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.
Foreign Affiliates Statistics (FATS) measure the commercial presence through affiliates in foreign markets.
Inward foreign affiliates statistics (IFATS) shall mean statistics describing the activity of foreign affiliates resident in the compiling country.
In country-level business statistics foreign-controlled enterprise shall mean an enterprise resident in the compiling country over which an ultimate controlling institutional unit not resident in the compiling country has control. (Table 14 of the EBS Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197).
Variables on the country-level business activities in the IFATS data category:
Business activities in foreign control:
210301. Number of foreign-controlled enterprises
220501. Number of employees and self-employed persons in foreign-controlled enterprises
220701. Employee benefits expense in foreign-controlled enterprises
230301. Intramural R & D expenditure in foreign-controlled enterprises
230401. R & D personnel in foreign-controlled enterprises
240301. Total purchases of goods and services of foreign-controlled enterprises
240302. Purchases of goods and services for resale of foreign-controlled enterprises
250601. Net turnover of foreign-controlled enterprises
250701. Value of output of foreign-controlled enterprises
260201. Foreign-controlled enterprises’ gross investment in tangible non-current assets
250801. Value added of foreign-controlled enterprises
Business activities in total economy:
210101. Number of active enterprises
220101. Number of employees and self-employed persons
220301. Employee benefits expense
230101. Intramural R & D expenditure
230201. R & D personnel
240101. Total purchases of goods and services
240102. Purchases of goods and services for resale
250101. Net turnover
250301. Value of output
250401. Value added
260101. Gross investment in tangible non-current assets
3.2. Classification system
Classification systems used in the FATS are as follows:
Statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community (NACE Rev. 2);
List of 2-digit country codes (ISO 3166-1);
Currency codes (ISO 4217).
3.3. Coverage - sector
For all variables except for variables Intramural R & D expenditure, Intramural R & D expenditure in foreign-controlled enterprises, R & D personnel and R & D personnel in foreign-controlled enterprises: Market producers of NACE Sections B to N and P to R and divisions S95 and S96;
For variables Intramural R & D expenditure, Intramural R & D expenditure in foreign-controlled enterprises, R & D personnel and R & D personnel in foreign-controlled enterprises: Market producers of NACE Sections B to F.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
Foreign Affiliates Statistics (FATS) measure the commercial presence through affiliates in foreign markets.
Inward foreign affiliates statistics (IFATS) shall mean statistics describing the activity of foreign affiliates resident in the compiling country.
In country-level business statistics foreign-controlled enterprise shall mean an enterprise resident in the compiling country over which an ultimate controlling institutional unit not resident in the compiling country has control. (Table 14 of the Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197).
Foreign affiliate in the framework of outward FATS is an enterprise or branch not resident in the compiling country over which an institutional unit resident in the compiling country has ultimate (direct or indirect) control.
Domestic affiliate shall mean an enterprise resident in the compiling country over which a UCI resident in the same compiling country has control.
Ultimate Controlling Institutional of a foreign affiliate (UCI) shall mean the institutional unit, proceeding up a foreign affiliate’s chain of control, which is not controlled by another institutional unit.
Control is the ability to determine the general policy of the affiliate by choosing appropriate directors, if necessary. In this context, enterprise A is deemed to be controlled by an institutional unit B when B controls, whether directly or indirectly, more than half of the shareholders' voting power or more than half of the shares.
Indirect control means that an institutional unit may have control through another affiliate which has control over enterprise A.
Active enterprise is a statistical units which at any time during the reference period was ‘enterprise’, as defined in 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.
Employees and self-employed persons are persons who work for an observation unit on the basis of a contract of employment and receives compensation in the form of wages, salaries, fees, gratuities, piecework pay or remuneration in kind; and persons who are the sole owners or joint owners of the statistical unit in which they work. Family workers and outworkers, whose income is a function of the value of the outputs of the statistical unit, are also included.
Employee benefits expense contains all expenses arising in relation with employee benefits, recognized by the statistical unit during the reference period. Those are are all forms of consideration given by the statistical unit in exchange for service rendered by employees or for the termination of employment.
