Regional statistics on entrepreneurial activity: documentation of statistics

The regional statistics on entrepreneurial activity describe the structure and activity of establishments of enterprises operating in Finland by region, industry and size category. The basic variables are: number of establishments, number of personnel, turnover, gross value and added value of production. Statistical data on the establishments of general government are also presented in connection with these statistics.

Enterprises engaged in business activities in Finland constitute the population of the regional statistics of entrepreneurial activity. The key classification variables of the statistics, such as industry, sector, legal form, type of ownership, and the size category of wage and salary earners, are obtained from the Register of Enterprises and Establishments of Statistics Finland. Enterprises are selected for the statistics if they are market-based and have had personnel, turnover, investments and balance sheet during the statistical reference year.

An establishment of an enterprise or other unit carrying out economic activities is used as the statistical unit.
An establishment may as such constitute an enterprise (single-establishment enterprise) or be a clearly definable part of an enterprise (multi-establishment/multi-industry enterprise). An actual establishment is a unit owned by a single enterprise or a quasi-corporate unit that is located in one place and mainly produces goods or services of one type. An actual establishment usually employs personnel and generates turnover.

The statistics also comprise ancillary establishments. These are establishments that support the production taking place in the actual establishments. An ancillary establishment can be a warehouse or a unit producing administrative or transport services. An ancillary establishment may employ wage and salary earners but it does not generate any turnover. Operating expenses of an ancillary establishment are included in the operating expenses of the actual establishments of an enterprise (internal delivery).

EUR 1,000, per cent and the number of personnel as measured in full-time equivalents are used as the units of measure in the database tables of the statistics.

The regional statistics on entrepreneurial activity are produced annually and the data are for a single year. The statistics are not index-based.

A calendar year is used as the reference period in the regional statistics on entrepreneurial activity.

In the regional statistics on entrepreneurial activity, the municipality in which the establishment is located is considered the regional unit of the establishment.

The regional statistics on entrepreneurial activity cover nearly all industries. All market-based enterprises that have had turnover, personnel, other operating income, investments, or balance sheet during the statistical reference year are included in the statistics.

Marked-based enterprises engaged in agriculture, forestry and fishery (industry A) that have had income from agriculture, other turnover, personnel, other operating income, investments, or balance sheet during the statistical reference year are included in the statistics. Only personal data on agriculture are comprehensively included in the statistics.

For industry 02, the units that have had income from forestry, other turnover, personnel, other operating income, investments, or balance sheet during the statistical reference year are included in the statistics

The following industries are not included in the statistics on establishments:
* Manufacture of tobacco products (TOL 12)
* Public administration and defence; compulsory social security (TOL O)
* Activities of households as employers (TOL T)
* Activities of extraterritorial organisations and bodies (TOL U)
For the following industries, only the number of establishments and personnel is given:
* Crop and animal production and hunting and related service activities (TOL 01)
* Financial and insurance activities (TOL K)

Regional statistics on entrepreneurial activity have been produced since the statistical year 2013. The data are not revised.

The group of statistical units in the structural business and financial statement statistics was expanded year 2023. Previously, only enterprises having operated for at least six months in the statistical reference year and whose turnover, number of personnel, investments or balance sheet exceeded the statistical limit were included in the statistics. Limitations concerning the operating time and size of enterprises have been removed from the definition of statistical units. Annual data contained in the statistics can be found on the website of the statistics and in Statistics Finland’s StatFin database with renewed statistical units for the period from 2018 onwards. Database tables created with the old statistical units can be found in the StatFin database archive for years 2013 to 2021.

The regional statistics on entrepreneurial activity are published on Statistics Finland’s website each year.
 

Non-response is the main source of error in the statistics.
 

Data are collected and checked for 11 months after the end of the statistical year.
Final data are published 12 months after the end of the statistical year.
 

There are no delays in releasing the data. The data have been published on the days indicated in the release calendar.
 

Data cover the hole of Finland.

The group of statistical units in the structural business and financial statement statistics was expanded year 2023. Annual data contained in the statistics can be found on the website of the statistics and in Statistics Finland’s StatFin database with renewed statistical units for the period from 2018 onwards. The change causes a break in the time series compared to old data. The effect of the new statistical units on variables other than the number of enterprises is mainly quite marginal, but can affect to some of the variables.

