Statistics Finland

Business Statistics

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Statistics on industrial output describe industrial production as classified by the commodity classes of the PRODCOM list. The statistics are based on data reported by enterprises, their legal entities, or their local establishments. The statistics refer to annual output produced in Finland.

The statistics compiled comprise monetary value and physical quantity. The physical units are specific to commodity classes.

Industrial output is represented by the sold output and sub-contracted production in the commodity class. In classes where the output sold by the enterprises is likely to diverge significantly from their actual annual output, total physical output is also reported (in the case of larger vessels, its monetary value).

The data have not been significantly affected by COVID-19 pandemic.

In the PRODCOM classification products are grouped by the NACE Rev.2, 4-digits industrial sectors, in which they are primarily produced (i.e. characteristic products). NACE Rev. 2 is the EU system for classifying economic activities. The value and volume data shown for a product, therefore, includes not only the production by enterprises classified to the NACE sector where it is primarily produced but also its subsidiary production by enterprises classified to the other NACE Rev. 2 sectors.

Classification of Products
The PRODCOM list is divided into “Classes” corresponding to the classes of NACE rev 2. Within the individual classes, the headings of the list are set out in ascending order of their PRODCOM codes. PRODCOM uses an eight-digit product code of the form XX.XX.XX.YY.

• The first four digits of the code correspond to the 4-digit classes of NACE Rev. 2.
• The first six digits are the Community Classification of Products by Activity (CPA) codes.

The CPA provides a detailed listing of the characteristic products for each 4-digit NACE Rev. 2 economic activity. The last two digits provide a more detailed breakdown of the CPA classes into PRODCOM product headings.
There is a direct link between the PRODCOM classification and the EU foreign trade Combined Nomenclature (CN).
Each PRODCOM 8-digit heading covers one or more CN 8-digit headings.

A National Version of the Classification:
To view the partially more specific national classification with 10-digit subheadings and extra headings used in data collection,
please see National classification

The statistics on industrial output covers the broad NACE Rev 2 classes B (mining and quarrying), C (manufacturing industries) and for section E (Materials recovery) the division 38.32 Recovery of sorted materials. The required representativeness threshold is 90 per cent of the output for the detailed NACE Rev 2 classes.

In industrial output statistics, all the relevant enterprises with ten or more employees and some even smaller ones in certain branches of activity are included.

The statistics on industrial output are compiled for individual classes of commodities. A commodity is defined as a material or an immaterial medium that directly (consumer goods) or indirectly (capital goods) satisfies human needs. Commodities are yearly specified in the PRODCOM list provided by Eurostat in association with the national statistical offices. For national reasons, some supplementary commodity headings are included.

Industrial output also comprises industrial services. They are such as processing, re-modelling, processing, working and other such finishing, maintenance, repairs and installations.

The variables used for statistics on industrial output are the value (in euros) and the quantity (in physical units) of sold production, sub-contracting production and actual annual production. Sold production refers to domestic production sold to other firms or to other legal entities of the firm during the calendar year irrespective of the actual production date. Sold production also covers the sales of stored production. The sales of merchandise not reprocessed in the firm are not included in the value or quantity of sold production.

Total production refers to domestic production during the calendar year. It encompasses the sold, the stored, and the intermediate products for reprocessing within the firm. Only quantity data are usually inquired on total production but in the case of larger vessels instead value data are. Data on total production are inquired about for complementary information in cases where sales are expected to diverge substantially from actual production.

In the statistics on industrial output the statistical unit used is the legal entity. The informant unit is the enterprise, the legal entity, or its local establishments or combinations thereof.

For the statistics on industrial output, the survey population comprises the enterprises, legal entities and their local establishments from the Business Register of Statistics Finland conducting significant enough industrial business to fall under the representativeness requirements of the EU’s PRODCOM regulation: Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197, EUR-Lex - 32020R1197 - EN - EUR-Lex (europa.eu) and Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/32019R2152. 

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The statistics on industrial output only encompasses domestic production, which is published without regional division.

The period observed is one calendar year.
Finnish industrial products statistics date back to the year 1884 (See Industrial products from early years)
PRODCOM statistics are available from the year 1998 onwards on the website:
PRODCOM 1998-2020 and PRODCOM 2021-2022.

Not applicable.

In the statistics on industrial output the data on value are inquired in EUR 1,000 for Eurostat and the StatFin service. The data on quantity are inquired and published in the commodity-specific physical units defined in the PRODCOM list or by Statistics Finland for the national supplementary headings.

The physical unit for quantities refers to the weight, length, area, volume, number (pieces or pairs), gross tonnage, power and energy, gross calorific value or some comparable property of the commodity. Quantity information is not inquired about for services or variably quantified commodities.

