Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Other institutions: Apart from the FSO and regional statistical offices, further
government offices collect also statistical data according to the Swiss Statistical
Law, e.g. the Swiss Tax Administration, the Federal Health Agency or the Federal
Office for Environments. All official institutions together form the National Statis-
tical System (NSS). While most of the institutions transfer their collected data to the
FSO for publication, larger thematic offices also publish their own regional data
through statistical maps and even atlases. In addition, statistical maps (mainly with
data from the FSO, which is freely available) can also be found in larger atlases
issued by universities, like the Atlas of Switzerland.
Users
Official statistical target groups can be divided into four categories (OECD
2006
):
Data
miners
(specialists, experts, statisticians),
farmers
(professionals, administra-
tion, consultants, businesses),
tourists
(occasional users, media, politicians, occa-
sionally also administration), and
consumers
(passive consumers, media
consumers). The urge to communicate and deliver information is inherent to
maps and atlases, including, as a matter of course, statistical maps. Therefore,
these should naturally be applied where they reach effectively and cost-sensitively
the largest possible audience, including stakeholders, e.g. statisticians or politi-
cians. This is usually the case with “farmers” and “tourists”. Individual specialists
(data miners), such as university researchers, query and analyse statistical data
independently and usually create and tailor their own analytical maps to their
special needs with the tools they possess. They are therefore not the main target
group for official statistical mapping products. Maps and atlases in statistics rather
have a “portal function”. They allow the average user to discover spatial facts and
relations, and they provide access to the underlying, more detailed data (Ormeling
2009
).
Statistical maps and atlases are being used today by an extraordinarily diverse
and broad audience, which comprises almost all societal and professional levels.
The majority (84 %) of users in Switzerland, as found out by a customer survey at
the FSO in 2006, come from a professional background (education, media, politics,
and science). But the share of private users is constantly increasing (Fig.
3
). To
further differentiate user groups, the author had the chance to access more than
800 customer mails that were received by FSO
s Cartography Unit during the years
2003-2013 and separate the individual professions of their senders.
Table
1
shows the results of this analysis. This data for Switzerland can be
compared to other European countries. The leading and most active user group of
maps from the Federal Statistical Office are university students with a share of
almost 25 %. If school students, teachers and scientists are added to this number,
almost 40 % of the audience for statistical maps and atlases can be found in the
educational sector. One can even add the 7.4 % publishing companies to this
already impressive number. The large majority of thematic maps asked for by
'
