INTRODUCTION

Statistical Yearbook of the Jihočeský Region is brought out - the same as in other regions - already for the fourth time; these contents-unified regional yearbooks follow the nationwide Statistical Yearbook of the Czech Republic, which is elaborated by the headquarters of the Czech Statistical Office. Data are published for the period 2001 - 2003, for selected indicators in a longer time series since 1990.

The yearbook does not differ much by its contents from that brought out last year. Modifications made are related especially to acquisition of data from new single-shot statistical surveys. This year, they are especially data on income of households from 2002 Mikrocensus, the amount of disposable income of households, information on prices of real estates, data on utilisation of computer technology in households, selected data from structural survey in agriculture or suchlike. On the contrary, from the 2001 Population and Housing Census we publish the final part of information, namely data on commuting to work and schools. Besides data on regions you can find here also data available by district and administrative district of municipalities with extended competence, selected data on towns and several indicators on individual municipalities. In the end of the data part of the publication there are time series of development of selected indicators in the Czech Republic in 1990 - 2003.

State statistical surveys are basic data source. Besides data sources of the Czech Statistical Office data from other departments were used, too: especially from the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Education or the Institute for Information on Education, Ministry of Health or the Institute of Health Information and Statistics of the CR. Considerable part of data published is kept in regional databases called KROK (data on regions and districts) and MOS (community and municipality statistics).

A regional yearbook, of course, cannot contain all data collected and processed by the state statistics. More detailed data from individual segments of demographic, economic and social development of a region, district, municipality, micro-regions and the like are brought out in specialized publications (bulletin, publications of demographic character, publications with results of elections, of the Population and Housing Census, etc).

Besides the printed form, all publications are available also in an electronic form and on a CD-ROM; a great deal of information is provided also at regional web pages of the CZSO (}www.czso.cz link "KRAJE"), which acquired this October absolutely new image.

This year is important for the Czech statistical service in relation to the accession of the Czech Republic to the EU and related to that demanding duties to meet the requirements resulting from the harmonization of European statistics. At the same time, we commemorate the 85^th anniversary of the foundation of the independent statistical service - soon after the Czechoslovak Republic had been established in 1919 the State Statistical Office was founded.

The reason why statistical information is acquired and processed is knowledge, seeking for tendencies in development and, moreover, its utilisation in practice. Long-term practice with the interest of users in information in regional breakdown, which has been markedly increasing recently, makes us believe that the regional statistical yearbook will continue to be a sought-after information source both for professional and general public. Of course, we will welcome your prospective suggestions and comments regarding the contents of the yearbook; they will be valuable source of knowledge for preparation of regional publications in 2005.

We express our thanks to all authors and colleagues for the effort and time they devoted to preparation of the contents as well as technical part of this publication.