Geostatistics is concerned with the problem of producing a map of a quantity of interest over a particular geographical region based on, usually noisy, measurement taken at a set of locations in the region. The aim of such a map is to describe and analyze the geographical pattern of the phenomenon of interest.
Geostatistical methodologies are born and apply in areas such as environmental studies and epidemiology, where the spatial information is traditionally recorded and available. However, in the last years the diffusion of spatially detailed statistical data is considerably increased and these kind of procedures - possibly with appropriate modifications - can be used as well in other fields of application, for example to study demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of a population living in a certain region.