every three years. The purpose of these surveys is to find out what users think about the quality of the information of the INE statistics and the extent to which their needs of information are covered. In addition, additional surveys are carried out in order to acknowledge better other fields such as dissemination of the information, quality of some publications...
On the INE website, in its section Methods and Projects / Quality and Code of Practice / INE quality management / User surveys are available surveys conducted to date.(Click next link)
The users' reactions (opinions and suggestions) are collected in several forums. The main needs of the Project are defined by the European Commission Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, in collaboration with Eurostat, in order to obtain the largest possible base of information for the cohesion policy in the EU.
Through the urban and regional Work Groups NUAC and RESCO, respectively, it has been possible to know the availability of information from a supply perspective, and to a lower extent, the need of information from the demand point of view. At the same time, the two large aforementioned organisations and others such as OECD have held meetings regarding regional and urban matters.
The Standing Committee of Regional and Urban Statistics (SCORUS) is among one of the many forums in which experiences are exchanged.
The publication "Urban Indicators", has aroused great interest in the three past editions by the numerous articles that appeared in the press as well as by the consultations received from users.
- 12.3Completeness
The Urban Audit Project has been in operation for almost 20 years, and despite the fact that it still does not have its own Regulation, it is a consolidated task between European regional and urban statistics. In order to address the problem and attain a larger amount of information, the European Commission grants aids that are formalised by means of an Agreement on Subsidies. The INE has availed itself to the agreement during the last cycles of data collection. This formalisation in itself implies the supply of the maximum amount of information available for all the required variables, for all the established spacial units and for all the required reference years.
Eurostat aims at attaining 80% of the required information. In general, the INE, has exceeded said level in the last data collection cycles, though it is a general aim, since the availability of data differs according to the dominion, the territorial level and the reference period. For the publication "Urban Indicators", the completeness rate is R1=85%.
- 12.1User needs
- 13Accuracy and reliability
- 13.1Overall accuracy
Since it is a publication that is obtained from several statistical sources, in some cases the latter may be affected by various errors. The main guarantee in the accuracy of the provided information is the existence of expert groups with a thorough knowledge of the different statistical sources and their problems as well as their interrelations. These groups adjust to the regulations and different methodologies and work to obtain reliable data.
- 13.2Sampling error
Given the diversity of sources which provide this research with data, it is difficult to assess the sampling and non-sampling errors it is affected by.
- 13.3Non-sampling error
Given the diversity of sources which provide this research with data, it is difficult to assess the sampling and non-sampling errors it is affected by.
- 13.1Overall accuracy
- 14Timeliness and punctuality
- 14.1Timeliness
As a general rule, in a large number of indicators, the time between the reference date of the data and the publication of the statistical results is approximately 18 months, therefore, TP2 = 18. Some examples are the resident population, the median age and the number of households.
- 14.2Punctuality
The Agreement on Subsidies that is formalised for the collection of data in each cycle is 24 months. There is no legal period to provide the data during that time, nevertheless, the INE sends partial information to Eurostat as soon as it has information that is considered to be complete enough (for a specific year or for a complete geographical level or for a particular variable or group of them belonging to a dominion as a whole, etc). Delays, which are understood as exceeding the 24 months, are infrequent and are usually consequence of detecting an update or modification in the source data (which implies having to review the information that has already been sent) or due to inserting "last minute" methodological or territorial changes.
However, for the indicators selected in the Spanish publication, is established an update and annual publication, although it is not always done in a specific month of the year, but it is usually presented in June.
- 14.1Timeliness
- 15Coherence and Comparability
- 15.1Comparability - geographical
From the published data point of view, the geographical comparability depends on the territorial level:
At municipal level, the results of the information that is directly available are perfectly comparable due to the fact that the procedure is the same. If the information requires an estimation, the method used is understood to produce comparable results for a specific geographical level. Comparability is also performed in the supramunicipal and conurbation levels. At sub-municipal level, comparability shall be performed between the different districts or areas, within the municipality in question.
Nevertheless, data comparability among European territorial levels is limited and not always possible, sometimes due to the drifting of definitions, the use of different data sources and application of estimation methods that are completely different. In any case, to avoid erroneous comparisons, the information on data sources and the statistical base is always explained in the set of data.
