The publication does not differ much by its contents from that brought out last year because our effort is to keep the stability and continuity of individual chapters and tables so that readers are able to find data they are used to. In this issue, for the first time, we publish the results of the survey on income and living conditions of households (SILC) for 2006, which has become a regular part of statistical work. The results can be found in the end of chapter 4. Besides, we extended the chapter Agriculture and Forestry by the results of structural survey in agriculture (FSS 2007) also by basic data from special survey on orchards. In addition, we concentrated on making the structure of chapters more transparent, however, slight modifications can be found in almost all chapters. Besides data on regions you can find there also data available by district and administrative district of municipalities with extended competence, selected data on towns and several indicators on individual municipalities. In the end of the data part of the publication there are time series of development of selected indicators in the Czech Republic in 1993 - 2007.

We also tried to respond to territorial changes in many regions, which came into effect from 1 January 2007. The scope of these changes is described in the end of methodological part of chapter 1. Naturally, the published data for 2007are adjusted to new territorial structure. Where possible we also re-calculated data for the previous years to the new structure.

State statistical surveys are basic data source. Besides data sources of the Czech Statistical Office data from other departments were used, too: especially from the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Ministry of finance, Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Education or the Institute for Information on Education, Ministry of Health or the Institute of Health Information and Statistics of the CR. Considerable part of data published is kept in regional databases called KROK (data on regions and districts) and MOS (community and municipality statistics). Gradually a Public Database (PDB) has also been filling up; it has been available in the CZSO web pages since the beginning of the year and it gradually enables still more detailed looks on statistical data in the predefined tables from the subject and territorial classification point of view. More detailed information on the public database can be obtained on the web page http://vdb.czso.cz/vdb/.

A regional yearbook, of course, cannot contain all data collected and processed by the state statistics. More detailed data from individual segments of demographic, economic and social development of a region, district, municipality, and micro-regions are brought out in specialized publications (statistical bulletin, publications of demographic character, etc). We would like to bring attention of our readers to the fact that recently we have published the analysis “Housing construction in the Jihočeský Region in 1998-2007”.

Besides the printed form, all publications are available also in electronic form and on CD-ROM; a great deal of information is provided also at regional web pages of the CZSO (www.cbudejovice.czso.cz), at which we make available to the public not only the most update results of statistical surveys, but also information on our own activity. Now, we prepare a new layout of web pages so that the users can easily search for the information needed.

The reason why statistical information is acquired and processed is knowledge, seeking for tendencies in development and, moreover, its utilisation in practice. Long-term practice with the interest of users in information in regional breakdown, which has been markedly increasing recently, makes us believe that the regional statistical yearbook will continue to be a sought-after information source both for professional and general public. Of course, we will welcome your prospective suggestions and comments regarding the contents of the yearbook; they will be a valuable contribution during preparation of regional publications in 2009.

We express our thanks to all authors and colleagues for the effort and time they devoted to the preparation of the contents as well as technical part of this publication.

The following symbols have been used throughout:
The symbol of dash (-) in place of a figure indicates that the phenomenon did not occur.
The symbol of dot (.) shows that the figure is not available or cannot be relied on.
The symbol of horizontal small cross (x) shows that the figure is not applicable.
The symbol of (0) used in table designates figures smaller than a half of the unit of measure chosen.
The abbreviation “i.d.” used in the tables stands for individual data, which are protected and cannot be released.

The calculations in the tables are performed using unrounded figures (including the sums).
The data given in the Yearbook are valid as at 15 October 2008 and update the data and estimates published before.