Relevance
Structural
Business Statistics (SBS) describe the structure, activity, and performance of
businesses in the local scenario. SBS
produces statistics on various characteristics including turnover, production,
value added, gross operating surplus, purchases of goods and services,
personnel costs, wages and salaries, social security costs, investment, persons
employed, employees, and number of enterprises.
These are mainly broken down by NACE covering NACE Sections B to N and
NACE Division S95.. Moreover, certain
variables are also broken down by headcount and turnover groups. SBS also reports data relating to Business
Services for certain NACE classes and divisions. These consist of the turnover variable broken
down by products and by type of client residence. Such statistics are compiled under European
Framework Regulation (EC) No. 295/2008.
Methodological
description of survey
Data
for SBS is collected annually by means of a paper questionnaire that is sent by
post to a sample of resident enterprises selected from the Business Register. Data on SPEs, government institutions,
enterprises that are resident abroad or are classified as statistically
irrelevant, shipping or aviation in the Business Register are excluded from the
sample. Once the set of all eligible
enterprises is determined, enterprises are divided into strata according to
their NACE Division, number of employees and turnover value. A random sample of enterprises is selected
for each stratum. Data on NACE Section K
(Financial and Insurance Activities) is only available for NACE classes K64.11,
K64.19 and NACE Division K65. These statistics are obtained respectively from
external administrative sources.
NACE
Rev. 2 is used for the activity classification whilst the CPA version 2013 (Statistical
Classification of Products by Activity Version 2.1) is used for the
classification of products. Variables
relating to persons employed, employees and number of enterprises are expressed
in units, whereas the other monetary variables are expressed in thousands of
Euros. Data on credit institutions are
reported in millions of Euros.
Accuracy and
reliability of data
Information on the accuracy and
reliability of SBS data can be viewed in a dedicated ESMS metadata report available on the NSO’s metadata website. Prior to transmission, data is also checked
for consistency by means of Eurostat’s EDIT tool.
Timeliness and
punctuality of data
Data
for reference year N is transmitted to Eurostat by the end of June of year N+18
months (18 months from the end of the reference year), so as to satisfy the
requirements of the Regulation. Preliminary
data together with data on central banking and credit institutions is
transmitted to Eurostat by the end of October of year N+10 months (10 months
from the end of the reference year), whilst data on insurance services is
transmitted with the other SBS data 18 months from the end of the reference
year.
Accessibility and
clarity of data
SBS data can be accessed from
Eurostat’s database. A Quality
Report is transmitted to Eurostat 21 months after the end of the reference year
(N+21 months). An ESMS metadata report
is updated yearly and published on the NSO website.
Coherence and
comparability/consistency of data
SBS data is comparable over time. A change in the NACE classification was
brought about for reference year 2008 with the introduction of NACE Rev. 2. Therefore, data for SBS is comparable for all
reference years as from 2008. As from
reference year 2011, data is comparable up to NACE 2 digit level. SBS data follows the same trends as Short-Term
Statistics data, Business Registers and National Accounts data. This data is also comparable to that of other
EU countries due to the common definitions and methodologies used to compile
the data.
Questionnaire | Metadata