- 15.2Comparability - over time
- 15.3Coherence - cross domain
Coherence of the information contained in the publication is the coherence of the information contained in statistics and surveys, which serve as the base for different indicators.
The 2011 Census has the advantage of providing substantial information but poses a time-related problem, for example, for demographic indicators. In these indicators, the Municipal Register at 1 January 2011 has been used as the source so that they are coherent with the information of the rest of inter-census years, whose source is the Municipal Register.
2 indicators have been used for the "number of dwellings". One whose source is the land registry and another for 2011, whose source is the Census. In 2011, both presented different results.
The use of the different results provided by the different statistical sources does not indicate a coherence problem, but presents a difference between the measurements of the variable or indicator.
- 15.4Coherence - internal
The information contained in the published indicators has complete internal coherence, since the base information coming from statistics and surveys is validated by the production units.
The estimates, for example in the main labour market indicators, have enough internal coherence since they are based on the same set of microdata and are calculated using the same estimation methods. When grouping at provincial level the estimations obtained regarding "economically active persons", the results are similar to those of the figures of economically active persons of the EAPS, in which the bigger the group means the better the approximation. The municipal estimations grouped by provinces of the "unemployed persons", coincide with the unemployment figures of the EAPS.
Although the Eurostat methodology refers to population over 15 years of age for certain labour market variables, the indicators of the publication have included population over 16 years of age in order to maintain coherence with the EAPS, since it has been the main source of reference in the performed estimations.
- 15.1Comparability - geographical
- 16Cost and burden
- 16.1Cost and burden
This publication constitutes an extract of the Urban Audit Project, which is developed in the Subdirectorate General Social Statistics of the INE. The Project as a whole, is included in the Agreement on Subsidies provided by Eurostat to the participating States. For the current data collection cycle called "Data collection for sub-national statistics (mainly cities)", there has been an estimation of the total costs for Spain of 291,256.45 euros, and a maximum subsidy on the part of the European Commission of 203,879.51 euros. This "Action" will last 24 months, having started 1st May 2022.
Regardless of the aforementioned subsidy, at a national level, the estimate of the necessary budget appropriation for 2023 Annual Programme of the National Statistical Plan 2021-2024 is 54.39 thousand euros.
There is no burden on the respondent since the base information comes from surveys and statistics that have already been published.
- 16.1Cost and burden
- 17Data revision
- 17.1Data revision - policy
The INE of Spain has a policy which regulates the basic aspects of statistical data revision, seeking to ensure process transparency and product quality. This policy is laid out in the document approved by the INE board of directors on 13 March of 2015, which is available on the INE website, in the section "Methods and projects/Quality and Code of Practice/INE’s Quality management/INE’s Revision policy" (link).
This general policy sets the criteria that the different type of revisions should follow: routine revision- it is the case of statistics whose production process includes regular revisions-; more extensive revision- when methodological or basic reference source changes take place-; and exceptional revision- for instance, when an error appears in a published statistic-.
Preliminary data is not published.
- 17.2Data revision - practice
Since the collected information is very extensive, there may be errors in the data. The most detected errors are corrected continuously.
- 17.1Data revision - policy
- 18Statistical processing
- 18.1Source data
In most cases, the data has been obtained from the censuses, the different administrative and statistical registers as well as the national and local databases. Another important part of the work is obtained by applying different estimation methods.
For the information included in this publication, the main registers used are the following:
- Municipal Register of Inhabitants.
- Land Registry.
- AEAT (Spanish Tax Administration Agency) via the INE-AEAT agreement, based on the ERGEO request.
- SEPE (Spanish Public Employment Service).
- Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport.
- National Geographic Institute (IGN).
The Population and Housing Censuses are the most relevant source of information used for the data whose collection is direct as well as for the estimation processes applied. In these processes, besides the Censuses and Municipal Register, the Economically Active Population Survey constitutes another one of the most important sources. Others surveys and statistics that serve as a source of data are the VS (Vital Statistics) and the Hotel Occupancy Survey. The CBR (Central Business Register) is another set of information used by some indicators.
