Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English en
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

Small Area Estimation Methods to Monitor the Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals at the Subnational Level in the European Union (SAESDGs-EU)

Project description

Small-area composite indicators of economic well-being

The UN General Assembly highlights the need to disaggregate Sustainable Development Goal indicators by various socio-economic groups. Large-scale surveys such as the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EUSILC) are not designed to be used to produce reliable analyses for these groups, creating the need for estimation methods to improve accuracy using auxiliary data. Economic well-being requires diverse indicators. With this in mind, the ERC-funded SAESDGs-EU project aims to create a single-step method for producing small-area composite indicators of economic well-being using the EUSILC. The method will address the issues observed in current two-step methods regarding the data quality of small-area estimates. The project will also explore the use of nontraditional data sources, such as web and satellite data, as auxiliary information.

Objective

The United Nations (UN) General Assembly highlights the need to disaggregate Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) indicators by different socio-economic characteristics e.g. income, sex, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, and small geographic location, or other relevant characteristics (General Assembly resolution 68/261). However, large scale national sample surveys, i.e. the EU Statistics on Income and Leaving Conditions (EUSILC), which collect variables that are needed to produce such indicators, are not designed to be reliable at those disaggregation levels. Small area estimation (SAE) methods are thus needed to produce accurate and precise estimates at a subnational level. SAE methods combine different auxiliary data sources (e.g. the Census with survey data), thus ‘borrowing strength’ from related areas to make a better-quality small area estimates.
The focus of SAESDGs-EU is on economic well-being, which is closely related to the SDGs, as improving quality of life is a core objective of sustainable development. Many of the 17 SDGs explicitly target well-being by addressing economic, social, and environmental factors. Economic well-being is multidimensional, hence a variety of indicators should be considered when measuring it. In this project, we will develop a single-step method to produce small area composite indicators of economic well-being based on the EUSILC. This is a ground-breaking innovation, since currently first composite indicators are produced and then SAE methods are applied (or vice-versa), in a two-step approach. The literature has highlighted problems with this approach which impact the data quality of the final estimates. Given that SAE requires auxiliary information, we will also explore pitfalls and potentials of using non-traditional data sources as auxiliary information (e.g. web-data, satellite data). These are well known data sources that provide granular spatial information.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

(opens in new window) ERC-2025-STG

See all projects funded under this call

Host institution

UNIVERSITEIT UTRECHT
Net EU contribution
€ 1 499 841,00
Address
HEIDELBERGLAAN 8
3584 CS Utrecht
Netherlands
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
€ 1 499 841,00

Beneficiaries (1)