Temporal comparability of the data in archive is weakened by changes concerning industries, and changes in the Accounting Act and Accounting Decree. There were significant changes in forming the statistics from 2013 onwards, which causes a break in the time series for some of the variables and indutries.

Coherence with other statistics is limited by conceptual and methodological issues. The turnover given in the business indicators has been calculated on the basis of the self-assessed taxes data supplied by the Finnish Tax Administration.

The definition of turnover in the self-assessed taxes returns does not fully correspond with the turnover stated in the profit and loss account.

The calendar year, six months, quarter or month is used as the measurement period in the monthly indicators of enterprises. The measurement period for structural business and financial statement statistics is the 12-month accounting period. The accounting period is not always the same as the calendar year.

Regional statistics on entrepreneurial activity are internally coherent.
 

The register of establishments is kept as part of Statistics Finland’s Business Register. The following inquiries are used to collect basic data on establishments (industry, location, wage and salary earners) for the Business Register:
* Business Register inquiry for multi-establishment enterprises
* Business Register inquiry for single-establishment enterprises
* Business Register inquiry on establishment structure and personnel

The data on single-establishment enterprises are based on
* Business tax data
* Financial statements inquiry for enterprises

The inquiries about the business operations of multi-establishment enterprises are as follows:
* Inquiry for industrial establishments
* Inquiry on establishment structure and personnel (appendix to the financial statements inquiry)

In the annual inquiry for industrial establishments, industrial establishments of enterprises are asked to provide information on their income, expenditure, investments and inventories. As a rule, the inquiry for industrial establishments extends to all industrial establishments of multi-establishment enterprises employing at least 20 persons. In certain cases, industrial establishments of enterprises with fewer employees are also included in the inquiry. Industrial units owned by municipalities are also included in the inquiry.

The inquiry on establishment structure and personnel is intended for enterprises in the construction, trade and services. The inquiry on establishment structure and personnel concerns several establishments of an enterprise that comprise an entity at the two-digit level of the industry category. The purpose of the inquiry on establishment structure and personnel is to ease the response load of large multi-industry enterprises.

All enterprises with more than 60 employees and enterprises with a turnover of more than EUR 40 million or a balance sheet of more than EUR 300 million are included in the financial statements inquiry for enterprises. The enterprises employing between 10 and 60 persons are selected to the inquiry by means of random sampling. A number of enterprises with fewer employees and all municipal enterprises are also included. A total of approximately 6,000 enterprises are included in the inquiry.

Business tax data contain the financial statements of all enterprises and self-employed persons falling under the scope of the Business Tax Act.

For the data contents of the inquiries, go to: https://tilastokeskus.fi/keruu/index_en.html
 

Data for Statistics Finland’s own data collections are gathered with a web questionnaire. The instructions for the questionnaire have been specified based on customer feedback. The non-response of the inquiry is monitored yearly.
 

The data are collected once a year.
 

In the establishment process, establishments not included in the inquiries and establishments included in the establishment combinations are provided with data on entrepreneurial activity methodologically.  The method makes use of industry-specific variable coefficients that are multiplied by the number of personnel in the establishment. After this, the data on establishments are matched with the data on the combinations or the enterprise using a scaling coefficient.
 

The quality of the data is verified programmatically. Validation is carried out in connection with data collection and the compilation of primary statistics. The checks are typically related to missing or abnormal observations. 

Statistics Finland

Business statistics

The compilation of statistics is guided by the Statistics Act. The Statistics Act contains provisions on collection of data, processing of data and the obligation to provide data. Besides the Statistics Act, the Data Protection Act and the Act on the Openness of Government Activities are applied to processing of data when producing statistics.
Statistics Finland compiles statistics in line with the EU’s regulations applicable to statistics, which steer the statistical agencies of all EU Member States.
Further information: Statistical legislation

Compilation of the statistics is also guided by the following legislation:

1. Accounting Act and Decree 3012. 1997/1336
2. Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European business statistics and Commission Implementing regulation (EU) 2020/1197.
3. Regulation (EEC) No 696/93 on statistical units is applied to the statistics on business activities.
4. Regulation on industrial classifications; Standard Industrial Classification 2008 is based on the European Union’s common industrial classification (NACE Rev. 2), which has been supplemented for national needs on the 5-digit level.