Research and experimental development (R & D) comprise creative and systematic work undertaken in order to increase the stock of knowledge – including knowledge of humankind, culture and society – and to devise new applications of available knowledge. Expenditures on intramural R & D represent the amount of money spent on R & D that is performed within a reporting unit. Intramural R & D expenditures are all current expenditures plus gross fixed capital expenditures for R & D performed within a statistical unit during a specific reference period whatever the source of funds. R & D current expenditures include labour costs for internal R & D personnel and other current costs (costs for external R & D personnel, purchase of services.). Gross fixed capital expenditures for R & D include: acquisition of land, acquisition of buildings, acquisition of information and communication equipment, acquisition of transport equipment, acquisition of other machinery and equipment, acquisition of capitalised computer software, acquisition of other intellectual property products.
R & D personnel in a statistical unit include all persons engaged directly in R & D, whether employed by the statistical unit or external contributors fully integrated into the statistical unit’s R & D activities, as well as those providing direct services for the R & D activities (such as R & D managers, administrators, technicians and clerical staff).
Total purchases of goods and services contains all amount of goods and services purchased by the statistical unit, recognized in accounting as either current assets or expenses during the reference period.
Purchases of goods and services for resale in are purchases of goods for resale to third parties without further processing. It also includes purchases of services by ‘invoicing’ service companies, i.e. those whose turnover is composed not only of agency fees charged on a service transaction (as in the case of estate agents) but also the actual amount involved in the service transaction, e.g. transport purchases by travel agents.
Net turnover consists of all income arising during the reference period in the course of ordinary activities of the statistical unit, and is presented net of all price reductions, discounts and rebates granted by it.
Value of output represents the value of the total output of the statistical unit, generated during the reference period.
Value added is a composite indicator of net operating income, adjusted for depreciation, amortization and employee benefits, all components being recognized as such by the statistical unit during the reference period.
Gross investment in tangible non-current assets includes all additions to tangible non-current assets, recognized as such by the statistical unit during the reference period, except any increases from revaluations or reversals of previously recognized impairment losses and from reclassifications (transfers) of other tangible non-current assets.
3.5. Statistical unit
The statistical unit of FATS is the enterprise as defined in line with the Regulation (EEC) No 696/93 on the statistical units for the observation and analysis of the production system in the Community.
3.6. Statistical population
For all variables except for variables 230101 (Intramural R & D expenditure), 230301 (Intramural R & D expenditure in foreign-controlled enterprises), 230201 (R & D personnel) and 230401 (R & D personnel in foreign-controlled enterprises): Market producers of NACE Sections B to N and P to R and divisions S95 and S96;
For variables 230101 (Intramural R & D expenditure), 230301 (Intramural R & D expenditure in foreign-controlled enterprises), 230201 (R & D personnel) and 230401 (R & D personnel in foreign-controlled enterprises): Market producers of NACE Sections B to F.
3.7. Reference area
Netherlands
3.8. Coverage - Time
2003 - 2008 is in Nace rev 1.1. 2008-2023 is in Nace rev 2
3.9. Base period
Yearly
Number of enterprises and employment variables are recorded in absolute figures.
Monetary data of enterprises are recorded in thousands in euros and disseminated on Eurostat database in million of euro.
Calendar year 2023
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
Confidentiality was determined by using tau-argus.
We determined primary confidentiality by calculating p% value on enterprise level.
Critical P was set at 10%.
We calculated confidentiality for following characteristics:
Net turnover (also used for Value of output, Value added, Total purchases of goods and services, Purchases of goods and services for resale, Employee benefits expense)
Gross investment in tangible non-current assets
Number of employees and self-employed persons
Intramural R & D expenditure
R & D personnel
Characteristic 'Number of active enterprises' is always flagged as non-confidential
In data transmission for confidentiality we use the following codes:
M PRIMARY CONFIDENTIAL
D SECONDARY CONFIDENTIAL
In dissemination:
C code is used for primary and secondary confidentiality
Please see Table 7.2 in the Annex at the bottom.
8.1. Release calendar
National IFATS data are published once a year on 30th of September 2025.
Annual for all variables except for variables 230101 (Intramural R & D expenditure), 230301 (Intramural R & D expenditure in foreign-controlled enterprises), 230201 (R & D personnel) and 230401 (R & D personnel in foreign-controlled enterprises): Market producers of NACE Sections B to N and P to R and divisions S95 and S96;
Biennial (every odd-numbered year) for variables 230101 (Intramural R & D expenditure), 230301 (Intramural R & D expenditure in foreign-controlled enterprises), 230201 (R & D personnel) and 230401 (R & D personnel in foreign-controlled enterprises): Market producers of NACE Sections B to F.
