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.
Description of the data for non-fatal and fatal accidents:
Description of data for non-fatal accidents:
Economic activity of the employer;
Employment status, occupation, age, sex (and nationality of victim);
Type of injury and body part injured;
Data sources are reports sent to Administration of occupational safety and health AOSH (Vinnueftirlitið in Icelandic) by employers;
Reference year is 2022; statistics are based on reports in a given calendar year;
Data are released annually.
Description of data for fatal accidents:
Economic activity of the employer;
Employment status, occupation, age, sex (and nationality of victim);
Type of injury and body part injured;
Data sources are reports sent to AOSH by employers;
Data are released annually.
3.2. Classification system
The following classifications are used in ESAW:
NACE Rev. 2: 2nd revision of the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community managed by Eurostat. For ESAW data NACE Rev. 2 is used from reference year 2008 onwards;
ISCO-08: International Standard Classification of Occupations managed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
3.3. Coverage - sector
All economic sectors according to NACE Rev. 2 should be covered from reference year 2020 onwards. Until end of 2019, previous data was based on a local system that has been correlated with the NACE system, but there could be some inaccuracy. Data reported to AOSH only covers accidents that occur in sectors based on land, i.e. not sectors in aviation and maritime operations. The data does not cover activities of households for own use.
3.3.1. Sector Coverage ESAW
COVERAGE OF ECONOMIC SECTORS (NACE), (Annual update expected)
NACE
NACE Rev.2
Coverage
A
Agriculture, forestry and fishing
y
B
Mining and quarrying
y
off shores
n
others
y
C
Manufacturing
y
D
Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply
y
E
Water supply, sewerage, steam and air conditioning supply
y
F
Construction
y
G
Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles, motorcycles
y
H
Transportation and storage
y
maritime transport (NACE 50)
n
air transport (NACE 51)
n
transport via Railways (NACE 49)
n.a
post & telecomunications (NACE 53)
y
I
Accomodation and food service activities
y
J
Information and communication
y
K
Financial and insurance activities
y
L
Real state activities
y
M
Professional, scientific and technical activities
y
N
Administrative and support service activities
y
O
Public administration and defence;compulsory social security
y
of which police and firebrigades (NACE 84.24 and 84.25)
y
P
Education
y
Q
Human health and social work activities
y
R
Arts, entertainment and recreation
y
S
Other service activities
y
T
Activities of households as employers; undiferentiated goods- and services-producing activities of households for own use
p
U
Activites of extra territorial organisations and bodies
y
Additional comments on coverage of economic sectors
Codes:
y Sector fully covered n Sector not covered at all p Sector partially covered n.a. Not applicable, i.e. sector does not exist in country
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
Data is based on case-by-case data for accidents at work. In Iceland companies are required to report accidents that lead to absence of more than 2 days absence from work or death of the victim.
An accident at work is a discrete occurrence in the course of work which leads to physical or mental harm'.
This includes all accidents in the course of work, whether they happen inside or outside the premises of the employer, on the premises of another employer, in public places or during transport (including road traffic accidents or accidents in any other mean of transportation) and at home (if employed). It also includes cases of acute poisoning and willful acts of other persons;
It excludes:
Deliberate self-inflicted injuries;
Accidents from strictly natural causes;
Accidents, purely private;
Accidents to members of the public, even if such an accident is due to a work activity within a company.
A fatal accident at work is defined as an accident that leads to the death of a victim within short time from the accident.
Following phase I and II variables are reported to AOSH:
Economic activity of the employer (NACE);
Occupation of Victim (ISCO);
Age of Victim;
Sex of Victim;
Type of Injury;
Part of Body Injured;
Geographical Location of the Accident;
Date of the Accident;
Time of the Accident;
Size of the Enterprise;
Nationality of the Victim (optional);
Employment Status of the Victim;
Days Lost (severity).
In addition, the following phase III variables on 'causes and circumstances of the accident' are sent annually to Eurostat:
Workstation;
Working Environment;
Working Process;
Specific Physical Activity;
Material Agent of the Specific Physical Activity;
Deviation;
Material Agent associated with the Deviation;
Contact and mode of injury;
Material Agent associated with the Contact - Mode of injury.
Accidents reported to Eurostat, are accidents which lead to absence 4 days or more. Overall, 60 per cent of the accidents reported, lead to absence from work of 4 days or more. Accidents are reported with number of days and accidents that lead to absence of 0-3 days are filtered out.
