Statistical localities in Finland

1. Statistical localities in Finland A need for a development work? Ulla-Maarit SaarinenPlanning OfficerStatistics FinlandTyöpajankatu 13FI-00022 STATISTICS FINLANDTel : +358 9 1734 3544 Fax : +358 9 1734 3251 E-mail : Ulla-Maarit.Saarinen@stat.fi

2. Locality • Built-up area, densely populated area, urban area, population agglomeration, population cluster • Definitions: population density, building density, land use, business/industrial activities, ”urban-like”, ... • In the legislation: Finnish Road Traffic Act, Land Use and Building Act, Public Order Act talk about ’localities’, but these localities are not defined as statistical localities. • Term ’locality’ and ’statistical locality’ • Who needs and why? • The Act on State Subsidies • the statistical locality population as the basis for payment of the locality supplement to municipalities

3. Statistical locality • Clusters of buildings with at least 200 inhabitants and the distance between buildings should not exceed 200 metres. • The Nordic definition of locality: • since 1960 (1950) • takes into account the sparse population in Nordic countries • only 20-30 % of localities in Finland could be characterised as urban area in a European sense

4. Delimitation of statistical localities in Finland • Years 1960 - 1985: manual delimitation • Years 1990 and 1995: automatic delimitation with manual ’restoration’ • Census 2000: a new delimitation method: grid buffering method

5. A grid of 100 m x 100 m formed over whole Finland Grids are categorized as unbuilt grids residential grids other building grids Grid-buffer methodBuilding groups Residential building Other building

6. A buffer zone of 50 m is formed to residential building grids. A buffer zone of 75 m is formed to other building grids. Grid to polygons

7. Areas with at least 200 inhabitants are selected. A buffer zone of 100 metres Jointing the ’pre-localities’ and ’satellites’ to one coverage The preform of localities and their ’satellites’

8. jointing polygons with 100 m’s buffer returning to original size (-100 m) The final statistical localities

9. ’holes’, ’gaps’ built-up area ’By-products’

10. The delimitation of statistical localities 2005 • Delimitition will be carried out this year with the grid buffering delimitation method that was developed in 2000 • But … there is still a question who needs and what for delimitation and statistics of statistical localities are made for, … and is there a need for developing the definition and delimatition?

11. The Act on State Subsidies • the statistical locality population as the basis for payment of the locality supplement to municipalities

12. Need for development?Critics and user needs • Densely built-up areas with low population density • Why industrial areas or work place areas with less than 200 residents are not localities? • Different sized localities: small villages, big cities • Need for classification of localities? • The definition has been based merely on morphological definition. • Should it be more functional ?

13. Researchers, planners: • Statistical locality = urban area? • Statistical localities = morphological locality, not functional locality • takes into account only population/settlement • cf. urban area - buildings, built-up area - populated, population density - land use - functions - economic/business/industry activities - etc.

14. Development of locality definition in Nordic countries • Statistics Norway has redefined locality definition to better correspond to Norwegian circumstances and has defined and delimited free-time residential areas. • Statistics Sweden has defined and delimited workplace and free-time residential areas. • The Finnish Environment Institute has come up with its own locality definitions for monitoring urban structure in Finland.

15. Examples of comparison of statistical localities and localities defined by Environment Institute

16. Locality definition of Environment Institute differs from statistical localities • the objective: monitoring the urban structure • the data is based on grids • different criterias

17. statistical locality locality (Env. Inst.) Peräseinäjoki building sq. km grid with population sq. km grid with building(s)

18. HATTULA

19. HELSINKI

20. Questions to be answered and development work to be done in the near future • More than one locality definition in Finland? • Different needs and aspects -> different locality definitions? • Statistical locality is (only) one definition among others?

21. A need for new locality definitions? • Work place areas outside statistical localities? • Free-time residential areas outside statistical localities? • Tourism areas outside statistical localities? • Shopping areas outside statistical localities? • … or inside statistical localities? • Zones/classification of localities? • Big cities’ localities, suburban localities, …? • CBD? • Small villages (with less than 500 or 200 inhabitants)?

22. Examples of some first experiments to define new free-time residential ’localities’

23. Delimiting free-time residential ’localities’ • At least 30 or 50 residences • Distance between residences not exceeding 150 metres

24. Free-time residence (summer cottage) Free-time residential ’locality’

25. Archipelago in Turku region

26. Ski resort of Saariselkä, Lapland Free-time residential building Residential building Free-time residential ’locality’ Statistical locality Env. Inst. locality

27. Ski resort of Levi, Lapland

28. -> Discussions with interest groups (Env. Inst., ministries etc.) in 2006 …2007 -> The study on development needs in 2006…2007

29. Development of the Nordic (European) co-operation • Possibility for common locality statistics? • E.g. degree of locality population