Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia (SURS)

Structural and Global Business Statistics Section

Litostrojska 54, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Quarterly and monthly business demography (QBD) comprises data on registrations and bankruptcies of legal units in the country. Data are collected as absolute values. Key data sets for dissemination are indices of registrations of legal units and legal units that have started bankruptcy procedures. The sources of data are the Administrative Business Register (PRS) and the Statistical Business Register (SBR).

In the survey, the statistical classification of economic activities NACE Rev. 2 is used. The statistical activity of the legal unit is observed. The statistical activity is the main activity in the Statistical Business Register (SBR) for the statistical purpose and could in some cases for bankruptcies differ from the registered activity in the administrative business register (PRS), which is kept by the Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for Public Legal Records and Related Services (AJPES). The statistical activity is determined for the important units for which it is evident from the statistical data that the classification according to those data differs from the classification anticipated due to the registered activity.

Quarterly business demography observes legal units registered in one of the following sections and divisions of NACE Rev. 2: Mining and quarrying (B), Manufacturing (C), Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply (D), Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities (E), Construction (F), Wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (G), Transportation and storage (H), Accommodation and food service activities (I), Information and communication (J), Financial and insurance activities except holding companies (K), Real estate activities (L), Professional, scientific and technical activities (M), Administrative and support service activities (N), Education (P), Human health and social work activities (Q), Arts, entertainment and recreation (R), Repair of computers and personal and household goods (S95) and Other personal service activities (S96).

Data are disseminated in the following aggregates: B-S, B-E, F, G, H, I, J, K-N, P-S.

Monthly data are disseminated only as totals for aggregate B-S due to small number of units. 

Operations of legal units that are by the Standard Classification of Institutional Sectors in the government sector (13), in the non-profit institutions serving households sector (15) and in the subsectors employees (143) and recipients of property and transfer income (144) are not taken into account.

The coverage is full. In the survey around 7,500 legal units are observed quarterly and  around 2,300 legal units monthly.

Registrations in the reference period are legal units that are newly registered in the Administrative Business Register (PRS) kept by the Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for Public Legal Records and Related Services (AJPES).

Bankruptcies in the reference period are legal units that have started the procedure of being declared bankrupt by issuing a court declaration.

The unit described by the published data is a legal unit registered for performing predominantly market activities on the territory of the Republic of Slovenia.

A legal unit is a legal person or a registered natural person (i.e. sole proprietor, physician, lawyer) that performs registered activities or certain activities defined by the regulation or act of establishment.

The coverage is full, which means that the survey covers all market legal units (including sole proprietors) performing activities in sections B – Mining and quarrying to S – Other service activities (except section of activity O - Public administration and defence; compulsory social security and division 94 – Activities of membership organisation) by NACE Rev. 2. 

Variables refer to units that are registered on the territory of the Republic of Slovenia.

The coverage of data is available from 1st quarter 2015 and January 2015 on.

Not applicable because data are sending in absolute figures.

Unit of measure is the pure number of registrations and bankruptcies but data are disseminated as indices.

Quarter/month of a year.

• Annual Programme of Statistical Surveys (LPSR)
• National Statistics Act (OJ RS, No. 45/95 and 9/01)
• European legal basis: REGULATION (EU) 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 (CELEX 32019R2152), Table 1 of the Commission implementing regulation 2020/1197.

Data (pure numbers) are sent to Eurostat.

All data collected and published by the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia are governed by the National Statistics Act (OJ RS No. 45/95 and No. 9/01), Article 50.

At the European level confidentiality is governed by the Council Regulation No 223/2009 (OJ No L 87/09, p.164).

The lowest level of published data is sections of NACE Rev. 2. Data are not confidential. 

The release calendar with advanced release dates for all periods of the reference year is published at the beginning of the year on the website of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia. The release calendar is publicly accessible.

Link to the release calendar: https://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/ReleaseCal

The most important information channel for data publication is the website https://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en. The Office publishes electronic and printed publications. The Office publishes several types of serial publications, different series and other publications, which are according to the content intended for different users (e.g. general public, professional public, statistical experts). Data are available free of charge, except those data that are prepared on users’ request. Statistical data and information are always published at 10.30. All releases are announced on the Office’s website https://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/ReleaseCal in the Release Calendar. None of the users have a prior access to the data on registrations and bankruptcies. The simultaneous issue of the First Release is ensured. The same release policy that applies to national releases is applied to transmission to Eurostat

The data are disseminated monthly and quarterly.