The data are from the calendar year 2022.

The compilation of statistics is guided by the Statistics Act. The Statistics Act contains provisions on collection of data, processing of data and the obligation to provide data. Besides the Statistics Act, the Data Protection Act and the Act on the Openness of Government Activities are applied to processing of data when producing statistics. More specific regulations are: the EEC’s PRODCOM Regulation (Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197, EUR-Lex - 32020R1197 - EN - EUR-Lex (europa.eu) on the European Business Statistics); The regulation on statistical units, Council Regulation No 696/93 on statistical units is applied to statistics on business activities; Regulation on economic activities: Standard Industrial Classification 2008 is based on the European Union's common industrial classification, NACE Rev. 2, supplemented with the fifth level for national needs; Regulation No 177/2008 on business registers.

Statistics Finland compiles statistics in line with the EU’s regulations applicable to statistics, which steer the statistical agencies of all EU Member States.  

Further information on national legislation: Statistical legislation

The statistics on industrial output are published annually in the StatFin database in at the turn of June and July. The corresponding data, though without those of the supplementary national headings are submitted to Eurostat at the same time. National accounts, index statistics and research services are accorded the data at the detailed level of statistical units.

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

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

In order to enable the aggregate calculations concerning the EU, the data are submitted to Eurostat with confidential numbers included but supplied with confidentiality markings for taking national confidentiality criteria into account.

The statistics on industrial output are published right after the date (June 30) defined in the EU Council Regulation (EEC) No 3924/91 on the establishment of a Community survey of industrial production for submission of the annual PRODCOM data to Eurostat: Industrial output: future releases.

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

Further information: Publication principles for statistics at Statistics Finland

Statistics Finland's release calendar Future publications 

Future publications of the statistics can be found on the page of the statistics at: Future publications of the statistics

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

Further information: Publication principles for statistics 

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

The statistics on industrial output are annual and published at the turn of July in the year following the statistical year, and updated in the coming November or December and at the corresponding times the next year.

The release is published annually on the home page of the statistics.

The releases for the Statistics on industrial output: Releases

The database tables of the statistics can be found in the StatFin database.

Until 1997, the statistics on industrial output were only published in paper format as a book. From 1998 onwards the statistics have been made available in data files: PRODCOM 1998-2020 and PRODCOM 2021-2022.

A research laboratory micro-data is available for researchers with a user license. Anonymization of the data is done by encryption software on the identification information.

The previous year's statistics is delivered to Eurostat in June, see Eurostat PRODCOM database.
In cases of change in data an update is supplied to Eurostat.

A few customized data sets per year are prepared for clients, often subject to a fee.

Documentation of statistics Industrial output - Statistics Finland

For the latest quality report (2022) in English: Quality report.

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

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

Every year Statistics Finland conducts statistical auditing that aim to ensure the quality of statistics.
The statistics on industrial output were audited in 2007.

The data quality of the statistics on industrial output is monitored by scrutiny of the data accumulated throughout the process of data collecting by using aggregate-level measures. The important baselines are the corresponding statistics for the previous year, and to some extent the other statistics for the current year, specifically those concerning industrial growth.

The statistics on industrial output is widely utilized within Statistics Finland: in national accounts, volume index of industrial output, producer price index, and other indices. External users include: research institutes, universities, labor market organizations, market researchers, international organizations (EU, United Nations, OECD) and various kinds of project researchers.

No special user satisfaction survey has been conducted. A general web-based feedback channel is in use. Direct user feedback is encouraged in customized service.

The statistics on industrial output in principle covers all the industrial production in Finland. However, the share of the smallest manufacturers is left out as no statistical method enables a reliable estimation of it at the detailed level of product classes, which makes the figures slight underestimates.  

The response burden in the inquiry on industrial output is significant. This leads to errors and omissions in reporting, especially in the case of smaller enterprises. Using complementary sources, it is often possible to compensate for the lack of data, but non-response is clearly detrimental to statistical quality.

The statistics being product heading-specific, there are often only one or two producers per product class, making non-response cases very local and thus methodological or manual supplementation of the data is not possible in all cases.
The statistics on industrial output should not be interpreted as statistics on the total industrial output but on individual product classes. 

The inquiry of industrial output is a total survey on manufacturing in Finland. However, the sample does not include the smallest producers, mainly enterprises with under ten employees. Because their commodity-specific shares of production cannot be estimated, for some commodities the statistics slightly underestimate production. Two separate groups of enterprises with 10 to 19 employees are used in sampling in alternate years. In intervening years estimated data are used for these enterprises.