10.6.3. Web links if metadata are published electronically
Not available
10.7. Quality management - documentation
Not available
11.1. Quality assurance
Not available
11.2. Quality management - assessment
Not available
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Users of inward FATS are: European Commission services, international organisations, ministries, chambers of commerce, trade unions, journalists, researchers etc
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Not available
12.3. Completeness
The survey covers all the variables required by the European Business Statistics regulations and guidelines (Completeness in a percentage of the number of required cells = 100%).
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
Please see Table 12.3.1 in the Annex at the bottom.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
The overall accuracy of the results can be assessed as very good.. The IFATS data is compiled using SBS and R&D data. These domains employ different methods for data collection and ensuring accuracy, depending on the variable. In summary, SBS and R&D compensate for the full FATS population by combining administrative sources and using NACE classification and size class (based on number of employees) as stratification variables.
Number of active enterprises: derived from the Business Register. All enterprises in the Business Register are considered to be active and used for calculating (counting) the number of enterprises.
Employment: from 2006 Statistics Netherlands uses a new source for the compilation of the number of jobs of employees: an integral register containing information on wages and social contributions of all employees in the Netherlands. This employee register is controlled by the Social Insurance Institute and is filled with the data of employees from the declaration of earnings which employers send to the Tax Authorities. The employee register contains all employees working for companies and institutions who are obliged to pay taxes on earnings and social contributions. As a first step the number of employees has been determined from the employee register. Then the companies and institutions in the register are linked with the General Business Register of Statistics Netherlands through their tax number. The General Business Register contains the NACE of companies and institutions, which is used to differentiate the number of jobs by economic activity. Besides the General Business Register contains the main office of companies and institutions. The register lacks information on the location of companies and institutions with more than one office in the Netherlands. Therefore an additional survey among these companies with more than one office is held. In this survey, companies are asked to report the number of employees on municipality level. The results of the survey are combined with the number of jobs of employees from the register and result in regional employment figures.
Investments: sample survey. Stratification variables are NACE and size class. Sampling rates vary for each stratum and are determined by Neyman allocation (Total Investments used as the variable for allocation). Total sample around 55.000
Output and performance, purchases, employee benefits (for all sections except K,Q,R): sample survey. Stratification variables are NACE and size class. Sampling rates vary for each stratum and are determined by Neyman allocation (value added used as the variable for allocation). Total sample around 75.000. For some NACE groupings a threshold of 10 or 50 persons employed is used (every 2 out of 3 years) and results are imputed using T-1 or T-2 observations. Administrative data (VAT) is used as auxiliary information to improve the estimation procedure. For Section K data is collected by Dutch Central Bank, with around 1500 survey respondents. For Section Q: a combination of sample survey data, data from annual reporting for health care institutions (DigiMV) collectecd by the minstry of Health, Welfare and Sport and corporate (for legal persons) and individual (for natural persons) tax data are used in the estimation process. For Section R a Combination of sample survey data, annual reports and corporate tax data are used in the estimation process.
R&D: For the Research & Development variables, a portion of the business units in the target population is surveyed annually. All large companies are fully observed. For other companies with 10 or more employees, data is collected based on a sample. Companies with fewer than 10 employees are estimated using a secondary source.
13.1.1. Use of residual geographic codes (Extra EU-27 not allocated, etc.)
No values on Extra-EU not allocated
Please see Table 13.1 in the Annex at the bottom.
13.1.2. UCI Approach applied to identify the relevant population of reporting units
UCI approach is applied to identify the relevant statistical units. The most important sources to determine the UCI are the Statistics on Finance of enterprise groups (Survey), the EuroGroups Register (EGR), the Statistics on Investments (Survey), the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency (NFIA) and the Business Register/Chamber of Commerce (NSBR).
In case of inconsistencies in the UCI for large companies, a manual check is performed using annual reports and other online sources to determine the UCI.
All companies which are not included in the above mentioned sources are labelled as countries with UCI in the Netherlands.
For the enterprises for which a source/UCI is available, the percentage of each source is as follows:
EGR: 60%
Survey: 18%
Manual: 15%
NFIA: 4%
NSBR: 3%
13.1.3. Update date (or frequency of updates) of the information regarding the country of the UCI by the “source administration”
Sources are updated regularly during the year, when new information from for example questionnaires is available. EGR is updated once per year.
