Regional development

Statistics Estonia

Official statistics cooperation unit

Greta Tischler

Analyst

2 Vabaduse plats Str, 71020 Viljandi, Estonia

greta.tischler [at] stat.ee

+372 625 8470

10/02/2023

10/02/2023

The statistical activity includes data that allow the development of local and state-level strategies for regional development and serve as a basis for planning regional development actions and for monitoring the impact of regional development policies.

Classification of Estonian administrative units and settlements (EHAK)

Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS)

Government finances (tables RR300, RR302, RR306).

The main concept of this statistical activity is regional statistics. The regions are determined on the basis of the Territory of Estonia Administrative Division Act, according to which Estonia is divided into administrative and settlement units. Administrative units are counties, cities and rural municipalities. Settlement units are settlements and urban regions. Rural municipalities are divided into settlements which are villages, small towns, towns and cities without municipal status. Cities may consist of urban regions.

Various statistics on local government units, counties and NUTS (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics) regions are published. Some indicators may be available for smaller regions, e.g. gross income in a settlement unit or city district.

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FRAME

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Estonia as a whole

Regional units

Administrative units

Counties

City settlement region, town settlement region , rural settlement region

2013–… (tables RR300, RR302, RR306, ST004)

2017–… (tables RV063U, RV06U)

2018–… (tables TT064, TT065, TT066)

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Unit according to the indicator (local budget in euros etc.).

Year

Month

Quarter

DIRECTLY APPLICABLE LEGAL ACTS

Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 May 2003 on the establishment of a common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS)

OTHER LEGAL ACTS

Official Statistics Act

OTHER AGREEMENTS

Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat)

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.

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.

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).

Calendar

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.

Annual

Quarterly

Monthly

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Not published

Data are published in the statistical database at https://andmed.stat.ee/en/stat under the subject area “Economy / Finance / Government finances / Local government budgets” in the tables RR300, RR302 and RR306,

under the subject area “Population / Population indicators and composition / Main demographic indicators” in the following tables:

RV063U: Dependency ratio by region/administrative unit, 1 January, administrative division as at 01.01.2018

RV06U: Demographic labour pressure index by region/administrative unit, 1 January, administrative division as at 01.01.2018,

under the subject area “Social life / Income” in the following table:

ST004: Average monthly gross income per employee and recipients of gross income by region/ administrative unit, sex and age group, administrative division as at 01.01.2018,

under the subject area “Social life / Labour market / Unemployed persons / Short term statistics” in the following tables:

TT064: Registered unemployed persons by region/administrative unit, administrative division as at 01.01.2018 (months)

TT065: Registered unemployed persons by region/administrative unit, sex and age group, administrative division as at 01.01.2018 (months)

TT066: Registered unemployed persons by region/county and educational level, administrative division as at 01.01.2018 (months),

and under the subject area “Social life / Social protection / Social assistance / Subsistence benefits” in the tables SK410, SK430 and SK440.

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Personalized web-based governance dashboard

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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.

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.

Ministry of Finance

Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications

Ministry of Social Affairs

Ministry of Rural Affairs

Ministry of the Environment

Estonian Rescue Board

Estonian Tax and Customs Board

Eesti Töötukassa (Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund)

Estonian Land Board

Register of construction works

Association of Estonian Cities and Rural Municipalities

Local governments

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.

In compliance with the rules

The accuracy of source data is monitored.

Not applicable

Eurostat and the national statistical institutes try to reduce non-sampling errors through continuous methodological and survey process improvements, e.g. by adopting computer-assisted data collection, which can help to avoid coding and typing errors.

Publication of data takes place according to the release calendar.

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

The data are geographically comparable within Estonia if administrative borders have not changed (see the explanation under comparability over time).

The 2017 administrative reform interrupted the time series of municipalities, as the borders of municipalities changed to a great extent. When using the database it is important to pay attention to the status of administrative division. The statistics for municipalities are comparable after the administrative reform according to the new borders.

For 34 indicators, Statistics Estonia has made calculations in retrospect using the new administrative borders. For these indicators, the comparable time series is longer (it depends on the specific indicator). The time series is comparable for longer also in the case of municipalities that didn’t have changes in their borders (e.g. Tallinn and Viljandi cities). When calculating indicators in the case of these longer time series, it is important to pay attention to possible methodological changes. This is especially important in the case of population statistics, as methodological changes in this domain have been quite significant.

The wages and salaries statistics of Statistics Estonia (SE) and employees’ gross income data of the Tax and Customs Board are not comparable. There are three main differences between the methodologies.

1. Types of payment

The average wages and salaries published by Statistics Estonia include the following types of payment: time wage and piecework pay, holiday pay, irregular bonuses and premiums.

The Tax and Customs Board does not publish average wages but payments to persons, which are associated with employment relationships. For example, contrary to SE data, the Tax and Customs Board data do not include fringe benefits.

2. Time difference

SE data are compiled on an accrual basis, while the data of the Tax and Customs Board are compiled on cash basis.

In the case of accrual based accounting, transactions are recorded when they occur regardless of whether money has been transferred. In cash based accounting, the transactions are recorded when money is transferred, i.e. when the income and social tax have been declared (the declaration is submitted when the payment is made). Therefore, SE considers the wages earned in December as December wages, but in the Tax and Customs Board accounting, they were earned in January when the payment was made.

3. Number of employees

The average monthly gross wages and salaries of SE are shown for full-time employees, so that wages could be compared regardless of working time. The average number of employees in full-time equivalents is calculated as follows: number of full-time employees + number of part-time employees considered proportionately to the time worked (e.g. two half-time employees are taken into account as one full-time employee). The total sum of gross monthly wages and salaries is divided by the average number of full-time equivalents.

The Tax and Customs Board takes into account all persons to whom payments have been made regardless of whether the payment was made for full-time or part-time work.

The data are internally coherent. Referring to data with similar content in the same way has been avoided. In the case of some indicators, the data published by Eurostat and Statistics Estonia may differ. This is related to methodological issues.

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.

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

SURVEY DATA

Not used

ADMINISTRATIVE DATA

The following data on administrative units (counties, cities and rural municipalities) are received from administrative sources:

average monthly gross income of employees (from the Estonian Tax and Customs Board);

operating revenue and expenditure of local budgets (incl. personal income tax receipts), grants from state budget equalization and support fund, targeted financing received for acquisition of fixed assets, net debt burden of local governments (from the information system of governmental accounts of the Ministry of Finance);

subsistence benefits (from the Ministry of Social Affairs);

registered unemployed persons (from the Unemployment Insurance Fund).

DATA FROM OTHER STATISTICAL ACTIVITIES

Data from statistical activities 30101 “Population” are used.

Once a year (tables RR300, RR302, RR306, RV063U, RV06U, SK410, SK430, SK440, ST004)

Once a month (tables TT064, TT065, TT066)

Administrative data are received via X-Road and an FTP-server, and by e-mail.

Arithmetic and qualitative controls are used in the validation process, including comparison with other data.

The collected data are converted into statistical output. This includes calculating additional indicators.

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