The Statistical Yearbook of the Wielkopolskie Voivodship is one of the most important publications released under the publication schedule of the Statistical Office in Poznań, which provides an annual overview of information about the scale of social changes and the level of the region’s economic development. The current edition is a statistical summary reflecting economic and social changes recorded in 2012.

This year’s edition of the Yearbook is the result of work intended to standardize publications produced by statistical offices in each voivodship. The effort involves, among others, standardizing section names and table headings, updating information contained in notes and footnotes, using the same periods for retrospective data, introducing a uniform set of variables, scope and manner of data presentation (full population/sample) and using the same territorial cross-sectional cells, as well as developing more precise definitions of concepts.

As usual, in order to track tendencies and directions of ongoing changes the latest statistics are compared with figures for previous years. The overview tables which open The Statistical Yearbook of the Wielkopolskie Voivodship 2013 present data going as far back as 2000; in later sections retrospective data span the period 2005–2012. Wherever possible, depending on the availability and quality of data, thematic tables in particular thematic sections contain data for 2005, 2010, 2011 and 2012.