3.4.1. Definition of ESAW variables
COVERAGE OF ESAW VARIABLES (Annual update expected)
Economic activity of the employer
Y
Occupation of the victim
Y
Age of victim
Y
Sex of victim
Y
Type of injury
Y
Part of body injured
Y
Geographical location
Y
Date of the accident
Y
Time of the accident
Y
Size of enterprise
Y
Nationality
Y
Employment status
Y
Days lost
Y cat
Workstation
Y
Working environment
Y
Working process
Y
Specific physical activity
Y
Material agent of Specific physical activity
Y
Deviation
Y
Material agent of Deviation
Y
Contact – mode of injury
Y
Material agent of Contact - Mode of injury
Y
Road traffic accidents (RTA)
N
Weight
N
Type of weight (under-reporting - U; sampling - S; special sampling - Sp)
n.a
Additional comments on coverage of ESAW variables
Work station: Partially covered, substantial share with no information.
Working environment: Partially covered, substantial share with no information.
Deviation: Partially covered, substantial share with no information.
Contact mode of injury: Partially covered, substantial share with no information.
Weight: Actual figures, no weight
Codes:
Coverage y Variable fully covered n Variable not covered at all, i.e. variable is so far not collected in country p Variable partially covered
Days lost y num Days lost are covered and in data file listed by numbers (004 - 182) y cat Days lost are covered and in data file listed by categories (A01 - A06) p num, p cat Days lost are partly covered and listed by numbers (categories)
Type of weight U weight to correct under-reporting S weight to account for sampling Sp weight to correct special sampling
3.5. Statistical unit
Data are collected for each accident. Absolute numbers are reported
If a person is a victim of more than one accident during the reference year, several cases are reported (one for each accident).
If multiple victims are involved in the same event of accident, only one case is initially recorded. This single record represents the accident, but it includes the total number of injured individuals.
However, when the data is prepared for submission to Eurostat, adjustments are made. This adjustment is automated through a preprogrammed query in the inhouse database. For instance, if there is an accident where 3 persons are injured our reporting system creates 3 lines under the same accident since injuries can differ between victims. What the query does is to create a case based on each line in the system insted of each accident as we do for our inhouse processing at the same time, accidents with durations of 0–3 days are filtered out.
While most accidents involve only one injured person, this adjustment applied to 16 cases in 2022.
3.6. Statistical population
Icelandic population. Accidents at work (fatal and non fatal) should be reported, by law, to the administration of occupational safety and health.
3.6.1. Statistical Population ESAW
COVERAGE OF PROFESSIONAL STATUS (Annual update expected)
Professional status
Coverage
1. Self employed
Y
1.1 Self employed with employees
Y
1.2 Self employed without employees
Y
2. Family worker
Y
3. Employee
Y
3.1 Part time workers
Y
3.2 Casual workers
Y
3.3 Trainees/Apprentices
Y
4. Students
N
5. Others
P
Codes:
y Professional status fully covered n Professional status not covered at all p Professional status partially covered n.a. Not applicable, i.e. professional status does not exist in country
COVERAGE OF ACCIDENTS OUTSIDE PREMISES (Annual update expected)
Accidents in the course of work
Coverage
1. Commuting accidents
Y
2. Accidents in a public place or in a mean of transport during a journey in the course of work
Y
2.1 Road traffic accidents in the course of work (public highways, car parks, internal ways inside the premises of the enterprise)
Y
2.2 Number of fatal road traffic accidents during a journey in the course of work for persons employed outside the NACE Rev. 2 sector H Transportation (PLEASE INSERT THE MANDATORY NUMBER)
0
2.3 Other accidents (slips, falls, aggressions, etc.) in a public place (pavement, staircases, etc.) or in the arrival and starting points (station, port, airport, etc.) of any mean of transport, during a journey in the course of work
Y
2.4 Accidents on board of any means of transport (underground railway, tram, train, boat, plane, etc.) used during a journey in the course of work
Y
2.5 Number of fatal accidents on board of any other means of transport during a journey in the course of work for persons employed outside the NACE Rev. 2 sector H Transportation (PLEASE INSERT THE MANDATORY NUMBER)
0
3. Accidents occurred within the premises of another company than that which employs the victim, or in a private individual, in the course of work
Y
4. Accidents having only a medical origin, in the course of work
P
Codes:
y Accidents fully covered n Accidents not covered at all p Accidents partially covered F Data of fatal road traffic accidents and fatal accidents on board of any means of transport provided in the main CSV data file A Data of fatal and non-fatal road traffic accidents as well as fatal and non-fatal accidents on board of any means of transport provided in the main CSV data file
3.7. Reference area
Whole Iceland.
