Speakers announced for the 2009 conference

One month to go until the Observatory’s 2009 conference - “West Midlands: Fit for the Future?” – on Tuesday 20th October at the Ramada Hotel in Sutton Coldfield.
Book online or fax us a booking form
Entitled “West Midlands: Fit for the Future?”, the conference will follow on from a book of the same name launched by the [...]

Invitation to ONS 2011 Census outputs consultation event in Leicester

The next full census of England and Wales will take place in 2011. It includes a number of new approaches which will be evaluated during a rehearsal on 11th October 2009 with around 135,000 selected households in three local authority areas.
The Census Rehearsal will test, among other things, the questions being asked, the accuracy of [...]

Place Survey results 2008

The results of the Place Survey 2008 have recently been released.
This is a national survey administered by local authorities. It aims to collect consistent national data on the way people feel about their local area and the way in which their local authority is run.
We can use the results of the place survey to compare [...]

West Midlands population increased to over 5.4 million in 2008

The population of the West Midlands grew to over 5.4 million in 2008, according to the latest population estimates released by the Office for National Statistics.
With a population of 5.411 million, the region’s population grew by 0.5% (29,000) on the preceding year.
Natural change (births minus deaths) was the most significant contributor to the growth at [...]

Modelling population change in the West Midlands: call for information

How do you try to understand the changes that are happening in your populations? Have you developed a model to try to understand population change? If so, we would be interested to hear from you.
As part of our State of the Region dialogue on population change, we’re looking for regional examples of how people have [...]

Plot data on world maps with new OECD tools

Two new online tools from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) now allow you to plot a huge array of social and economic data onto world maps and track them through time creating an animated chart as you follow your chosen geographic area against other areas. It’s easy to use and, more importantly, easy on [...]

Launch of the first Place Survey results

Results of the first Place Survey were launched today providing information on people’s perceptions of their local area and the local services they receive.
The survey collects information on 18 national indicators for local government, used to measure local government performance for 152 county councils, metropolitan district councils, London boroughs and unitary authorities.
Communities Secretary John Denham [...]

ONS seminars on improvements to 2008 population statistics

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) are holding seminars across four locations in June 2009 to explain the forthcoming improvements to the mid-2008 population estimates, sub-national population projections and migration statistics.
The seminars will provide information on adjusting internal (within UK) migration using data on students. They will also cover modelling the geographical distribution of long-term [...]

State of the natural environment in the West Midlands

On Thursday 23rd April 2009, I attended the Annual Biodiversity Conference organised by the West Midlands Biodiversity Partnership (WMBP) at the Botanical Gardens in Birmingham.
Key speakers included Olwen Dutton (Chief Executive of the West Midlands Regional Assembly), Roger Owen (Regional Director of Natural England), David Pape (Head of Ecology, Hampshire County Council), Conor Kretsch (Director [...]

Understanding labour migration

At the launch of the State of the Region dialogue on population change Anne Green, from the Institute for Employment Research, spoke about recent developments in labour migration, such as the impact that the recession may have on migration and about the difficulties of measuring short-term international mobility.
Understanding migration is important when trying to understand population change.
Anne [...]

Subnational population projections

The Observatory’s recent event to launch the State of the Region dialogue on population change started with a presentation from Anthony Szary on subnational population projections.
Anthony is the Regional Statistician for the Office for National Statistics and is based at the Observatory.
Anthony took the group through the ONS process for calculating population projections at the subnational level. The easy [...]

Understanding our local populations

At the Observatory’s recent event to launch the State of the Region dialogue on population change, Richard Wilson from Sandwell PCT spoke about some of the problems with population data. However, with help from quotes from David Brent to Albert Einstein, Richard argued that these problems should not lead to ‘data paralysis’ where problems with data become reasons [...]

Prosperity without growth?

A major new report by the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) argues that the pursuit of economic growth is one of the root causes of the current financial crisis, as well contributing to a growing environmental crisis and undermining well-being in developed countries.
The Prosperity without growth? report says that the current global recession should be the [...]

Low carbon housing in the West Midlands

The 23rd March 2009 saw the launch of an important report in the region’s aim to achieve its carbon reduction targets.
Low Carbon Housing – developing a baseline for refurbishment in the West Midlands (PDF, 1.59MB) was jointly commissioned by the West Midlands Regional Assembly and Advantage West Midlands.
Amongst the report’s findings was the fact that [...]

Moving the equalities agenda forward

Last week the Observatory launched the  State of the Region dialogue on population change. This event was the first step towards understanding what evidence on the changing population is needed by policy makers in the region.
Chris Allen, Director of Research and Policy at brap, was one of the presenters at this event and his presentation Beyond being statistically challenged: How [...]