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. The most important change in this year’s publication is an independent chapter Research, development, information technologies where many data which have not been published in regional yearbooks are available. The data refer to the structure of the research and development workplaces, computer technology equipment, connection to the Internet and the use of Internet services. A new sub-chapter dealing with price statistics was included. Although majority of information from this area is available for the whole Czech Republic only, we managed to find and provide at least some data on prices broken by regions. The sub-chapter on social security has also been modified responding mainly to changes in classification of social care establishments. 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 – 2008.

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/en/.

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 products (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 “Position of rural areas in the Jihočeský Region in 2000 – 2008.”

Besides the printed form, publications are available also in electronic form and on CD-ROM; a great deal of information is provided also on 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. In May 2009 we completed 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. 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 2010. Now we plan modify the structure of regional yearbooks with the aim to improve their transparency and to make them more attractive to users. We wish to publish specific data in electronic form more extensively.

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 20 October 2009 and update the data and estimates published before.