Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia (SURS)
1.2. Contact organisation unit
Structural Statistics and SBR Section
1.3. Contact name
Confidential because of GDPR
1.4. Contact person function
Confidential because of GDPR
1.5. Contact mail address
SURS, Litostrojska 54, 1000 Ljubljana
1.6. Contact email address
Confidential because of GDPR
1.7. Contact phone number
Confidential because of GDPR
1.8. Contact fax number
Confidential because of GDPR
2.1. Metadata last certified
23 December 2025
2.2. Metadata last posted
23 December 2025
2.3. Metadata last update
23 December 2025
3.1. Data description
The annual Business demography data collection covers variables which explain the characteristics and demography of the business population. The methodology allows for the production of data on enterprise births (and deaths), that is, enterprise creations (cessations) that amount to the creation (dissolution) of a combination of production factors and where no other enterprises are involved (enterprises created or closed solely as a result of e.g. restructuring, merger or break-up are not considered).
A summary of the available indicators is listed below. The data is available at EU, country and regional level, with breakdowns for type of activity, legal form and size class.
For the population of active enterprises:
Number of active enterprises
Number of enterprise births
Number of enterprise survivals up to five years
Number of enterprise deaths
Related variables on employment: 'employees' and 'persons employed' (employees and self-employed persons)
For the population of active employer enterprises:
Number of enterprises having at least one employee
Number of enterprises having the first employee
Number of enterprises having no employees anymore
Number of enterprise survivals up to five years
Related variables on employment: 'employees' and 'persons employed' (employees and self-employed persons)
For high-growth enterprises, the following indicators are available at EU and country level:
Number of high-growth enterprises (growth by 10% or more)
Number of employees of high-growth enterprises
Number of young high-growth enterprises (up to five years old high-growth enterprises)
Number of employees of young high-growth enterprise
3.2. Classification system
From 2008 onwards NACE Rev.2 classification (Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community) is used for all indicators.
Starting with reference year 2021, Business Demography (BD) data cover the economic activities of market producers within the NACE Rev. 2 Sections B to N, P to R and Divisions S95 and S96. The total economy is presented as Industry, construction and services (code BTSXO_S94).
For the reference years 2008-2020, data for the Sections P, Q, R and S were provided on a voluntary basis and K64.2 was not covered.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
BD constitutes an important and integrated part of the EU Regulation 2019/2152 on European Business Statistics (EBS Regulation).
Active / non-active enterprise was determined according to turnover or number of employees or produced outputs or investments in the reference period.
The number of active enterprises is the number of all statistical units which at any time during the reference period were ‘enterprises’, as defined in Council Regulation (EEC) No 696/93, and also active during the same reference period. A statistical unit is considered to have been active during the reference period, if in said period it either realized positive net turnover or produced outputs or had employees or performed investments.
The population of active enterprises includes active market oriented enterprises in the institutional sectors 11, 12, 141 and 142.
We did not use the dates of commencement and cessation of registration stored in the administrative Business Register (PRS) to decide if units were active.
3.5. Statistical unit
Statistical unit enterprise is used.
3.6. Statistical population
The target population is the business enterprise population, including all active enterprises. Market enterprises are covered.
The following thresholds are used:
1 employee - population of employer enterprises,
10 employees in the beginning of the growth - population of high-growth enterprises (10%)
Target population is fully covered (all required NACE activity codes, size classes and statistical units). The frame for identifying units for the population is the Statistical Business Register (SBR). No cut-off threshold was applied.
3.7. Reference area
The country or geographic area are fully covered, no data are excluded. The branches of foreign enterprises are included in the population of enterprises in the SBR and consequently also in the target population for Business Demography Statistics.
3.8. Coverage - Time
1999-2023 (Business Demography - All),
2004-2023 (Employer Business Demography - enterprise births and enterprise survivals), 2008-2023 (Employer Business Demography - enterprise deaths) and
2008-2024 (High-growth enterprises); from 2021 new additional observation NACE activities
3.9. Base period
[Not applicable]
The number of active, birth, death and survival enterprises, as well as high-growth enterprises is expressed in units.
The number of employees is counted as head counts and is expressed in units.