First data are issued with a First Release at 10:30 on SURS’s website. A First Release is available within 40 days after the reference period.

There are no paper publications, only electronic. Data are published in a First Release and in the SI-STAT Database.

SI-STAT Database https://pxweb.stat.si/SiStat/en --> Enterprises --> Business demography and high-growth enterprises--> Short term business demography. The SI STAT Database provides a modern way of preparing and exporting data for selected categories.

In Slovenia, the entities entitled to obtain the statistically protected microdata include the registered research institutions, registered researchers, and the researchers of government offices. Basic instructions concerning the access and the use of statistically protected microdata are available on the website: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/StaticPages/Index/For-Researchers.

QBD data (absolute values) are transmitted to Eurostat within 40 days after the reference period. The transmission is done by eDAMIS using the SDMX format.

National methodological explanations are available on the  website: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/methods-and-classifications/methodological-explanations Theme: Enterprises --> Business demography and high-growth enterprises--> Short term business demography. There is an automatic link in the SI-STAT Database.

Quality reports are available on the website: https://www.stat.si/statWeb/en/Methods/QuestionnairesMethodologicalExplanationsQualityReportsTheme: Enterprises --> Business demography and high-growth enterprises--> Short term business demography.

The Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia operates on the basis of the National Statistics Act and Regulation (EC) No. 223/2009 on European statistics. In performing its tasks it follows the general principles of quality management, the European Statistics Code of Practice and the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics. In line with the stated, SURS declares that it takes into account the following principles: professional independence, process orientation, quality of products and services, planning of improvements, stimulating working environment for employees, data providers-friendly official statistics, user-oriented official statistics.

Quality assurance policy and documentation is available on SURS’s websites: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/FundamentalPrinciples/QualityInStat (Code of Practice) and https://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/Methods/QuestionnairesMethodologicalExplanationsQualityReports

Data on registrations and bankruptcies of legal units are produced in compliance with methodological requirements and standards. All statistics that are required by the current EU legislation are available. The coverage rate is 100%. The publication schedule is fixed and announced in advance for the First Release. Data are available from 2015 on and are internally coherent. Results are displayed in the form of indices in the First Release and in the SI-STAT Database. Data are published on time; there are no level shifts that would be a result of methodological changes. Data series are comparable among countries. We are also attentive to similar data in other domains (Administrative Business Register and Annual Business Demography).

In the last decade, the statistical profession has made great progress towards broader understanding of the quality of statistical data. SURS adopted the Eurostat’s common quality definition. According to this definition, the quality of statistical data is composed of the following six components: relevance, accuracy and reliability, timeliness and punctuality, coherence and comparability, accessibility, and clarity. More information can be found on http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/FundamentalPrinciples/QualityInStat 

Users are ministries, faculties, researchers, students, media, Eurostat, OECD etc.

Even though the formal ways of cooperation with our users are well developed (the Statistical Council, the Statistical Advisory Committees, working groups and direct bilateral meetings with some larger users), the recognition of users’ demands and satisfaction is becoming increasingly difficult. The needs, demands and even the manner of practice vary a lot among the user groups. In order to improve our user registers we constantly improve and supplement our segmentation of users. The monitoring of the users of SURS is implemented on different stages:

Analysis of written and telephone requests for statistical data in SURS's Information center.

Analysis of the website statistics.

Conducting user satisfaction survey

The most recent satisfaction survey was conducted in 2022. Users mostly use SI-STAT database and News releases. Most users are highly educated, they use data for business purposes and they are overall satisfied with the data published by SURS.

All statistics required by the current EU Regulation are available.

The coverage rate is 100% due to the usage of the Administrative Business Register, which is a credible source.

The survey is not conducted on the basis of a random sample, so there can be no sampling error.

The survey covers all administrative legal units (including sole proprietors) as registrations or bankruptcies. The unit response rate is 100%.

The publication schedule is fixed and announced in advance. The First Release is published within 40 days after the reference period. Data are at the same time also loaded into the SI-STAT Database on the website of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia created for user-friendly free of charge data manipulation.

QBD data are prepared and transmitted to Eurostat within 40 days after the reference period.

There is no time lag between the actual delivery of the data and the target date when they should have been delivered.