13.1.4. Description of other method used to improve the accuracy of the UCI
Additional online sources like annual reports are used to determine the UCI when there are discrepancies between sources.
13.2. Sampling error
At Statistics Netherlands, the SBS and R&D domains are each responsible for maintaining a microdata file containing values per enterprise. This approach ensures that the data from each domain remains consistent with IFATS. The method of data collection varies depending on the variable and sometimes even on the NACE classification. Since these domains collect the data, the data collection itself is conducted within the SBS and R&D domains. The below information is based on their metadata and sampling errors in order to provide insight into how the IFATS figures are compiled.
Statistics Netherlands uses administrative sources as the main source for Number of enterprises and employment indicators. For some sections (NACE Q and R) corporate (for legal persons) and individual (for natural persons) tax data is also used for financial variables. NACE Q also uses administrative data from the ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. Administrative data is furthermore used as auxiliary information in the weighing process of most financial variables and most NACE groups. The sampling errors which are associated with traditional survey sampling are therefore reduced, especially on the higher levels of NACE aggregation.
Remaining sources for inaccuracies:
Sampling errors (not all variables are covered by administrative data)
The use of administrative data could potentially result in a small bias in some cases (e.g. different definitions of the source compared to SBS definitions).
Measurement errors are possible especially for multinational enterprises. As a countermeasure Statistics Netherlands has installed a large case unit for the largest enterprise groups.
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
Not applicable
13.3. Non-sampling error
Non-sampling errors could potentially arise in SBS:
Coverage errors: the completeness of the Business Register in Statistics Netherlands is considered to be very good. Most SBS indicators are based on statistics that use the business register. Lack of completeness is therefore not considered to be a big problem. Effect negligible.
Data collection and access errors: in general the results of mistakes in data collection are considered to be small and acceptable. Most difficulties arise with multinational enterprises as they can have complex business structures within and outside the borders of the Netherlands. The effect is small. However, there is an exemption into section Q and R. The tax corporate and individual tax data is incomplete due to tax exempt status of enterprises, reporting after data collection period, and incomplete linking with Business Register. The effect is still unknown and more research is needed.
Unit non-response: the weighted response rates are considered high (around 90% depending on the variable and NACE group). The strategy to minimise non-response is mainly focused on one or more telephone reminders. Effect is negligible.
Item non-response for the key variables: for Total turnover and Total investments, the weighted response rate is around 90%. Number of enterprises and number of employed persons are calculated using administrative data (non-response not applicable). Effect negligible.
Editing, coding and imputation errors: imputation errors for the financial variables are minimised by using T-1 data and VAT information on the microdata level and in some cases using information from the company financial statement. Editing errors are minimised by following a different approach for small enterprises (automatic editing) and large enterprises (manual editing). Effect negligible.
Modelling errors: the grossing procedure uses auxiliary information (VAT data and information on persons employed for the whole population). This reduces bias resulting from selectivity in response. Effect small.
Modelling errors for Nace Q: flag D (definition differs) is applied in NACE Q because administrative data used does not align with SBS variables: in the variable 'Purchases of goods and services for resale' are included the fee costs for independent medical specialists from the annual reporting data of health care institutions data and the purchased services of costs of sales from the tax data; for variable 'Value of output' see different definition for ‘Purchases of goods and services for resale’
Modelling errors for Nace R: flag U (unreliable) is applied for 'Purchases of goods and services for resale' because available data sources do not align with this SBS variable. Flag E (estimated) is applied for almost all NACE R categories for 'Expenses on services provided through agency workers' because of adjusting for incorrect and partly missing relations of tax data to the business register.
13.3.1. Coverage error
Consult paragraph 13.3
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
Consult paragraph 13.3
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
Not Consult paragraph 13.3
13.3.1.3. Misclassification errors
Not Consult paragraph 13.3
13.3.1.4. Under- and over-coverage problems
Consult paragraph 13.3
13.3.2. Measurement error
Consult paragraph 13.3
13.3.3. Non response error
Consult paragraph 13.3
13.3.3.1. Unit non-response - rate
Consult paragraph 13.3
13.3.3.2. Item non-response - rate
Consult paragraph 13.3
13.3.4. Processing error
Consult paragraph 13.3
13.3.5. Model assumption error
Consult paragraph 13.3
14.1. Timeliness
IFATS statistics are calculated annually for reference year T.