3.8. Coverage - Time
January-december 2022.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
Number of accidents.
Is relevant with metadata at EU level - calendar year.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
Administration of occupational safety and health is established by icelandic law number 46/1980, in this law mandatory reporting of occupational accidents is enforced in paragraph number 79. If a company does not fulfill it’s duties the administration can lay on per diem fines.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Not applicable.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
All data reported to AOSH is protected by Icelandic law and must be treated in accordance with European GDPR regulation.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
Data collected falls under GDPR such as social security number, full data on work accidents can only be viewed by limited selected number of people.
8.1. Release calendar
Currenty data is not released for general public, but there are plans to do so.
8.2. Release calendar access
Not applicable.
8.3. Release policy - user access
Only general data released no detail data, that can be traced to persons, is made available.
Yearly.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
Not applicable.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
Not applicable.
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
Not applicable.
10.3.1. Data tables - consultations
Not applicable.
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
Not applicable.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
Not applicable.
10.5.1. Metadata - consultations
Not applicable.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
Not applicable.
10.6.1. Metadata completeness - rate
Not applicable.
10.7. Quality management - documentation
Data is checked by IT before sending. File sent is created by collection from database with automated programmed process, validation is done by comparing randomly selected values from this file to actual data.
11.1. Quality assurance
Not applicable.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
Not applicable.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Main users are the government, organisations, researchers, students, journalists, and the public.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Not applicable.
12.3. Completeness
This file contains sections which list in detail the available variables, economic sectors, employment status and information on traffic accidents.
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
Phase I and II
Economic activity of the employer
100%
Occupation of the victim
100%
Age of the victim
100%
Sex of victim
100%
Type of injury
100%
Part of body injured
100%
Geographical location
100%
Date of the accident
100%
Nationality
100%
Employment status
100%
Phase III
Workstation
100%
Working environment
100%
Deviation
100%
Contact - mode of injury
100%
12.3.1.1. Data completeness rate of ESAW variables per sector
REPORTING LEVELS OF ECONOMIC SECTORS (NACE), (Annual update expected)
Global reporting level
100%
Reporting levels by sector
A. Agriculture, forestry and fishing
100%
B. Mining and quarrying
100%
off shores
N
others
100%
C. Manufacturing
100%
D. Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply
100%
E. Water supply, sewerage, steam and air conditioning supply
100%
F. Construction
100%
G. Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles, motorcycles
100%
H. Transportation and storage
100%
maritime transport (NACE 50)
UNK
air transport (NACE 51)
UNK
transport via Railways (NACE 49)
UNK
post & telecomunications (NACE 53)
100%
I. Accomodation and food service activities
100%
J. Information and communication
100%
K. Financial and insurance activities
100%
L. Real state activities
100%
M. Professional, scientific and technical activities
100%
N. Administrative and support service activities
100%
O. Public administration and defence;compulsory social security
100%
of which police and firebrigades (NACE 84.24 and 84.25)
100%
P. Education
100%
Q. Human health and social work activities
100%
R. Arts, entertainment and recreation
100%
S. Other service activities
100%
T. Activities of households as employers; undiferentiated goods- and services-producing activities of households for own use
20% (e)
U. Activites of extra territorial organisations and bodies
100%
Codes:
N sector not covered by data collection UNK sector covered but unknown reporting level (value %) reporting level (e) rough estimate (instead of "medium" or "high")
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Data is only from AOSH, i.e Labour Inspectorate.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable.
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
Not applicable.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Not applicable.
13.3.1. Coverage error
Not applicable.
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
Not available.
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
Not applicable.
13.3.2. Measurement error
Not applicable.
13.3.3. Non response error
Not available.
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
Not applicable.
13.3.5. Model assumption error
Not applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
Annual release of national statistics in year N-1.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
Accidents should be reported within seven days, despite of that some are reported later.
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
Most reports (almost 100%) from previous year have been reported by April each year.
14.2. Punctuality
Not applicable.
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
Not applicable.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Focus on internal.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
On 1 Jan 2020 the system changed from paper documentation to the digitalized form, also including NACE classification. As consequence the data is not directly comparable with data from before 2020.
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
Not applicable.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Data from the Administration of occupational safety and health is regularly compared to data from national health insurance of Iceland.
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
Not applicable.