Data are comparable between countries. Results are based on the requirements of the EU Regulation, which is in use in all EU Member States. Data on sole proprietors are included, too. This ensures a good comparability between national data and high-quality European aggregates.

Data series are available from 2015 on. From 2020 on in observations of bankruptcies also legal units that started to be in bankruptcy and ceased to exist in the same period of observation are included, too but this inclusion does not mean the breaks in series.

A comparison can be made with PRS (Administrative Business Register) releases and annual Business Demography (BD) releases.

The published PRS and QBR data sets are comparable. This is expected since the monthly individual PRS data represent with the Statistical Business Register the input for QBD observations.  Differences between the two data sets are in the coverage of units. PRS data include all sections of NACE activities and market and non-market legal units, while QBD data cover market legal units in sections of activities B-S and statistical activity code is taken into account for bankruptcies.

QBD data on registrations are based on administrative registrations. In practice, it means that units are registered in the PRS officially on the basis of legal procedure, but it does not mean that they already started the business activity. This is the difference with BD data on births, which are based on business activity in terms of having turnover, employment or investment. The main difference is also the unit of observation, which is in the QBD a legal unit and in the BD an enterprise. In the QBD, all registrations are followed, including those that are based on demographic events such as mergers. In the BD, new units that are the result of demographic events are not births. For example, a new unit that is registered due to the merger of two other units is counted as registration in the QBD and is not part of BD births.

QBD data on bankruptcies are based on administrative declarations as well. In practice, it means that units have been declared as started being in bankruptcy. In most cases, units in bankruptcy are not dead yet. They are still in the PRS. From 2020 on, we decided to include in the observation also cases of units that started to be in bankruptcy and were deleted from the PRS in the same month. For some units, especially natural persons, bankruptcy procedures in Slovenia are quite fast and could be finished in the same month. The start of bankruptcy could be one of the reasons for deaths; however, it could last longer and it is not necessary that a unit in bankruptcy will become a death. 

Data are internally coherent. Each level of aggregated data is compiled from micro data.

As QBD data are based on administrative sources, there is normally no extra burden to businesses.

In 2023, the number of working hours spent for the survey was 1114.

Types of data revisions in relation to planning:

 a) Planned data revision

Planned data revision is subject to the following reasons:

I.  Due to the needs of users for timely information, data are published that meet the criteria of the quality of official statistical data, but do not meet the quality that can be met with additional statistical procedures. Final data are based on more complete answers about the phenomenon and/or analyses and are published later on;
II. Seasonal adjustment and/or elimination of calendar effects;
III. Change in methodology and classifications.

 b) Unplanned data revision: Unplanned data revision is not part of the regular statistical process. It appears due to unpredictable changes in the methodology, unpredictable emergence of new and better data, unpredictable changes regarding reporting units that transmit their data to the Office, unpredictable obstacles in data processing and publishing, and errors in data processing and publishing (e.g. a key unit corrects its data for the past few months, an unpredictable change in the administrative data source).

 Types of data revisions in relation to the time of implementation

The reasons for revising data in relation to time of implementation are:

a) Regular revisions: inclusion of a more complete/additional data source or a change in the data source, seasonal adjustment and/or elimination of calendar effects;

b) Occasional revisions are a consequence of including a new/more complete/additional data source that becomes the standard in later data releases or a consequence of an unpredictable obstacle in data processing and publishing, and change in methodology.

 Types of data revisions in relation to the purpose

The reasons for revising data in relation to the purpose are:

a) Inclusion of a more complete/additional data source or a change in the data source;

b) Seasonal adjustment and/or elimination of calendar effects;

c) Transition to a new base period;

d) Improvement of methodology due to a change in the statistical method or a change in classifications, concepts and definitions;

e) Elimination or errors.

Methodological explanations about data revision at SURS are published on the website  https://www.stat.si/statWeb/en/Methods/QuestionnairesMethodologicalExplanationsQualityReports. The same revision policy is applied nationally and in transmission to Eurostat.

More information about data revision at SURS is published on the website http://www.stat.si/dokument/5299/RevisionOfStatisticalDataMEgeneral.pdf. 

Regular revisions: inclusion of seasonal adjustment and/or elimination of calendar effects are implemented.

