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Breadcrumb

  1. Home
  2. Methodology and quality
  3. ESMS metadata
  4. Housing

Housing

1. Contact
1.1. Contact organisation

Statistics Estonia

1.2. Contact organisation unit

Population and Social Statistics Department

1.3. Contact name

Helena Maarja Lainjärv

1.4. Contact person function

Analyst

1.5. Contact mail address

51 Tatari Str, 10134 Tallinn, Estonia

1.6. Contact email address

helena.maarja.lainjarv [at] stat.ee

1.7. Contact phone number

37253613881

2. Metadata update
2.1. Metadata last certified

27/03/2025

2.2. Metadata last update

27/03/2025

3. Statistical presentation
3.1. Data description

Type, number and occupancy of dwellings, 1 January

Useful floor space of dwellings, 1 January

Number of rooms of dwellings, 1 January

Year of construction (interval) of dwellings

Existence of dwelling comfort: tap water, flush toilet, bath or shower, central heating

3.2. Classification system

Classification of Estonian administrative units and settlements (EHAK)

List of building use purposes

3.3. Sector coverage

Dwellings of Estonia

3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions

Amenities – piped water, flush toilet, bath or shower, central heating.

Amenities unknown – information is not available for at least one amenity. The dwelling has all the other amenities.

Central heating – dwelling is considered as centrally heated if heating is provided either from a community heating centre or from an installation built in the building or in the housing unit, established for heating purposes, without regard to the source of energy.

Collective living quarters – premises which are designed for habitation by large groups of individuals or several households and which are used as the usual residence by at least one person (social welfare institutions, dormitories, prisons, convents, monasteries).

Conventional dwellings – structurally separate and independent premises at fixed locations which are designed for permanent human habitation.

Dwelling – conventional dwelling, collective living quarter or other housing unit (types of dwelling).

Dwelling with amenities – the dwelling has piped water, flush toilet, bath or shower and central heating.

Dwelling without amenities – the dwelling lacks at least one of the four amenities.

Floor space of a dwelling – floor space measured inside the outer walls excluding non-habitable cellars and attics and, in multi-dwelling buildings, all common spaces.

Occupant – Estonian permanent resident living in the premises. More detailed information on the determination of Estonian permanent residents is on the website of Statistics Estonia in the methodological document “Implementation of the residency index in demographic statistics”.

Occupied dwelling – at least one resident has registered it as the place of residence in the Population Register.

Other housing units – occupied non-residential premises (huts, cabins, shacks, shanties, caravans, houseboats, barns, mills, caves or other shelters).

Room – space in a housing unit enclosed by walls reaching from the floor to the ceiling or roof, of a size large enough to hold a bed for an adult (4 square metres at least) and at least 2 metres high over the major area of the ceiling.

3.5. Statistical unit

Dwelling

3.6. Statistical population

Dwellings located in Estonia

FRAME

List of dwellings in the Statistical register of buildings and premises

3.7. Reference area

Estonia as a whole

Counties

3.8. Time coverage

1994–…

3.9. Base period

Not applicable

4. Unit of measure

Dwellings – number

5. Reference period

1 January

6. Institutional mandate
6.1. Legal acts and other agreements

DIRECTLY APPLICABLE LEGAL ACTS

Not available

OTHER LEGAL ACTS

Not available

OTHER AGREEMENTS

Not available

7. Confidentiality
7.1. Confidentiality - policy

The dissemination of data collected for the purpose of producing official statistics is guided by the requirements provided for in § 32, § 34, § 35, § 38 of the Official Statistics Act.

7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment

The dissemination of data collected for the production of official statistics is based on the requirements laid down in §§ 34 and 35 of the Official Statistics Act.

The principles for treatment of confidential data can be found here.

8. Release policy
8.1. Release calendar

Notifications about the dissemination of statistics are published in the release calendar, which is available on the website. Every year on 1 October, the release times of the statistical database, news releases, main indicators by IMF SDDS and publications for the following year are announced in the release calendar (in the case of publications – the release month).

8.2. Release calendar access

Calendar

8.3. User access

All users have been granted equal access to official statistics: dissemination dates of official statistics are announced in advance and no user category (incl. Eurostat, state authorities and mass media) is provided access to official statistics before other users. Official statistics are first published in the statistical database. If there is also a news release, it is published simultaneously with data in the statistical database. Official statistics are available on the website at 8:00 a.m. on the date announced in the release calendar.

9. Frequency of dissemination

Annual

10. Accessibility and clarity
10.1. News release

Not published

10.2. Publications

Not published

10.3. Online database

Data are published under the subject area “Economy / Real estate” in the statistical database at https://andmed.stat.ee/en/stat.

10.4. Microdata access

The dissemination of data collected for the purpose of producing official statistics is guided by the requirements provided for in § 33, § 34, § 35, § 36, § 38 of the Official Statistics Act. Access to microdata and anonymisation of microdata are regulated by Statistics Estonia’s procedure for dissemination of confidential data for scientific purposes.

