An area where you can familiarize yourself with various statistical
indicators on Urban Settlements, Development and Growth. Some of
these sites are:
| Asia
Week: Asia’s Best Cities |
| Asiaweek has published a survey which polled
40 selected cities in Asia, including all the major capitals,
looking at 23 indicators. The main factors on which cities are
ranked are: economic opportunity, quality of education, environment
and sanitation, health care, transportation, personal security,
housing cost, and leisure. |
| CIA
World factbook (U.S. CIA) |
| Offers statistical and narrative descriptions
by country |
| Country
and regional data (Philadelphia University) |
| Essentially an extensive well-organized full
text statistical abstract of country or regional data. Coverage
includes social, economic, environmental, legal data, and much
more. |
| Country
studies (U.S. Library of Congress) |
| The Country Studies Series presents a description
and analysis of the historical setting and the social, economic,
political, and national security systems and institutions of
countries throughout the world and examines the interrelationships
of those systems and the ways they are shaped by cultural factors. |
| Economist
Intelligence Unit (EIU) country reports and profiles |
| - UCB Only These narrative and statistical studies
provide objective and timely analysis and forecasts of the political,
economic, and business environment in more than 180 countries.
Annual profiles are updated by quarterly reports |
| ELDIS
country profiles (Institute of Development Studies, Sussex) |
| Excellent site. Includes sectoral profiles and
links to other descriptive and statistical profiles by country. |
| Global
Urban Observatory |
| Statistical Annexes to the Global Report on Human
Settlementss |
| Guide
to Environmental Statistics: Human Settlements |
| The United Nations Statistical Office (UNSO)
compiles and publishes basic statistics on human Settlements
in an effort to assist governments in reviewing human Settlements
conditions and in formulating policies and programs to deal
with urbanization and other major concerns and to promote the
systematic development of human Settlementss. |
| Human
Settlementss Development Programme, Asian Institute for Technology
(AIT) |
| Asia’s 13 Largest Cities, Urban/rural population
(1995), Population of large cities (1995) |
| International
statistics (UC Berkeley, Library) |
| Lists links to some of the major resources for
international statistical, organized by world and regional coverage,
and then subject. |
| OFFSTATS:
official statistics on the web (University of Auckland, Library) |
| Lists web sites offering "free and easily
accessible social, economic and general data from official or
similar "quotable" sources." Organized by country
or topic. |
| Network
on Urban Research in the European Union (NUREC) |
| International Yearbook of Large Cities Statistics
(1000 cities). Year of reference: 1993. Data on: Total population;
Demographic indicators; Newly constructed housing units in recent
years; Employed persons by industry; Total number of households;
Health facilities; Vehicle stocks; Water supply and consumption
systems; Housing units by type and usable floor area; Sanitation
and sewerage; Unemployed persons; Economic classification of
revenue; Economic classification of expenditure; Local government
revenues and expenditure; Gross enrolment ratio by level of
education; Land use. |
| OECD
statistics (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) |
| The OECD collects statistics needed for the analysis
of economic and social developments by its in-house analysts,
committees, working parties, and member country governments
from statistical agencies and other institutions of its member
countries. |
| Statistical
resources on the web (University of Michigan, Documents Center) |
| Comprehensive. Excellent starting point. |
| Statistical
agencies (International, U.S. Bureau of the Census) |
| Very useful site, providing links to the web
sites of 100+ national statistical agencies, organized alphabetically
by country. |
| UNCHS
(Habitat): Global Urban Indicators Database |
Database containing 46 urban indicators for
237 cities, based on 1993 data. Currently being updated. Statistics
on global human Settlementss have also been published in UNCHS
(Habitat)’s Global Report on Human Settlementss 1996
(Print edition only: US$27). The statistical annex in the
Report contains 21 tables covering various topics, including
population, land, housing and infrastructure. The next edition
of the Global Report will be published in 2001.
|
| UN
Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division:
Urban population figures |
| Tables by country: Annual growth rates and size
of urban agglomerations of more than one million and 10 million
in 1996 and projected estimates for 2015. Also published in
Urban Agglomerations 1996, United Nations, New York (1997).
(ST/ESA/SER.A/163) |
| UNDP
Human Development Report 1999 |
| PDF files can be downloaded using the Adobe Acrobat
Reader Statistical Tables: Monitoring human development (PDF),
includes the Human Development Index (HDI), GDI, GEM, HPI and
HDI trend data Human Development Index (html) All other indicators
(PDF only) |
| Transparency
International: Corruption Indices |
| Transparency International (TI) published the
fifth annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) in 1999, which
ranked a record 99 countries, compared to 85 in 1998. The CPI
is a poll of polls based on a large number of surveys from a
number of independent organizations. TI also released the new
Bribe Payers Perceptions Index (BPI) in 1999. This ranks 19
leading exporting countries in terms of the degree to which
their corporations are perceived to be paying bribes abroad.
The BPI, undertaken for TI by Gallup International (GIA) in
14 leading emerging market economies, shows that companies from
many leading exporting nations are widely seen as using bribes
to win business. The data provides a disturbing picture of the
degree to which leading exporting countries are perceived to
be engaged in corrupt practices. |
| The
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) World Fact Book 1999 |
| The World Factbook is produced by CIA’s
Directorate of Intelligence. The Factbook is a comprehensive
resource of facts and statistics on more than 250 countries
and other entities. Cost: US$118 (CD Rom) |
| William
M. Mercer Companies LLC, 1999: Quality of life in 218 cities |
| This study of 218 cities, conducted by London-based
human resources consultants William M. Mercer, looks at 39 factors
governing quality of life, including politics, economics and
environment, personal safety and health, education, transport
and recreation. The survey is conducted annually to help multinational
companies assess international quality of living standards for
placing their expatriate workers. The rankings are based on
conditions prevalent toward the end of 1999. |
| The
World Bank: World Development Indicators 1999 |
| The World Development Indicators
(WDI) is the World Bank’s flagship statistical reference.
WDI retains its basic thematic presentation with six sections
covering: World View, States and Markets, People, Global Links,
Economy and Environment. It includes more than 800 indicators
for 148 countries and regional and income groups, with basic
indicators for a further 62 countries. |
| World
Resources Institute |
| The World Resources Report 1999 presents some
of the information required to build a basic picture of the
state of the Earth in its human, economic, and environmental
dimensions. Where possible, the data tables assembled show how
these dimensions have changed over time. Chapter 9 contains
Urban Indicators, 1980–2025: total urban population, percentage
of urban population, and urban growth rates; At the city level,
data included contains city populations, growth rates, and various
parameters that measure the quality of the city environment. |
