New Digital Source of Statistical Information about Population

The article presents the authors’ views on using «Big Data» to gain new information on population and to study various social and economic phenomena and processes on its basis. As the foreign  experience clearly demonstrates, with the development of  information industry and the ubiquitous mobile communications  penetration, one of the most promising sources of «Big Data» in  terms of population coverage (using population as an object of  statistical observation) and efficiency in obtaining information on it,  is data from mobile operators. The paper also notes Russian  experience in this field, especially since 2014, when Russia managed to implement the «Geoanalysis» project on using data from mobile  operators in managerial activities of the Moscow Government. The  authors outline the history and development of the new digital data  source for population statistics, which is based on technical data of cellular networks. The paper covers baselines to Russian innovation methodological developments and algorithms for converting radio frequency events from base stations of mobile operators into  statistical indicators of number, density and dynamics of population  movements with full coverage of study area and high level of space- time specification. This article pays particular attention to issues  concerning protection of subscribers’ personal data, legality of collecting and processing the information received from mobile operators in accordance with the legislation of the Russian  Federation. The authors thoroughly examined directions for applying  statistical indicators, based on data from mobile operators, in the  field of economy, trade, culture, transport modeling, urban planning and management.

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