Merging statistics and geospatial information, 2017 projects - Denmark

Use of subregional spatial information in Statistics Denmark; 2017 project; final report December 2019

This article forms part of Eurostat’s statistical report on the Integration of statistical and geospatial information.

Full article

Problem

There is an inconsistent and narrow understanding of distance measuring within statistics.
Most of the statistics available from http://www.statbank.dk have municipalities as the most detailed geographical level. It is of interest also to focus on a more detailed geographical level.
There is a lack of people within Statistics Denmark who can handle GIS software.
There is also a lack of awareness within Statistics Denmark about what geodata are available.

Objectives

Ensure that distance measuring is accessible for all relevant staff, distance measuring is consistent across technology, subject and time, and data confidentiality is respected. Give new insights on distances and accessibility.
Visualise the population on maps below municipality level.
Increase the dissemination of knowledge below municipality level.
Increase the amount and quality of geodata and increase its use.

Method

Current practices concerning distance measuring were catalogued and options for short- and long-term common practices investigated and chosen. This concerned the choice of applications, of a common map and common practices for ensuring confidentiality.
Parishes, towns and 1 km x 1 km grid cells were chosen as geographical units for the visualisation of the population through grid data and urban/rural areas. The project brought competences together within a working group.
Concerning the objective to increase the dissemination of knowledge below municipality level, work focused on analysing and publishing data – see results below.
Concerning the objective to increase the amount and quality of geodata and increase its use, several activities were undertaken.

Adapting to the national basic data program involved handling new data formats and adapting to a new data model. For example, the implementation of deliveries from the Danish Building and Dwelling Register (BDR) within the geodata architecture was successful.
An analysis was conducted of the need for new modular datasets, involving moving two datasets (Workplace match and Electricity Meter match) from the test stage to the production stage and creating one new test dataset (Place on Earth).
- Workplace match creates links from workplaces to property (real estate); it connects geospatial data from the BDR and the Danish cadastral register with local units from the statistical business register. Combined with the existing dwelling match (which links the population register with property) and payroll information, it is possible to link workplace property with businesses, with payroll, with the population and to residential property.
- Electricity Meter match presented a challenge because of the quantity of data and also the lack of a clean data structure. A procedure was developed to convert data for electricity meters to the standard address codes already used for statistics. Close to 93 % of addresses were converted.
- The new tables related to Place on Earth aim to make it easier to link property to existing digital maps available within Statistics Denmark. The tables combine geocoded property information with georeferenced points.
Internal guidelines were developed for the use of central geospatial data and the central storage of maps. An Oracle database was developed providing information and an overview of what data are available, without the need for GIS access or skills. Thirteen tables with metadata were created indicating the number of different object types that are displayed in the (nearly 100) data tables containing digital map data.

Figure 1: The relationships between statistical databases in Statistics Denmark

Results

A guide about distance measuring was compiled. Three papers were published, providing information about accessibility and distances. These concern accessibility to jobs, holiday houses in Denmark and the relation between high income, a long period of education and place of residence.
Three results were published concerning the visualisation of the population through grid data and urban/rural area.
- A map of the population broken down to 1 km x 1 km grid cells. Data are available at https://www.dst.dk/en/TilSalg/produkter/geodata/kvadratnet.
- A map of the population, the population density and the area broken down for all cities and the rural areas for each municipality. Data are available at http://www.statistikbanken.dk/by3.
- A dataset (shown for example as line graphs) of the population broken down to parishes for the period 1925–2019. Data are available at https://www.statbank.dk/SOGN10.
Two publications have been released to increase knowledge about population data below municipality level:
- Employees with access to many jobs have higher income
- Most moves are over short distances
Concerning the objective to increase the amount and quality of geodata and increase its use, the following results were achieved.
- Adapting to the national basic data program has been successful, for example, implementing deliveries from the BDR into Statistics Denmark’s geodata architecture.
- Concerning the new modular datasets:
  - the Workplace match resulted in more than 70 % of workplaces being placed in different units and almost 79 % of workplaces being placed in buildings. Nearly all workplaces can be placed on a cadastre;
  - the Electricity Meter resulted in close to 93 % of addresses being converted;
  - the new tables related to Place on Earth facilitated the use of more than 90 digital maps.
- Concerning internal guidelines for the use of central geospatial data and the central storage of maps, the Oracle database provides all the information required about the maps without the need to have access to GIS software.

Figure 2:
A: Population distribution per square kilometre in cities and rural areas of Denmark
B: Population density in rural areas of Denmark on 1 January 2019
C: Population developments in the parishes of Lejre municipality, 1925–2019