The number of persons employed is the sum of number of employees and self-employed persons.
The number of self-employed persons is the average number of persons who were at some time during the reference period the sole owners or joint owners of the statistical unit in which they work, measured in annual average headcounts, expressed in units.
Derived indicators are expressed in units or percentages
The latest reference year is 2023.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
Starting with reference year 2021, two new regulations form the legal basis of BD statistics:
Before reference year 2021, EU Regulation 2008/295 on structural business statistics, Annex IX, was providing a legal basis for the BD data collection. The Commission implementing EU Regulation 2014/439 ensured data collection on employer enterprises (with at least one employee), high-growth enterprises (more than 10% annual growth over three years) and their employment.
Up to reference year 2006 data have been collected under gentlemen's agreement within the context of the development of Structural Business Statistics.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
[Not applicable]
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
National Statistics Act (OJ RS., No. 45/99 and 9/2001)
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
Restricted from publication
7.2.1. Confidentiality rules (primary and secondary)
Restricted from publication
7.2.2. Measures taken to reduce the number of confidential cells
Restricted from publication
8.1. Release calendar
We have advance notice of release dates published on our web page (Products/Release calendar).
They are published in Slovenian language and in English.
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
BD data is disseminated in the online database SiStat on an annual basis, theme Enterprises, Sub-theme Business demography and high-growth enterprises.
Quality Statement of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia and other explanations about quality in our national statistics can be found on our website.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
Since statistics are calculated on the base of full coverage from administrative or existing statistical sources we do not have specific problems with quality. Quality problems have not been identified.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Main internal users are Institute for macroeconomic analysis and development, Ministry of the Economy, Tourism and Sport, media, students and researchers. External users are European Commission, ECB and OECD.
In general users are interested on more timely data on the business demography.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
We do not organize survey related to the user`s satisfaction regarding the availability and the quality of the BD data. Some information about user satisfaction was published in special release Monitoring the satisfaction and needs of users in 2024.
12.3. Completeness
Requirements in relevant legislation, regulations and guidelines are met and all requested data are transmitted to Eurostat.
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
Data completeness rate is 100%.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
[Not requested]
13.2. Sampling error
[Not applicable]
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
[Not applicable]
13.3. Non-sampling error
Coverage errors are not detected.
13.3.1. Coverage error
[Not requested]
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
[Not requested]
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
[Not requested]
13.3.2. Measurement error
[Not applicable]
13.3.3. Non response error
[Not applicable]
13.3.3.1. Unit non-response - rate
[Not applicable]
13.3.3.2. Item non-response - rate
[Not applicable]
13.3.4. Processing error
Processing errors have not appeared in the data collection process.
13.3.5. Model assumption error
[Not requested]
14.1. Timeliness
The administrative Business Register does not cause any time lags because we receive the data continuously every week. Other sources of data also do not cause time lags and in the end of February we receive the data on employment from the survey Persons in Employment.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
[Not requested]
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
[Not requested]
14.2. Punctuality
All data were transmitted by the deadline and thus there were no delays.
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
[Not requested]
15.1. Comparability - geographical
[Not requested]
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
[Not applicable]
15.2. Comparability - over time
a) First reference year available (calendar year):
data collection Business Demography - All (BDS_ALL): 1999 (NACE Rev. 1.1) and 2004 (NACE Rev. 2)
data collection Employer Business Demography (EMP_A): 2004 (NACE Rev. 2),
data collection High-growth enterprises (PHG and FHG): 2008 (NACE Rev. 2)
b) Breaks in time series and reasons for the breaks: The reason for the break time in series is a new classification of activity NACE Rev. 2. With the observation year 2023, the procedure for excluding events such as mergers, continuation of a family business, etc. from the population of enterprise births was updated, which is mainly reflected in natural persons and enterprises without employees in certain sections of activity (accommodation and food service activities (I), education (P) and arts, entertainment and recreation (R)). The data for the mentioned populations and data for total are therefore not comparable with the data for previous years.
c) Outliers in time series: We have no outliers in time series.
