Brussels, 02/10/2009 (Agence Europe) - Eurostat, the statistical office of the European communities, published its Regional Yearbook 2009 on Thursday 1 October. The publication gives an overview of the most recent economic, social and demographic changes in the 271 regions of the 27 member states of the EU as well as, when available, in regions of the three candidate countries (Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey), and also four EFTA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland). For the first time, the Regional Yearbook 2009 includes a chapter on the information society. Other chapters are on population, cities, labour market, gross domestic product, household accounts, structural business statistics, science, technology and innovation, education, tourism and agriculture.
To illustrate the diversity of data contained in the yearbook, a Eurostat press release presents three indicators from different statistical fields: (1) population density - which is highest in the regions of Inner London (UK) with 9,354 inhabitants per sq. km and Brussels (Belgium) with 6,405 inhabitants per sq. km. Lowest population density is in Guyana (French overseas department) and Övre Norrland (Sweden) each with 3 inhabitants per sq. km; (2) share of households having access to internet: - the highest share is in the Dutch regions of Noord-Holland (90%), Groningen (89%) and Utrecht (89%); and (3) the proportion of tertiary graduates - the highest proportion is to be found in the Brabant Wallon regions (Belgium) and Inner London (48% each), and in Pais Vasco (Spain), with 43%. For details see: http: //ec.europa.eu/eurostat (G.B./transl.jl)