Statistical Yearbook of the Ústecký Region is one of the main publications of the regional workplace of the Czech Statistical Office. It is brought out – the same as in other regions – already for the seventh time; these contents-unified regional yearbooks follow the nationwide Statistical Yearbook of the Czech Republic, which is elaborated by the headquarters of the Czech Statistical Office. Data are basically published for the period 2004 – 2006, for selected indicators in a longer time series since 1993, which is the year when the independent Czech Republic was established.

The publication does not differ much by its contents from that brought out last year because our effort is to keep the stability of individual\al chapters and tables so that readers are able to find data they are used to. This year, we do not have any results from special statistical survey available, however we concentrated on making the structure of chapters more transparent, we created a new chapter 4 Macroeconomic indicators, export, finance, research and development of information society. Slight modifications can be found in almost all chapters. Besides data on regions you can find here 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 - 2006.

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 now we are preparing for them a publication “Selected areas of sustainable development in the Ústecký Region”.

Besides the printed form, all publications are available also in an electronic form and on a CD-ROM; a great deal of information is provided also at regional web pages of the CZSO (www.ustinadlabem.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.

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 2008.

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

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 2006 and update the data and estimates published before.