Data collection depends on the statistics and questionnaire.
Data transmission to Eurostat takes place at t+20 months.
Data dissemination at national level takes place at t+22 months.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
6 months
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
6 months
14.2. Punctuality
Data is published on time
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
Data is published on time
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Since data are prepared in accordance with regulations which refer to IFATS, they are comparable to data of other EU Member States.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not available
15.2. Comparability - over time
Comparable series are available for the series:
2008 - 2020
2021- onwards
In reference year 2021 a new Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 (EBS Regulation) replaced the old FATS regulation introducing some changes such as: extension in coverage (NACE), change in coverage of the basic statistics (national SBS: inclusion of micro enterprises) and changes in definition of characteristics
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
Length of time series: 3 years
Length of comparable time series: 3 years
15.2.2. Reasons and differences in concepts and measurement methods for breaks in time series
Not applicable, there are na breaks in time series.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Not available
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
Not available
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
Not applicable
15.3.3. Coherence – National Statistical Business Register (NSBR)
No inconsistency between IFATS and NSBR
15.3.4. Coherence – Structural Business Statistics (SBS)
No inconsistency between IFATS and SBS
15.3.5. Coherence – R & D
No inconsistency between IFATS and R&D
15.3.6. Coherence – Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
No inconsistency between IFATS and OFATS
15.3.7. Coherence – EuroGroups Register (EGR)
Very small inconsistency with EGR when other sources provide better information on UCI.
15.4. Coherence - internal
not applicable
Not available
17.1. Data revision - policy
No special revision policy for IFATS
17.2. Data revision - practice
No special revision policy for IFATS
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
not available
18.1. Source data
Main data sources used for UCI:
EGR;
Statistics on Finance of Enterprise Groups;
Statistics on Investments;
Chamber of commerce;
Private databases.
18.1.1. Methodological approach
Not available
18.1.2. Use of cut-off thresholds
Not available
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Annually
18.3. Data collection
Source on economic data is 100% SBS.
18.4. Data validation
Check if there are any inconsistencies between IFATS and SBS to ensure all data is correct.
18.5. Data compilation
Data is compiled from administrative sources: NSBR and SBS.
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
Not applicable, Inward FATS does not have its own survey
18.5.2. Use of a method to deal with non-response (both unit and item non-response)
Not applicable, Inward FATS does not have its own survey
18.5.3. Share of estimated values
Not applicable, Inward FATS does not have its own survey
Foreign Affiliates Statistics (FATS) measure the commercial presence through affiliates in foreign markets.
Inward foreign affiliates statistics (IFATS) shall mean statistics describing the activity of foreign affiliates resident in the compiling country.
In country-level business statistics foreign-controlled enterprise shall mean an enterprise resident in the compiling country over which an ultimate controlling institutional unit not resident in the compiling country has control. (Table 14 of the EBS Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197).
Variables on the country-level business activities in the IFATS data category:
Business activities in foreign control:
210301. Number of foreign-controlled enterprises
220501. Number of employees and self-employed persons in foreign-controlled enterprises
220701. Employee benefits expense in foreign-controlled enterprises
230301. Intramural R & D expenditure in foreign-controlled enterprises
230401. R & D personnel in foreign-controlled enterprises
240301. Total purchases of goods and services of foreign-controlled enterprises
240302. Purchases of goods and services for resale of foreign-controlled enterprises
250601. Net turnover of foreign-controlled enterprises
250701. Value of output of foreign-controlled enterprises
260201. Foreign-controlled enterprises’ gross investment in tangible non-current assets
250801. Value added of foreign-controlled enterprises
Business activities in total economy:
210101. Number of active enterprises
220101. Number of employees and self-employed persons
220301. Employee benefits expense
230101. Intramural R & D expenditure
230201. R & D personnel
240101. Total purchases of goods and services
240102. Purchases of goods and services for resale
250101. Net turnover
250301. Value of output
250401. Value added
260101. Gross investment in tangible non-current assets
2 September 2025
Foreign Affiliates Statistics (FATS) measure the commercial presence through affiliates in foreign markets.
Inward foreign affiliates statistics (IFATS) shall mean statistics describing the activity of foreign affiliates resident in the compiling country.
