NUMERI PRAGENSES 2007 - Statistická ročenka hl. m. Prahy
Introduction
This year we reminded the 110th anniversary of the origin of the Land Statistical Office of the Czech Kingdom, which became the predecessor of the Czech Statistical Office. Results of surveys of this office were regularly published in “ News of the Land Statistical Office of the Czech Kingdom”. The most important publications however were “Statistical manual of the Czech Kingdom” (published in 1909 and 1913), the first statistical yearbooks in Bohemia. They contained a selection from the most important statistical data on Bohemia compared to similar data from Moravia, Silesia and the whole monarchy. National yearbooks published later also gived regional views, the first individual regional yearbooks however started to be published far later. Prague statistics was quite specific in this point of view. Already on the 30th of June in 1870, The Municipal Statistical Commission of the Royal Capital City of Prague was established. In 1871 the first statistical publication about Prague “Statistics of Royal Capital City of Prague” came out, where results of the census from 31st of December in 1869 were published. Two years later, in 1873, Prague statistical yearbook ”Statistical Handbook of the Royal Capital City of Prague” began to be published. We can say that statistical overviews of Prague have been published more than 130 years.
Prague Statistical Yearbook “NUMERI PRAGENSES” is one of the main publications of the regional workplace of the Czech Statistical Office, which deals with Prague statistics. It is yearly refilled with data from current surveys and modified according to the demand of our users. It is being published from 1995, while from 2000 it became the part of contents-unified set of regional yearbooks. 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 basically published for the period 2004 – 2006, for selected indicators in a longer time series since 1993, which is the year when the independent Czech Republic was established.
The publication does not differ much by its contents from that brought out last year because our effort is to keep the stability of individual chapters and tables so that users are able to find data they are used to. This year, we concentrated on making the structure of chapters more transparent, we created a new chapter 4 Macroeconomic indicators, export, finance, research and development of information society. Slight modifications can be found in almost all chapters. Besides data on Prague you can find here also data available by city sections or administrative districts in some cases. In the end of the data part of the publication there are time series of development of selected indicators in the Czech Republic in 1993 - 2006.
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 Finance, 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). Gradually a Public Database (PDB) has also been filling up; it has been available in the CZSO web pages since the beginning of the year and it gradually enables to get statistical data in the predefined tables from the subject and territorial classification point of view. More detailed information on the public database can be obtained on the web page http://vdb.czso.cz/vdb/.
Statistical yearbook of Prague, of course, cannot contain all data collected and processed by the state statistics on regional level. More detailed data from individual segments of demographic, economic and social development are brought out in specialized publications (statistical bulletin, publications of demographic character, etc). In recent years, when Czech Statistical Office focuses on improving of quality of statistical outputs, the regional workplaces concentrate on analytical publications.
Besides the printed form, all publications published by our workplace in Prague are available also in an electronic form on www.praha.czso.cz and can be bought on a CD-ROM. A great deal of information is provided also at regional web pages of the CZSO (www.czso.cz - Regions, Towns,…). Information about Prague and especially about city sections are available on www.praha.czso.cz.
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 Prague 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 a valuable contribution during preparation of regional publications in 2008.
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.