The data protection of data collected for statistical purposes is guaranteed in accordance with the requirements of the Statistics Act (280/2004), the Act on the Openness of Government Activities (621/1999), the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and the Data Protection Act (1050/2018). The data materials are protected at all stages of processing with the necessary physical and technical solutions. Statistics Finland has compiled detailed directions and instructions for confidential processing of the data. Employees have access only to the data essential for their duties. The premises where unit-level data are processed are not accessible to outsiders. Members of the personnel have signed a pledge of secrecy upon entering the service. Violation of data protection is punishable.

Further information: Data protection | Statistics Finland (stat.fi)

Data on the regional statistics on entrepreneurial activity are published at aggregate level. The number of enterprises, number of personnel and the industry are publicly available data. Other data are subject to confidentiality provisions.
The threshold value rule is used when assessing the data disclosure risk, and the rule applies to all industries. The protected data are suppressed. In primary suppression, data on an individual industry group are protected by suppression if the group has data on one or two enterprises. In secondary encryption, the data are suppressed so that the primarily protected data cannot be derived. The same encryption rules apply to the information services, and stricter encryption procedures can be applied on a case-by-case basis.

Statistics Finland publishes new statistical data at 8 am on weekdays in its web service. The release times of statistics are given in advance in the release calendar available in the web service. The data are public after they have been updated in the web service. 

Further information: Publication principles for statistics at Statistics Finland 

Data contained in the regional statistics on entrepreneurial activity can be viewed free of charge by industry, size category, municipality and region in the Px-Web service database on Statistics Finland’s website.
Data on establishments are also available subject to charge within the limits of confidentiality provisions. Further information: palvelut.suhdanne@stat.fi
Micro-level data on establishments are also available to researchers through Statistics Finland’s research services.
https://tilastokeskus.fi/tup/mikroaineistot/index_en.html

Statistical data are published as database tables in the StatFin database. The database is the primary publishing site of data, and new data are updated first there. When releasing statistical data, existing database tables can be updated with new data or completely new database tables can be published.   

In addition to statistical data published in the StatFin database, a release on the key data is usually published in the web service. If the release contains data concerning several reference periods (e.g. monthly and annual data), a review bringing together these data is published in the web service. Database tables updated at the time of publication are listed both in the release and in the review. In some cases, statistical data can also be published as mere database releases in the StatFin database. No release or review is published in connection with these database releases. 

Releases and database tables are published in three languages, in Finnish, Swedish and English. The language versions of releases may have more limited content than in Finnish.   

Information about changes in the publication schedules of releases and database tables and about corrections are given as change releases in the web service. 

Revisions – i.e. improvements in the accuracy of statistical data already published – are a normal feature of statistical production and result in improved quality of statistics. The principle is that statistical data are based on the best available data and information concerning the statistical phenomenon. On the other hand, the revisions are communicated as transparently as possible in advance. Advance communication ensures that the users can prepare for the data revisions.

The reason why data in statistical releases become revised is often caused by the data becoming supplemented. Then the new, revised statistical figure is based on a wider information basis and describes the phenomenon more accurately than before.

Revisions of statistical data may also be caused by the calculation method used, such as annual benchmarking or updating of weight structures. Changes of base years and used classifications may also cause revisions to data.

The quality of the regional statistics on entrepreneurial activity is examined as the data accumulate. At aggregate level, the data are compared with the previous year and the most significant changes are examined. Coherence analyses of statistics on economic cycles are also carried out.
 

Quality management requires comprehensive guidance of activities. The quality management framework of the field of statistics is the European Statistics Code of Practice (CoP). The frameworks complement each other. The quality criteria of Official Statistics of Finland are also compatible with the European Statistics Code of Practice.

Further information: Quality management | Statistics Finland (stat.fi)

Data are released to all users at the same time. Statistical data may only be handled at Statistics Finland and information on them may be given before release only by persons involved in the production of the statistics concerned or who need the data of the statistics concerned in their own work before the data are published. 

Further information: Publication principles for statistics 

Unless otherwise separately stated in connection with the product, data or service concerned, Statistics Finland is the producer of the data and the owner of the copyright. The terms of use for statistical data.