In country-level business statistics foreign-controlled enterprise shall mean an enterprise resident in the compiling country over which an ultimate controlling institutional unit not resident in the compiling country has control. (Table 14 of the Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197).
Foreign affiliate in the framework of outward FATS is an enterprise or branch not resident in the compiling country over which an institutional unit resident in the compiling country has ultimate (direct or indirect) control.
Domestic affiliate shall mean an enterprise resident in the compiling country over which a UCI resident in the same compiling country has control.
Ultimate Controlling Institutional of a foreign affiliate (UCI) shall mean the institutional unit, proceeding up a foreign affiliate’s chain of control, which is not controlled by another institutional unit.
Control is the ability to determine the general policy of the affiliate by choosing appropriate directors, if necessary. In this context, enterprise A is deemed to be controlled by an institutional unit B when B controls, whether directly or indirectly, more than half of the shareholders' voting power or more than half of the shares.
Indirect control means that an institutional unit may have control through another affiliate which has control over enterprise A.
Active enterprise is a statistical units which at any time during the reference period was ‘enterprise’, as defined in 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.
Employees and self-employed persons are persons who work for an observation unit on the basis of a contract of employment and receives compensation in the form of wages, salaries, fees, gratuities, piecework pay or remuneration in kind; and persons who are the sole owners or joint owners of the statistical unit in which they work. Family workers and outworkers, whose income is a function of the value of the outputs of the statistical unit, are also included.
Employee benefits expense contains all expenses arising in relation with employee benefits, recognized by the statistical unit during the reference period. Those are are all forms of consideration given by the statistical unit in exchange for service rendered by employees or for the termination of employment.
Research and experimental development (R & D) comprise creative and systematic work undertaken in order to increase the stock of knowledge – including knowledge of humankind, culture and society – and to devise new applications of available knowledge. Expenditures on intramural R & D represent the amount of money spent on R & D that is performed within a reporting unit. Intramural R & D expenditures are all current expenditures plus gross fixed capital expenditures for R & D performed within a statistical unit during a specific reference period whatever the source of funds. R & D current expenditures include labour costs for internal R & D personnel and other current costs (costs for external R & D personnel, purchase of services.). Gross fixed capital expenditures for R & D include: acquisition of land, acquisition of buildings, acquisition of information and communication equipment, acquisition of transport equipment, acquisition of other machinery and equipment, acquisition of capitalised computer software, acquisition of other intellectual property products.
R & D personnel in a statistical unit include all persons engaged directly in R & D, whether employed by the statistical unit or external contributors fully integrated into the statistical unit’s R & D activities, as well as those providing direct services for the R & D activities (such as R & D managers, administrators, technicians and clerical staff).
Total purchases of goods and services contains all amount of goods and services purchased by the statistical unit, recognized in accounting as either current assets or expenses during the reference period.
Purchases of goods and services for resale in are purchases of goods for resale to third parties without further processing. It also includes purchases of services by ‘invoicing’ service companies, i.e. those whose turnover is composed not only of agency fees charged on a service transaction (as in the case of estate agents) but also the actual amount involved in the service transaction, e.g. transport purchases by travel agents.
Net turnover consists of all income arising during the reference period in the course of ordinary activities of the statistical unit, and is presented net of all price reductions, discounts and rebates granted by it.
Value of output represents the value of the total output of the statistical unit, generated during the reference period.
Value added is a composite indicator of net operating income, adjusted for depreciation, amortization and employee benefits, all components being recognized as such by the statistical unit during the reference period.
Gross investment in tangible non-current assets includes all additions to tangible non-current assets, recognized as such by the statistical unit during the reference period, except any increases from revaluations or reversals of previously recognized impairment losses and from reclassifications (transfers) of other tangible non-current assets.
The statistical unit of FATS is the enterprise as defined in line with the Regulation (EEC) No 696/93 on the statistical units for the observation and analysis of the production system in the Community.
For all variables except for variables 230101 (Intramural R & D expenditure), 230301 (Intramural R & D expenditure in foreign-controlled enterprises), 230201 (R & D personnel) and 230401 (R & D personnel in foreign-controlled enterprises): Market producers of NACE Sections B to N and P to R and divisions S95 and S96;
For variables 230101 (Intramural R & D expenditure), 230301 (Intramural R & D expenditure in foreign-controlled enterprises), 230201 (R & D personnel) and 230401 (R & D personnel in foreign-controlled enterprises): Market producers of NACE Sections B to F.