The sources of data are the Administrative Business Register (PRS) kept by the Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for Public Legal Records and Related Services (AJPES) and the Statistical Business Register (SBR) kept by the Statistical Office of Slovenia (SURS).

The Business Register of Slovenia (PRS) is the central public database on all business entities (legal units) and their branches established on the territory of the Republic of Slovenia that perform profit or non-profit activities. The PRS also contains data on the branches of foreign business entities operating on the territory of the Republic of Slovenia.

The SBR is kept and maintained by SURS and is the source for providing data to Eurostat that we are obliged to report on the basis of Regulation (EU) No 2019/2152 on European business statistics, repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistics. The basic source for the SBR is the PRS. In addition to data in the PRS, the sources for the SBR are also data from other administrative records and data collected in accordance with the national program of statistical surveys. In the SBR, some missing data are imputed according to the appropriate statistical methodology. In the QBD, the statistical activity of legal unit is observed. The statistical activity is the main activity in the Statistical Business Register (SBR) for the statistical purpose and could in some cases differ from the registered activity in the Administrative Business Register (PRS), which is kept by the Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for Public Legal Records and Related Services (AJPES).

In the PRS also two main characteristics are maintained: first day of entry of the legal unit in the PRS and full name of the legal unit. The first day of entry in the PRS is the basis for new registrations. The change of full name compared to the previous observation period is the basis for following the units in bankruptcy. When a court issues a legal declaration of bankruptcy, the addition of the full name of the legal unit in the PRS becomes “in bankruptcy”. 

Due to the small size of Slovenia, larger fluctuations in bankruptcy indices may be influenced by a lower number of occurrences in the observed activities and observed periods.

Data are collected from the PRS and SBR monthly and disseminated monthly and quarterly.

SURS has an agreement with AJPES with which a direct access to the PRS data on a weekly basis is available. Data from the PRS are for the QBD used on a monthly basis.

QBD data are compared with the previous observation period and with the PRS data release. In the case of big differences, data are checked at a micro level, individually.

Data are collected as absolute values. Absolute values (unadjusted and seasonally and calendar adjusted) are sent to Eurostat using the SDMX converter, based on ESTAT+BCS+1.0 -data structure. For national dissemination, indices are calculated as unadjusted and seasonally and calendar adjusted values.

Unadjusted indices

Each level of aggregated absolute data is compiled directly from micro data. Unadjusted indices are calculated directly from the aggregated data: base year index, quarter-to-quarter index and quarter to same quarter of the previous year index.

Seasonally and calendar adjusted indices

Unadjusted data that are used as input for seasonal adjustment are monthly aggregates (number of legal units). Seasonally adjusted monthly aggregates are summed to get seasonally adjusted quarterly aggregates. Seasonally adjusted quarterly aggregates are divided by the unadjusted average of the base year to get seasonally adjusted quarterly base indices.

Seasonally and calendar adjusted indices (quarter to the previous quarter and quarter to the corresponding quarter of the previous year) are compiled from seasonally and calendar adjusted base year indices. 

Unadjusted data, seasonally adjusted data and calendar adjusted data are published nationally.

The same calculation is done for monthly data.

For seasonal adjustment of time series we use the TRAMO/SEATS method. A time series model is set up, which is revised in detail about once a year, taking into account the period available at that time. If the model is changed, we strive to minimize the changes. Using the model the time series is decomposed into the trend-cycle component, the seasonal component and the irregular component. The trend-cycle component consists of the trend and cyclical movements over a period longer than one year. The seasonal component consists of the seasonal effects and the calendar effects. Calendar effects are composed of the working day effect, the leap-year effect, the holiday effect and the Easter effect. The irregular component consists of random fluctuations and some outliers. Seasonal and calendar effects are eliminated from the time series only if they are statistically significant. If only seasonal effects are significant and calendar effects are not, then only seasonal effects are eliminated.

Seasonal adjustment for 18 time series is considered: 9 time series for the number of registrations and 9 time series for the number of bankruptcies. The TRAMO/SEATS method in JDemetra+ version 2.2.0 is used.All 9 time series for the number of registrations are seasonal (seasonality is present), but most of the 9 time series for the number of bankruptcies are non-seasonal. 16 time series are seasonally adjusted directly, the 2 time series that represent the total (BTSXO_S94) are seasonally adjusted indirectly. There is no residual seasonality left in the indirectly seasonally adjusted time series.

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