Eurostat
(2019). Small area estimation for city statistics and other functional
geographies — 2019 edition.
The city data
collection is one the regular data collections of Eurostat and the National
Statistical Institutes. The demand for timely and reliable socio-economic data
on cities and Functional Urban Areas has significantly increased. Since 2017,
the cities and their Functional Urban Areas are legally recognised by the
amended NUTS Regulation. To produce socio-economic data coming originally from
sample surveys at the level of small units such as cities, Functional Urban
Areas and other functional geographies is a complex task which requires the
application of small area estimation techniques since those functional
geographies are usually not incorporated in the sampling design. This paper
aims at investigating on the performance of different estimation strategies against
the background of various sampling designs used by the National Statistical
Institute. Therefore, a design-based Monte Carlo simulation study using a
synthetic but close-to-reality population has been performed. The results show
that all investigated estimation approaches are able to increase the efficiency
and the quality of the estimates compared to the classical design-weighted
estimation techniques.
