Computer cartography point-in-polygon programs

The official statistics and census reports give figures only for administrative units. The boundaries of these units are often changed and hence it is very difficult to compare statistics from two different periods. However, an administrative unit can always be approximated by a polygon. Real estate data are assigned to a central point for which the coordinates are known. A computer can determine whether a point belongs to a polygon or not by means of a special program. Data for all real estate central points belonging to the actual polygon are added. In this way it will be possible to compute data for arbitrary polygons, for instance administrative units which do not exist any longer, by assigning real estate data to the central points.