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
Not applicable.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Not applicable.
Direct cost regarding data collection has not been specified, on day to day basis no specific cost is associated, but update of our system in 2019 had significant cost associated.
17.1. Data revision - policy
Yearly.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Yearly.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
Yearly.
18.1. Source data
Administration of occupationa safety and health reporting system.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Continous.
18.3. Data collection
Electronic reporting form workplaces.
18.4. Data validation
Administration of occupational safety and health validates the data no other institutions.
18.5. Data compilation
Actual numbers reported, only processing is to filter out 0-3 days of absence.
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
Not applicable.
18.6. Adjustment
There are no adjustments done for ESAW data.
18.6.1. Seasonal adjustment
No adjustment.
No further comments.
Description of the data for non-fatal and fatal accidents:
Description of data for non-fatal accidents:
Economic activity of the employer;
Employment status, occupation, age, sex (and nationality of victim);
Type of injury and body part injured;
Data sources are reports sent to Administration of occupational safety and health AOSH (Vinnueftirlitið in Icelandic) by employers;
Reference year is 2022; statistics are based on reports in a given calendar year;
Data are released annually.
Description of data for fatal accidents:
Economic activity of the employer;
Employment status, occupation, age, sex (and nationality of victim);
Type of injury and body part injured;
Data sources are reports sent to AOSH by employers;
Data are released annually.
4 December 2024
Data is based on case-by-case data for accidents at work. In Iceland companies are required to report accidents that lead to absence of more than 2 days absence from work or death of the victim.
An accident at work is a discrete occurrence in the course of work which leads to physical or mental harm'.
This includes all accidents in the course of work, whether they happen inside or outside the premises of the employer, on the premises of another employer, in public places or during transport (including road traffic accidents or accidents in any other mean of transportation) and at home (if employed). It also includes cases of acute poisoning and willful acts of other persons;
It excludes:
Deliberate self-inflicted injuries;
Accidents from strictly natural causes;
Accidents, purely private;
Accidents to members of the public, even if such an accident is due to a work activity within a company.
A fatal accident at work is defined as an accident that leads to the death of a victim within short time from the accident.
Following phase I and II variables are reported to AOSH:
Economic activity of the employer (NACE);
Occupation of Victim (ISCO);
Age of Victim;
Sex of Victim;
Type of Injury;
Part of Body Injured;
Geographical Location of the Accident;
Date of the Accident;
Time of the Accident;
Size of the Enterprise;
Nationality of the Victim (optional);
Employment Status of the Victim;
Days Lost (severity).
In addition, the following phase III variables on 'causes and circumstances of the accident' are sent annually to Eurostat:
Workstation;
Working Environment;
Working Process;
Specific Physical Activity;
Material Agent of the Specific Physical Activity;
Deviation;
Material Agent associated with the Deviation;
Contact and mode of injury;
Material Agent associated with the Contact - Mode of injury.
Accidents reported to Eurostat, are accidents which lead to absence 4 days or more. Overall, 60 per cent of the accidents reported, lead to absence from work of 4 days or more. Accidents are reported with number of days and accidents that lead to absence of 0-3 days are filtered out.
Data are collected for each accident. Absolute numbers are reported
If a person is a victim of more than one accident during the reference year, several cases are reported (one for each accident).
If multiple victims are involved in the same event of accident, only one case is initially recorded. This single record represents the accident, but it includes the total number of injured individuals.
However, when the data is prepared for submission to Eurostat, adjustments are made. This adjustment is automated through a preprogrammed query in the inhouse database. For instance, if there is an accident where 3 persons are injured our reporting system creates 3 lines under the same accident since injuries can differ between victims. What the query does is to create a case based on each line in the system insted of each accident as we do for our inhouse processing at the same time, accidents with durations of 0–3 days are filtered out.
While most accidents involve only one injured person, this adjustment applied to 16 cases in 2022.
Icelandic population. Accidents at work (fatal and non fatal) should be reported, by law, to the administration of occupational safety and health.
Whole Iceland.
Is relevant with metadata at EU level - calendar year.
Data is only from AOSH, i.e Labour Inspectorate.
Number of accidents.
Actual numbers reported, only processing is to filter out 0-3 days of absence.
Administration of occupationa safety and health reporting system.
Yearly.
Annual release of national statistics in year N-1.
Focus on internal.
On 1 Jan 2020 the system changed from paper documentation to the digitalized form, also including NACE classification. As consequence the data is not directly comparable with data from before 2020.
