Miroslaw Migacz
Chief GIS Specialist
Central Statistical Office of Poland
Poland

Biography
Chief GIS Specialist in the Programming and Coordination of Statistical Surveys Department of the Central Statistical Office of Poland. Designed and supervised the creation of spatial address databases used in nationwide censuses to produce point based statistics. Member of the team responsible for development and administration of the Geostatistics Portal. INSPIRE Thematic Cluster Facilitator for the Statistical Cluster (statistical units, population distribution, human health and safety).

Abstract
From Paper Maps to Point Based Statistics

Co-Author: Janusz Dygaszewicz, Director, Central Statistical Office of Poland

During the last 6 years Central Statistical Office of Poland (CSO) made great progress in the field of geographic information systems. Up to 2008 all geographic data was kept and maintained solely on paper maps. Today those maps are used only as an archived reference material and CSO is in possession of numeric data that provides spatial reference for all desirable survey frames. Statistical address point databases - a spatial representation of census enumeration areas and dwelling locations - were created in regional statistical offices for the whole area of Poland. Statistical address points representing location of each dwelling were verified and updated in the field by census enumerators. All statistical data in the Agricultural Census 2010 and Population and Housing Census 2011 was collected with reference to address point coordinates, which allows publication of results aggregated to any spatial unit. In order to publish these results, CSO has prepared the Geostatistics Portal - a web platform for spatial visualization of statistical data. The portal provides tools for creating choropleth maps and various kinds of diagram maps based not only on census data but also on resources gathered in the Local Data Bank - a database with a broad scope of statistical data available down to the LAU2 level. Geostatistics Portal also serves INSPIRE services for data themes CSO is responsible for (statistical units and population distribution). Access to view and download services is free of charge. Among the published datasets users can find not only statistical data referring to NUTS/LAU units but also more detailed demographic data presented on statistical units lower than LAU2 and grids - all thanks to the point based census data collection. The production of statistics based on points gives many possibilities for data dissemination. Georeferenced statistical data can be aggregated to any desired division of space, such as statistical, administrative units or grid cells as long as statistical confidentiality is maintained. Point based statistics can also serve as input data for advanced spatial analysis. Therefore CSO continuously updates its statistical address database to provide georeference to all possible survey frames.