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
data collection Business Demography: 1999-2007 (NACE Rev. 1.1), 2004-2023 (NACE Rev. 2) with additional NACE group (64.2) from 2021
data collection Employer Business Demography: 2004-2023 (NACE Rev. 2) with additional NACE group (64.2) from 2021
data collection High-growth Enterprises: 2008-2024 (NACE Rev. 2) with additional NACE sections (P to R) and division 96 from 2021
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Data are comparable with other statistical domains.
Differences between Structural Business statistics (SBS) and BD on number of enterprises, number of employees and self-employed and number of employees are minimal (less than 0.0%). Differences arise due to additional sources that SBS still can use till dissemination of the final data in May (additional information on performance of enterprises). BD and SBS are based on SBR whose data are published before, in December.
The reasons for the differences between data on number of enterprises, number of employees and self-employed and number of employees between BD and SBR are that BD includes only market-oriented enterprises on the basis of the final BR data.
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
[Not applicable]
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
[Not requested]
15.4. Coherence - internal
[Not requested]
[Not requested]
17.1. Data revision - policy
Data on enterprise deaths and employer enterprise deaths are provisional, final data are prepared 12 months after the provisional data.
Data revision is planned. Due to the need 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. Regular revision includes a more complete data source. Data are revised when newer and more quality data respectively can significantly contribute to the quality of data base-decision making.
17.2. Data revision - practice
The preliminary deaths are identified using the preliminary SBR data. In the preliminary data other cessations were excluded using central management of demographic and insolvency events in the SBR while in the final data other cessations are excluded also through the matching and manual checking.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
Not applicable
18.1. Source data
a) Type of data source:
The basic source for the SBR is administrative Business Register (PRS), which has been kept by the Agency for Public Legal Records and Related Services. 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. The main source for units of the reference year is the PRS as of 31 December with the inclusion of units that died during the reference year.
The main source for survey Business Demography is SBR.
The main sources of data for the implementation of Employer Business Demography are statistical survey Business Demography and data on active enterprises in each reference period, which are kept by the Statistical Office of Republic Slovenia in the SBR. For identification of employer enterprise births and employer enterprise deaths, firstly data on births and deaths of enterprises with at least one employee in the year of birth and or in the year of death are taken from the statistical survey Business Demography. In addition, entries by growth of employees or exists by decline of employees are identified by comparing the population of active enterprises from SBR. Enterprises that grow due to take-over are excluded from entries by growth. Enterprises that decline due to split-off and which have been converted into other legal form are excluded from exits by decline. Data on the number of employees in the identification of provisional data for employer enterprise deaths, obtained from the Statistical Register of Employment (SRDAP), led by SURS.
The main source for high-growth enterprises is SBR and survey Business Demography. Enterprises whose number of employees increased because of merger are set aside.
b) Coverage of SBR (Statistical Business Register): All required activities and legal forms are covered. There are no thresholds in the SBR. VAT threshold has no impact on inclusion in the SBR.
c) Matching, profiling or imputation:
In the SBR some missing data are imputed according to the appropriate statistical methodology.
The SBR does not include birth and death dates but dates on commencement and cessation of registration in the PRS.
18.1.1. Concepts and sources
In the SBR some missing data are imputed according to the appropriate statistical methodology. No additional imputations are made in the Business Demography database.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Annual.
18.3. Data collection
Source for data is SBR. We used direct access to the data base.
18.3.1. Data matching
a) Data matching process and tools:
We used SAS tools for matching in survey Business Demography.
b) Matching:
Matching was done according to recommended pair-wise approach. The matching process followed three criteria:
matching of economic activity (4-digit level of NACE) and location,
matching of name and location,
matching of name and economic activity.
When matching on location of the enterprise, the address of head-office was used.
We compared the new enterprises with the population of local kind of activity units (LKAU) for the current year and the previous year. The population of LKAUs covers all sections in the SBR. Matching was not done for the identification of estimated enterprise deaths. Other cessations were excluded with using the administrative data on successors.
For the identification of survival by takeover, we also followed the recommended pair-wise matching.