10.5. Other

Not used

10.6. Documentation on methodology

The register-based population and housing census (REGREL) methodology is used.

The final report of the REGREL methodology development project (Tallinn, 2013) can be viewed as a methodology document, as it includes definitions.

10.7. Quality documentation

The final report of the register-based housing and population census methodology development project (Tallinn, 2013) can be viewed as a methodology document, because it includes an analysis of registers and their suitability for use during the next census.

Report of the first trial census of REGREL.

11. Quality management
11.1. Quality assurance

To assure the quality of processes and products, Statistics Estonia applies the EFQM Excellence Model, the European Statistics Code of Practice and the Quality Assurance Framework of the European Statistical System (ESS QAF). Statistics Estonia is also guided by the requirements in § 7. “Principles and quality criteria of producing official statistics” of the Official Statistics Act.

11.2. Quality assessment

Statistics Estonia performs all statistical activities according to an international model (Generic Statistical Business Process Model – GSBPM). According to the GSBPM, the final phase of statistical activities is overall evaluation using information gathered in each phase or sub-process; this information can take many forms, including feedback from users, process metadata, system metrics and suggestions from employees. This information is used to prepare the evaluation report which outlines all the quality problems related to the specific statistical activity and serves as input for improvement actions.

12. Relevance
12.1. User needs

Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications

Ministry of Finance

12.2. User satisfaction

Since 1996, Statistics Estonia has conducted reputation and user satisfaction surveys. All results are available on the website of Statistics Estonia in the section User surveys.

12.3. Completeness

In compliance with the rules (regulations)

13. Accuracy and reliability
13.1. Overall accuracy

General accuracy depends on the coverage and timeliness of the registers used.

The total population of dwellings consists of occupied and unoccupied dwellings. It is not possible to assign all permanent residents of Estonia to dwellings, as some of the Population Register addresses are of poor quality and cannot be matched to address objects in the Estonian Address Data System, and some addresses are only at the municipality level. As at 1st January 2018, the number of permanent residents not assigned to dwellings was approximately 3.3% of the total number of permanent residents.

13.2. Sampling error

Not applicable

13.3. Non-sampling error

Due to the combination of two data sources, coverage error should be taken into account – there may be over-coverage in the data, because the Register of Buildings and the Population and Housing Census use different definitions of “dwelling” (the first counts all officially approved dwellings; the census also enumerates dwellings that have not been officially approved, but where people already live).

14. Timeliness and punctuality
14.1. Timeliness

The data are published 142 days after the end of the reference year (T + 142).

14.2. Punctuality

The data have been published at the time announced in the release calendar.

15. Coherence and comparability
15.1. Comparability - geographical

The data are geographically comparable.

15.2. Comparability - over time

The data are comparable over time.

15.3. Coherence - cross domain

Population in inhabited dwellings are in accordance with published population estimation.

15.4. Coherence - internal

The outputs of the statistical activity are coherent.

16. Cost and burden

17. Data revision
17.1. Data revision - policy

The data revision policy and notification of corrections are described in the section Principles of dissemination of official statistics of the website of Statistics Estonia.

17.2. Data revision - practice

The published data may be revised if the methodology is modified, errors are discovered, new or better data become available.

18. Statistical processing
18.1. Source data

SURVEY DATA

Not used

ADMINISTRATIVE DATA

Register of Buildings

Population Register

Estonian Address Data System (ADS)

Database of prisoners, detained persons, persons in custody and probationers

Social Security Information System

Social Services and Benefits Registry

DATA FROM OTHER STATISTICAL ACTIVITIES

Data from statistical activity 30003 “Register-based population and housing census” are used.

Cencus 2011 database

18.2. Frequency of data collection

Annual

18.3. Data collection

The data for dwellings have been collected from registers. The main registers are the Register of Buildings, Population Register (PR) and Estonian Address Data System (ADS). In addition to the main registers, information from the Database of prisoners, detained persons, persons in custody and probationers and Social Security Information System have been used.

Data are received via X-Road or FTP-server.

18.4. Data validation

Arithmetic and qualitative controls are used in the validation process.

18.5. Data compilation

Variables and statistical units which were not collected but which are necessary for producing output are calculated. New variables are calculated by applying arithmetic conversion to already existing variables. This may be done repeatedly; the derived variable may, in turn, be based on previously derived variables. The collected data are converted into statistical output. This includes calculating additional variables.

The total population of dwellings consists of all dwellings in the address data system as address objects as at 1st January. The total population of dwellings consists of occupied and unoccupied dwellings.

18.6. Adjustment

Not applied

19. Comments

Housing statistics have not been published since 2013. The new methodology has been developed within the framework of the register-based population and housing census (REGREL).

Contacts

+372 625 9300
stat [at] stat.ee

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