Netherlands
Calendar year 2023
The overall accuracy of the results can be assessed as very good.. The IFATS data is compiled using SBS and R&D data. These domains employ different methods for data collection and ensuring accuracy, depending on the variable. In summary, SBS and R&D compensate for the full FATS population by combining administrative sources and using NACE classification and size class (based on number of employees) as stratification variables.
Number of active enterprises: derived from the Business Register. All enterprises in the Business Register are considered to be active and used for calculating (counting) the number of enterprises.
Employment: from 2006 Statistics Netherlands uses a new source for the compilation of the number of jobs of employees: an integral register containing information on wages and social contributions of all employees in the Netherlands. This employee register is controlled by the Social Insurance Institute and is filled with the data of employees from the declaration of earnings which employers send to the Tax Authorities. The employee register contains all employees working for companies and institutions who are obliged to pay taxes on earnings and social contributions. As a first step the number of employees has been determined from the employee register. Then the companies and institutions in the register are linked with the General Business Register of Statistics Netherlands through their tax number. The General Business Register contains the NACE of companies and institutions, which is used to differentiate the number of jobs by economic activity. Besides the General Business Register contains the main office of companies and institutions. The register lacks information on the location of companies and institutions with more than one office in the Netherlands. Therefore an additional survey among these companies with more than one office is held. In this survey, companies are asked to report the number of employees on municipality level. The results of the survey are combined with the number of jobs of employees from the register and result in regional employment figures.
Investments: sample survey. Stratification variables are NACE and size class. Sampling rates vary for each stratum and are determined by Neyman allocation (Total Investments used as the variable for allocation). Total sample around 55.000
Output and performance, purchases, employee benefits (for all sections except K,Q,R): sample survey. Stratification variables are NACE and size class. Sampling rates vary for each stratum and are determined by Neyman allocation (value added used as the variable for allocation). Total sample around 75.000. For some NACE groupings a threshold of 10 or 50 persons employed is used (every 2 out of 3 years) and results are imputed using T-1 or T-2 observations. Administrative data (VAT) is used as auxiliary information to improve the estimation procedure. For Section K data is collected by Dutch Central Bank, with around 1500 survey respondents. For Section Q: a combination of sample survey data, data from annual reporting for health care institutions (DigiMV) collectecd by the minstry of Health, Welfare and Sport and corporate (for legal persons) and individual (for natural persons) tax data are used in the estimation process. For Section R a Combination of sample survey data, annual reports and corporate tax data are used in the estimation process.
R&D: For the Research & Development variables, a portion of the business units in the target population is surveyed annually. All large companies are fully observed. For other companies with 10 or more employees, data is collected based on a sample. Companies with fewer than 10 employees are estimated using a secondary source.
Number of enterprises and employment variables are recorded in absolute figures.
Monetary data of enterprises are recorded in thousands in euros and disseminated on Eurostat database in million of euro.
Data is compiled from administrative sources: NSBR and SBS.
Main data sources used for UCI:
EGR;
Statistics on Finance of Enterprise Groups;
Statistics on Investments;
Chamber of commerce;
Private databases.
Annual for all variables except for variables 230101 (Intramural R & D expenditure), 230301 (Intramural R & D expenditure in foreign-controlled enterprises), 230201 (R & D personnel) and 230401 (R & D personnel in foreign-controlled enterprises): Market producers of NACE Sections B to N and P to R and divisions S95 and S96;
Biennial (every odd-numbered year) for variables 230101 (Intramural R & D expenditure), 230301 (Intramural R & D expenditure in foreign-controlled enterprises), 230201 (R & D personnel) and 230401 (R & D personnel in foreign-controlled enterprises): Market producers of NACE Sections B to F.
IFATS statistics are calculated annually for reference year T.
Data collection depends on the statistics and questionnaire.
Data transmission to Eurostat takes place at t+20 months.
Data dissemination at national level takes place at t+22 months.
Since data are prepared in accordance with regulations which refer to IFATS, they are comparable to data of other EU Member States.
Comparable series are available for the series:
2008 - 2020
2021- onwards
In reference year 2021 a new Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 (EBS Regulation) replaced the old FATS regulation introducing some changes such as: extension in coverage (NACE), change in coverage of the basic statistics (national SBS: inclusion of micro enterprises) and changes in definition of characteristics