Fields used for matching were main activity code of the enterprise and LKAU (4-digit level NACE Rev. 2.), full name of the enterprise and LKAU (with the exclusion of words that indicate kind of activity, for example: production enterprises, lawyer, construction, services, etc.) and head-office location of enterprise and address of LKAU (municipality, settlement, street, house number).
For enterprises with less than 10 employees additional criteria from administrative sources were used for example data on owners, dates of commencement and cessation of registration, data on enterprise groups.
Units moving in or out of scope are not counted as enterprise births and enterprise deaths.
Among new enterprises in 2023, we detected 3.8% reactivations.
18.3.2. Manual checks
In survey Business Demography enterprises with 10 or more employees or 0 employees and turnover higher than 3 mio EUR or 0 employees and turnover higher than 1 mio EUR if enterprise is a part of the enterprise group were manually checked using administrative sources, annual reports, articles and other information. 79 enterprises births were manually checked in 2023 and 70 % confirmed as real births.
All employer enterprise births (entries by growth) and employer enterprise deaths (entries by decline) with 20 or more employees were manually investigated. We also manually investigated 42 small employer enterprise births (entries by growth) and 21 employer enterprise deaths (exists by decline) with less than 20 employees. All employer enterprise births (entries by growth) with 20 or more employees were confirmed as real births.
18.4. Data validation
Data validation was done before the data are transmitted to Eurostat. Common validation tool and rules provided by Eurostat were used. The following validations were done:
validation of format and file structure checks
intra-dataset checks
dataset checks between surveys:
Business Demography
Final High-growth enterprises
Employer Business Demography
Regional Business Demography
Structural Business Statistics
18.5. Data compilation
Missing number of self-employed persons is estimated in the SBR that is source for data on employment. For all enterprises (with or without employees) the annual average of employees and self-employed persons is calculated in the SBR according to the formula: sum of persons in the observation year is divided by the number of months registered in the administrative Business Register.
The preliminary deaths are identified using the preliminary SBR data. In the preliminary data other cessations were excluded using central management of demographic and insolvency events in SBR while in the final data other cessations are excluded also through the matching and manual checking.
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
[Not requested]
18.6. Adjustment
[Not applicable]
18.6.1. Seasonal adjustment
[Not applicable]
From reference year 2022 on, the number of employees and self-employed persons also includes persons who are simultaneously employed in several enterprises.
The annual Business demography data collection covers variables which explain the characteristics and demography of the business population. The methodology allows for the production of data on enterprise births (and deaths), that is, enterprise creations (cessations) that amount to the creation (dissolution) of a combination of production factors and where no other enterprises are involved (enterprises created or closed solely as a result of e.g. restructuring, merger or break-up are not considered).
A summary of the available indicators is listed below. The data is available at EU, country and regional level, with breakdowns for type of activity, legal form and size class.
For the population of active enterprises:
Number of active enterprises
Number of enterprise births
Number of enterprise survivals up to five years
Number of enterprise deaths
Related variables on employment: 'employees' and 'persons employed' (employees and self-employed persons)
For the population of active employer enterprises:
Number of enterprises having at least one employee
Number of enterprises having the first employee
Number of enterprises having no employees anymore
Number of enterprise survivals up to five years
Related variables on employment: 'employees' and 'persons employed' (employees and self-employed persons)
For high-growth enterprises, the following indicators are available at EU and country level:
Number of high-growth enterprises (growth by 10% or more)
Number of employees of high-growth enterprises
Number of young high-growth enterprises (up to five years old high-growth enterprises)
Number of employees of young high-growth enterprise
23 December 2025
BD constitutes an important and integrated part of the EU Regulation 2019/2152 on European Business Statistics (EBS Regulation).
Active / non-active enterprise was determined according to turnover or number of employees or produced outputs or investments in the reference period.
The number of active enterprises is the number of all statistical units which at any time during the reference period were ‘enterprises’, as defined in Council Regulation (EEC) No 696/93, and also active during the same reference period. A statistical unit is considered to have been active during the reference period, if in said period it either realized positive net turnover or produced outputs or had employees or performed investments.
The population of active enterprises includes active market oriented enterprises in the institutional sectors 11, 12, 141 and 142.
We did not use the dates of commencement and cessation of registration stored in the administrative Business Register (PRS) to decide if units were active.
