Affiliations: City of Helsinki Urban Facts, FI-00099 City of
Helsinki, Finland | Statistics Finland, FI-00022 Statistics Finland,
Finland
Note: [] Corresponding author: Katja Vilkama, City of Helsinki Urban
Facts, P.O. Box 5500, FI-00099 City of Helsinki, Finland. Tel.: +358 9
31078396; E-mail: katja.vilkama@hel.fi
Abstract: This paper presents a case study on the use of official statistics
in monitoring change in educational level on the national, regional and city
levels in Finland. The paper draws on the high-quality Finnish population
registers that enable compiling a wide range of regional- and
neighbourhood-level time series on various socio-economic indicators. Unlike
census data that is usually updated at five to ten year intervals, the Finnish
register-based statistical system is now maintained and updated yearly.
Furthermore, register-based statistical units can be linked to one another by
means of the identification systems, and all units can be geocoded and located
on a map. The links between the statistical and geographical data make it
possible to conduct fine-scale analyses of the annual changes in population
structures at various spatial levels. The aim of the paper is two-fold. The
main objective is to analyse regional differences, and changes, in educational
level in Finland since the 1970s to the present. The second aim is to explore
different ways to visualise these changes with thematic maps.
Keywords: Official statistics, population registers, GIS-analysis, time-series, education, Finland
