by Ed Swires-Hennessy, National Assembly for Wales

Saddle sore - but now back from my slow 4,200 mile convoy drive to Romania I thought I would try again to visit the web site of the Romanian Statistical Office, locally known as the Comisia Nationala pentru Statistica (CNS) at ( http://cns.kappa.ro/ ). Yet again the attempts failed.

So I flew (electronically) to Brazil where the Institute of Geography and Statistics offers statistics in both English and Portuguese at ( http://www.ibge.gov.br/ ). The option to view in Spanish is not yet live – but obviously there are plans! The opening page is filled not only with graphics but also with animations, including a population clock. Technology utilised is the latest on this page with macromedia flash used for the selection of topics (i.e. when you hover over ‘Notícias’ a sub-menu is displayed adjacent). On both sides of the main pages are graphics with further options – including one for the 2000 Census: following this link opens a separate window with effectively a separate site. If one opts for the English version of the site, one is given only five main sections and not seven (excluding the FTP and electronic library).

The English version of the home page is much simpler and one can even get information on the development of the English part of the site! Only the population clock graphic has been thought relevant to (or readable by) English visitors. Looking into the catalogue, I was excited to find the influence of the institute’s link to geography with maps as an option – but this turned to disappointment when I discovered that the maps were not available –just descriptions of what maps there were without even a hint of how to get hold of a copy!

Brazil in brief provides a lot of statistics organised by topic as well as some commentary. Over half of the population is aged under 25 and two aged under 35: but the birth rates are falling. But the population has still grown by more than 10 per cent since 1991! Tables in the brief are presented in fixed pitch fonts – to overcome early browser problems.

One gem on the site is the Minimum National Social Indicators Set which was agreed at the UN Statistical Commission in 1997. Presentation here is much better than the In Brief tables but, obviously, covering mainly social data. However the tables themselves do not have units of measurement – one has to look in the Definitions part of the file – not intuitively easy.

The statistical links page was relatively slow to load because it includes a world map to choose the region of interest. ONS is listed – but without any reference to the UK!

Overall, an interesting site to visit to see the latest web technology applied.

And news from Eurostat …. A new database is available for the economically minded with a vast array of statistical indicators for the Eurozone (individual country and EC). Free access to those in the GSS – but you need to talk to Jon Beadle first (GTN 3042 5938 or e-mail Jon.Beadle@ons.gov.uk)

Suggestions of interesting sites or interesting features found at statistical sites should be sent to me at

Ed.Swires-Hennessy@Wales.gsi.gov.uk

or by snail mail to National Assembly for Wales, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NQ.