The survey population is based on the generally reliable Statistical Business Register database. To avoid undercoverage, estimates have been substituted for the actual figures for a sizeable fraction of the firms obliged to respond to the survey. A few of them has to be left out of the statistics because of there being no reliable basis for calculating estimates. Being harder to obtain than value information, quantity information is in much greater need of estimation. Where feasible, it is done on the basis of prices calculated from other producers' information.

Overall response rate in 2022 was 67,7 % (of the data providers), response rate weighted by the value of production was 88,8 %.

Data are only biennially inquired of enterprises (legal units) with less than 20 employees. In the fallow years their data are estimated by means of imputation on the basis of their previous year's data and the general industrial trend. The imputation rates in 2022 were: by value of total production 8,8 % (of items), 2,4 % (weighted by the value of total production); by quantity of total production 8,1 % (of items), 2,6 % (weighted by the value of total production); by quantity of actual production 2,6 % (of items), 0,2 % (weighted by the value of total production).

Missing data are estimated primarily using program code but also manually. The estimation rates for non-respondents (unit non-response) in 2022 were:

by value of total production 19,7 % (of items), 8,7 % (weighted by the value of total production);

by quantity of total production 18,3 % (of items), 8,3 % (weighted by the value of total production);

by quantity of actual  production 12,4 % (of items), 9,4 % (weighted by the value of total production).

The estimation rates for partially incomplete answers (item non-response) were:

by value of total production 6,7 % (of items), 5,4,% (weighted by the value of total production);

by quantity of total production 5,9 % (of items), 2,7 % (weighted by the value of total production);

by quantity of actual production 2,8 % (of items), 0,36 % (weighted by the value of total production).

The statistics on industrial output are nationally published and submitted to Eurostat for publication six months after the end of the statistical year at the turn of June and July.

There is no time lag between the release calendar and the actual release date.

The statistics on industrial output only concern Finland as a single geographic area. The data submitted to Eurostat accord with the EU standards and are fully comparable with the data from the other EU countries.

From the statistical year 2021, the distinction between subcontracting production and sold production makes it difficult to compare the value of sold production before the statistical year 2021. In 2020 and before that, subcontracting production was also included in the value of sold production. The change in the comparison of production volumes has no impact in different years.

The six-digit level of the PRODCOM classification mainly concurs with the CPA nomenclature in use in the compilation of the producer price index though in places they only match at the five-digit PRODCOM level. The 8-digit PRODCOM level mainly corresponds to the nomenclature used for compiling the volume index of industrial output. 

From the statistical year 2021 onwards, the production volumes are broken down into the volumes of own production and subcontracting production. However, the sum of these variables is comparable to the volumes for previous years. 

Changes in the PRODCOM nomenclature weaken the consistency of time series data on the most accurate level.

For the respondent enterprises, the yearly costs of the inquiry on the statistics of industrial output are estimated to be roughly 200 000 euros. The estimate is based on response burden surveys. The response burden and its costs are likely somewhat lower now after questionnaire reform.

The yearly costs for Statistics Finland of producing the statistics on industrial output are in the order of 4 person-years or 200 000 euros.

Data are revised after the initial publication. The first updated data are published in the statistical database approximately six months after the initial publication, and the second update simultaneously with the statistical publication of the following year (T+12).

Subsequent revisions may be made whenever it is considered that the changes are significant enough to mandate a revised submission.

Data are usually revised at several headings after the initial publication as the general revision principle is perpetual revision.

Data for the statistics on industrial output are annually inquired directly from enterprises engaged in manufacturing activities, their legal entities, or their local establishments or combinations thereof. In principle, the statistics are a total survey but the smallest entities of the population, mostly enterprises of 10 to 19 employees, are only inquired every second year and in the intervening years the data concerning them are represented by calculations based on their previous year’s data and the general industrial trend.

The inquiry for the statistics on industrial output concerning the previous calendar year is annually carried out during the first half-year.

The data for the statistics on industrial output are collected through the web questionnaire devised at Statistics Finland and integrated into its overall information system.

The COVID-19 pandemic did not have a major impact on data collection.

The data collected on the web-questionnaire are transmitted to the enterprise information system of Statistics Finland where for every respondent’s data an error score is calculated. Depending on the score, an individual scrutiny may be in order. In these cases, contacting the respondent is often necessary. The corrected data can be resent through the questionnaire.

The data assessed to be reliable through detailed or mass scrutiny are accepted as a part of the database for the statistics on industrial output. The omissions are compensated for by calculated or, more rarely, judged estimates based on the data of the other firms. The data for the smallest firms, mostly those of 10-19 employees, are in their biennial fallow years estimated on the basis of their previous year’s data and the general industrial trend.

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