- 18.2Frequency of data collection
Data are collected annually, but many indicators are only available in census years.
- 18.3Data collection
Data collection corresponds to the different surveys and statistics that serve as a source of information for the indicators. The Urban Audit team in the Subdirectorate collects all of that information and includes it in a database, which is the base for the compilation of indicators. There is a NUAC (National Urban Audit Coordinator) in each State participating in the Project. The NUAC is responsible for the information collection in the INE and is considered the coordinator by Eurostat.
The estimation processes are carried out by the same team, which generally use SAS to do so, and also use the data coming from several sources, mainly the Population and Housing Censuses, the Municipal Register and the Economically Active Population Survey.
- 18.4Data validation
Different verifications of data are performed before publishing:
- Type of control: The data fields designed for the numbers can only accept the numbers.
- Duration Date: The data fields contain an allowed data length. E.g. country code has two digits.
- Presence control: Controls that all data fields are present .
- Verification of Uniqueness: controls that specific fields do not have duplicated values .
- List Verification Code: only defined variables and geographical codes are accepted.
- Verifications of coherence: the values of the related variables must be consistent.
- Range of control: The values must be within a defined range.
- Verification of balance: The value sum of the subgroups must be the same as the total, e.g.; total= male + female
- Control of the validation of spacial level: Comparison of geographical aggregates in the different levels. For example; the value for the urban functional area must be higher than the value for the city.
- Validation time series: It detects an unusual evolution in time.
- 18.5Data compilation
The National Statistics Offices collect the data. All the available statistical data (INE, municipal authorities, etc) are collected and sent to Eurostat. Unfortunately, not all information is directly available. Many variables have to be estimated or adjusted to the established definitions and this is the task that specifically constitutes the great added value of the Project. In the INE almost all surveys have a regional breakdown, at NUTS 2 or NUTS 3 level, but the municipal level is much more difficult to obtain. The Census, the population registers and the Economically Active Population Survey are some of the main sources on which the estimations are based.
The Urban Audit project requires that the INE supplies a wide range of indicators regarding the economic, demographic and social situations of the Spanish municipalities. This information shall be provided at highly broken down levels over an annual base, even though the frequency can be extended depending on the type of variable.
The need to carry out calculations in different aggregation levels is an essential factor in the determination of the estimation process, since there has to be a formal coherence in the figures at different aggregation levels. In this way, when calculating the value of a variable given for the city of Barcelona, this estimation has to be coherent with the estimation calculated for the FUA (Functional Urban Area) of Barcelona. For this reason, the methodological proposals that have been developed are based on the estimation of all Spanish municipalities, and subsequently the FUAs are calculated by means of the aggregation of the municipal figures.
In all cases, the calculation proposals combine the use of the administrative registers and the statistical techniques based on modelling. The following scenarios are distinguished:
• The relevant variable is an administrative register in itself.
• The relevant variable may be obtained by means of the direct estimation based on sampling data.
• The relevant variable is available via the sampling information, but not at the breakdown level required for the Urban Audit project.
Of the aforementioned cases, the most relevant is the third case. Sampling information is available at a greater level of aggregation and there is an administrative register that allows carrying out the necessary calculations.For example, to estimate the Economically Active population based on the EAPS data, the sample is obtained classified by economically active persons, provinces, age and sex, and the data is quarterly. With this sample, the probability of being economically active depending on the age and province of residence is calculated for each quarter and sex. To do so, a Generalized linear mixed model is used for the binary response variable considering a random effect, the province. Once the probabilities are estimated for a quarter, they are applied to the population estimated for the demographic variables at municipal level by age and sex. To obtain the municipal Economically active persons, this population is multiplied by the probability of that same age, sex and province to which the municipality belongs. The economically active persons are obtained by calculating the average quarterly Economically active persons for that year. When grouping at provincial level the estimations obtained, the results are similar to those of the figures of economically active persons of the EAPS, in which the bigger the group means the better the approximation.
- 18.6Adjustment
No seasonal adjustments are made.
- 18.1Source data
- 19Comment
- 19.1Comment
None
- 19.1Comment