Statistical unit enterprise is used.
The target population is the business enterprise population, including all active enterprises. Market enterprises are covered.
The following thresholds are used:
1 employee - population of employer enterprises,
10 employees in the beginning of the growth - population of high-growth enterprises (10%)
Target population is fully covered (all required NACE activity codes, size classes and statistical units). The frame for identifying units for the population is the Statistical Business Register (SBR). No cut-off threshold was applied.
The country or geographic area are fully covered, no data are excluded. The branches of foreign enterprises are included in the population of enterprises in the SBR and consequently also in the target population for Business Demography Statistics.
The latest reference year is 2023.
[Not requested]
The number of active, birth, death and survival enterprises, as well as high-growth enterprises is expressed in units.
The number of employees is counted as head counts and is expressed in units.
The number of persons employed is the sum of number of employees and self-employed persons.
The number of self-employed persons is the average number of persons who were at some time during the reference period the sole owners or joint owners of the statistical unit in which they work, measured in annual average headcounts, expressed in units.
Derived indicators are expressed in units or percentages
Missing number of self-employed persons is estimated in the SBR that is source for data on employment. For all enterprises (with or without employees) the annual average of employees and self-employed persons is calculated in the SBR according to the formula: sum of persons in the observation year is divided by the number of months registered in the administrative Business Register.
The preliminary deaths are identified using the preliminary SBR data. In the preliminary data other cessations were excluded using central management of demographic and insolvency events in SBR while in the final data other cessations are excluded also through the matching and manual checking.
a) Type of data source:
The basic source for the SBR is administrative Business Register (PRS), which has been kept by the Agency for Public Legal Records and Related Services. 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. The main source for units of the reference year is the PRS as of 31 December with the inclusion of units that died during the reference year.
The main source for survey Business Demography is SBR.
The main sources of data for the implementation of Employer Business Demography are statistical survey Business Demography and data on active enterprises in each reference period, which are kept by the Statistical Office of Republic Slovenia in the SBR. For identification of employer enterprise births and employer enterprise deaths, firstly data on births and deaths of enterprises with at least one employee in the year of birth and or in the year of death are taken from the statistical survey Business Demography. In addition, entries by growth of employees or exists by decline of employees are identified by comparing the population of active enterprises from SBR. Enterprises that grow due to take-over are excluded from entries by growth. Enterprises that decline due to split-off and which have been converted into other legal form are excluded from exits by decline. Data on the number of employees in the identification of provisional data for employer enterprise deaths, obtained from the Statistical Register of Employment (SRDAP), led by SURS.
The main source for high-growth enterprises is SBR and survey Business Demography. Enterprises whose number of employees increased because of merger are set aside.
b) Coverage of SBR (Statistical Business Register): All required activities and legal forms are covered. There are no thresholds in the SBR. VAT threshold has no impact on inclusion in the SBR.
c) Matching, profiling or imputation:
In the SBR some missing data are imputed according to the appropriate statistical methodology.
The SBR does not include birth and death dates but dates on commencement and cessation of registration in the PRS.
Annual.
The administrative Business Register does not cause any time lags because we receive the data continuously every week. Other sources of data also do not cause time lags and in the end of February we receive the data on employment from the survey Persons in Employment.
[Not requested]
a) First reference year available (calendar year):
data collection Business Demography - All (BDS_ALL): 1999 (NACE Rev. 1.1) and 2004 (NACE Rev. 2)
data collection Employer Business Demography (EMP_A): 2004 (NACE Rev. 2),
data collection High-growth enterprises (PHG and FHG): 2008 (NACE Rev. 2)
b) Breaks in time series and reasons for the breaks: The reason for the break time in series is a new classification of activity NACE Rev. 2. With the observation year 2023, the procedure for excluding events such as mergers, continuation of a family business, etc. from the population of enterprise births was updated, which is mainly reflected in natural persons and enterprises without employees in certain sections of activity (accommodation and food service activities (I), education (P) and arts, entertainment and recreation (R)). The data for the mentioned populations and data for total are therefore not comparable with the data for previous years.
c) Outliers in time series: We have no outliers in time series.
