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Breadcrumb

  1. Home
  2. Methodology and quality
  3. ESMS metadata
  4. Statistics of economic units

Statistics of economic units

1. Contact
1.1. Contact organisation

Statistics Estonia

1.2. Contact organisation unit

Data Processing and Registers Department

1.3. Contact name

Katrin Aasmäe

1.4. Contact person function

Analyst

1.5. Contact mail address

51 Tatari Str, 10134 Tallinn, Estonia

1.6. Contact email address

Katrin.Aasmae [at] stat.ee

1.7. Contact phone number

+372 625 9391

2. Metadata update
2.1. Metadata last certified

17/12/2021

2.2. Metadata last update

17/12/2021

3. Statistical presentation
3.1. Data description

Economically active units by economic activity, type of owner, legal form, county or administrative unit, size group by number of employed persons

3.2. Classification system

Estonian Classification of Economic Activities (EMTAK 2008) based on NACE Rev. 2

Type of owner

Classification of legal forms

Classification of Estonian administrative units and settlements (EHAK)

International Standard Codes for the Representation of the Names of Countries (ISO 3166)

Classification of institutional sectors (ESA_S 2010)

3.3. Sector coverage

Includes data on all economic units active in Estonia, except households and the embassies of foreign countries

3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions

Calendar year profile — the frame of active economic units which were active during the calendar year. The calendar year profile is compiled in October of the next year, when most of the data on the reference year is available. It is used for production of annual economic statistics.

Economic unit — enterprise, non-profit association, foundation, government institution and local government institution.

Enterprise consists of one or more companies (public limited company, private limited company, limited partnership, general partnership, commercial association) or branches of foreign companies or sole proprietors.

Non-profit association, foundation and institution — non-profit association, foundation, government institution, local government institution.

Active units are units that showed signs of economic activity during the year (turnover, employees, investments, etc.). “Life signs” available from other data sources are also considered.

Type of owner — a basis for the classification of owners is capital involvement (majority of votes) in the company. If the capital involvement of the state or local government in the company is 50% or more, it is a public sector company. A company belongs to the private sector, if the state or local government has no less or than 50% capital involvement in the company.

Statistical profile — the frame of economic units that were active during the year when the profile was compiled, including units that were active for only a part of the year. The frame is compiled in October and it is used for the production of annual statistics of the same year and short-term statistics of the following year.

3.5. Statistical unit

Legal unit

Enterprise

Local unit

Local kind-of-activity unit

Kind-of-activity unit

Enterprise group

3.6. Statistical population

Economic units that are part of the national accounts and regional accounts system – enterprises, non-profit associations, foundations, government institutions, local government institutions.

FRAME

Business register for statistical purposes

3.7. Reference area

Estonia as a whole

Administrative units

Counties

3.8. Time coverage

1995–…

3.9. Base period

Not applicable

4. Unit of measure

Statistical units – number

Employed persons – number and size group

Employees – number and size group

5. Reference period

Year

6. Institutional mandate
6.1. Legal acts and other agreements

DIRECTLY APPLICABLE LEGAL ACTS

Regulation (EC) No 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2019 on European business statistics, repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistics (Text with EEA relevance)

Council Regulation (EEC) No 696/93 of 15 March 1993 on the statistical units for the observation and analysis of the production system in the Community

Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 establishing the statistical classification of economic activities NACE Revision 2 and amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 3037/90 as well as certain EC Regulations on specific statistical domains

OTHER LEGAL ACTS

Not available

OTHER AGREEMENTS

Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat)

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 treatment of confidential data is regulated by the Procedure for Protection of Data Collected and Processed by Statistics Estonia (in Estonian). See more details on the website of Statistics Estonia in the section Õigusaktid.

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 / Economic units” 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

Responding to queries

10.6. Documentation on methodology

Regulation (EC) No 177/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 February 2008 establishing a common framework for business registers for statistical purposes

Council Regulation (EEC) No 696/93 of 15 March 1993 on the statistical units for the observation and analysis of the production system in the Community

Business Registers Recommendations Manual, Eurostat

International Guidelines on Statistical Business Registers, UNECE

10.7. Quality documentation

Not available

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

Government and local government institutions

Non-profit organisations

Research and educational institutions

Entrepreneurs

Eesti Pank (central bank of Estonia)

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

The business register for statistical purposes includes all legal units registered in Estonia and their data comply with the data composition requirements of Regulation (EC) No 177/2008 of the European Parliament of the Council.

13. Accuracy and reliability
13.1. Overall accuracy

The type of survey and the data collection methods ensure sufficient coverage and timeliness.

13.2. Sampling error

Not applicable

13.3. Non-sampling error

Not measured

14. Timeliness and punctuality
14.1. Timeliness

The data are published 30 days after the end of the reference year (T + 30).

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 comparable with the data of other European Union (EU) countries. When compiling data for Estonia, the business register for statistical purposes is used, which is in compliance with the requirements of the EU regulation.

The data are also comparable within Estonia. The data are compiled and published for Estonia, by counties and by municipalities.

The time series of published data was changed as a result of the administrative reform at the end of 2017. The data for 2017 were published twice – based on the administrative division prior to the reform and based on the new division.

15.2. Comparability - over time

The data have been compiled since 1995 when the data of economic units started to be published according to the Estonian Classification of Economic Activities (EMTAK, based on NACE), size class of employees and type of owner. In 2000, the breakdown by legal form, county and administrative unit was added. The data for 2017 were published twice – based on the administrative division prior to the reform and based on the new division.

15.3. Coherence - cross domain

The statistical activity “Statistics of economic units”, similarly to statistical activities 20901 “Business register for statistical purposes” and 20300 “Financial statistics of enterprises (annual)”, uses annual population of economic units, but the data of the three statistical activities differ slightly. The data are compiled at different points in time, where information on units in the reference year population differs. The cross-domain coherence will be improved by implementing calendar year population of economic units and its adoption in all three statistical activities, which is planned for the near future.

When comparing the data of the Centre of Registers and Information Systems (RIK) and the data of the Statistical Profile, the following should be taken into account:

- the data of the RIK on units registered in legal registers have been presented as of 1 January of current year and the data of the statistical profile include all units, which were economically active in previous and potentially economically active in current year;

- the data on the main economic activities in the RIK and in the Statistical Profile may be different due to independent updating of those databases;

- the RIK looks at apartment associations as a separate legal form, in the statistical profile they are considered as non-profit associations.

15.4. Coherence - internal

The data have been compiled since 1995 when the data of economic units started to be published according to the Estonian Classification of Economic Activities (EMTAK, based on NACE), size class of employees and type of owner. In 2000, the breakdown by legal form, county and administrative unit was added. The data for 2017 were published twice – based on the administrative division prior to the reform and based on the new division.

16. Cost and burden

Cost of statistical activity 3.5 thousand euros (data for 2018)

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

Not used

DATA FROM OTHER STATISTICAL ACTIVITIES

Data from statistical activity 20901 “Business register for statistical purposes” are used. The statistics of economic units are based on the business register for statistical purposes and statistical profile.

18.2. Frequency of data collection

Annual

18.3. Data collection

Not applicable

18.4. Data validation

The validation process consists of arithmetic and quality checks. Before data dissemination, internal coherence of the data is checked.

18.5. Data compilation

The sources for the data on economic units are the business register for statistical purposes and statistical profile. The data of business register for statistical purposes are obtained from the commercial register, non-profit associations and foundations register, register of taxable persons, and state register of state and local government institutions. In addition to legal registers, other data sources are used, such as the data of the Tax and Customs Board as well as statistical and financial reports.

All registered units are entered into the statistical register for business purposes. At the end of each year, the units active during the year are selected, including those that were active for only a part of the year.

18.6. Adjustment

Not applied

19. Comments

Not available

Contacts

+372 625 9300
stat [at] stat.ee
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