Statistics Netherlands

Business statistics The Hague

Henri Faasdreef 312, 2492 JP Den Haag 

Index numbers of turnover (value) of services.

NACE Rev.2. 

Activities covered: NACE Rev. 2 Divisions: 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 69, 702, 71, 73, 74, 78, 79, 80, 81.2, 82, sum of (55 and 56), sum of (69 and 70.2) (as Group I).

Size classes covered: No size threshold is applied.

List and definition of variables:

Turnover: Value of sales and services to third parties, VAT excluded. Turnover includes main activity as well as secondary activities. Third parties are consumers and enterprises not belonging to (the Dutch part of) the own group of companies.

Changes in information collected: Statistics Netherlands uses since 2011/2012 for most divisions registers of fiscal data (VAT) for all small group enterprises. Complex enterprises with 50 employees or more still receive a questionnaire.

Accounting conventions: Data refers to the calendar quarter.

Reporting unit: The reporting unit is the enterprise.

Observation unit(s): The observation unit is the enterprise.

The statistical population comprises the observation units (about 499.000 units/enterprises) that are economically active in one of the above-mentioned sectors in the period under review.

The geographic area is the Netherlands, there are no exclusions.

From 2003 - today.

Base (reference) year: Year 2015 = 100.

Indices, percentage change (%).

Reference year of this report: 2015.

The periodicity of the data is quarterly.

Legal basis: Statistics Netherlands is fully independent in terms of its statistical operations with respect to methodology and publications. Independence was granted by the Royal Act of 1899 and reconfirmed by law in 1996 and 2003. The CBS Law of 2003 is available in English and Dutch. The public can find it at https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/over-ons/organisatie/jaarverslag/statistics-netherlands-act .

Obligation on units to provide data: The Law of 2003 established the Central Bureau of Statistics and the Central Commission for Statistics. Section 3 states: “The task of the CBS is to carry out statistical research for the government for practice, policy and research purposes and to publish the statistics compiled on the basis of such research". For the surveys carried out under the provisions of the Law of 2003 irregularities with respect the obligation to provide information can be punished with a fine of a maximum of EUR 5,000.

Planned changes in legal basis, obligation to respond and frame used: No changes in legal basis are planned.

As from 2021 the legal background of short-term business statistics is the EBS Regulation. The references to the EBS Regulation and its implementing legal acts can be found on the Eurostat website: Legislation - Short-term business statistics - Eurostat (europa.eu)

The Law of 2003 established the Central Bureau of Statistics and the Central Commission for Statistics. Section 3 states: “The task of the CBS is to carry out statistical research for the government for practice, policy and research purposes and to publish the statistics compiled on the basis of such research". Sections 33 through 36 describe the collection of information, sections 37 and 38 describe the use of information gathering and sections 39 through 42 the dissemination of results. The most relevant clauses are the following. Section 33: “The director general is authorised to use, for statistical purposes, data from registers (..) the director general is authorised to request, for statistical purposes, data (..) from the categories of companies, independent professionals, institutions and legal persons (..).” Section 37: “The data (..) shall be used solely for statistical purposes. The data (..)shall only be published in such a way that no recognisable data can be derived from them about an individual person, household, company or institution, unless, (..) there are good reasons to assume that the company or institution concerned will not have any objections to the publication.” The CBS Law of 2003 is available in English and Dutch. The public can find it at the CBS website https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/over-ons/organisatie/jaarverslag/statistics-netherlands-act.

The data is not further disseminated.

Dissemination of terms and conditions under which official statistics are produced, including confidentiality of individual responses: Statistics Netherlands is fully independent in terms of its statistical operations with respect to methodology and publications. Independence was granted by the Royal Act of 1899 and reconfirmed by law in 1996 and 2003. Data provision was made compulsory by law in 1936. Confidentiality is guaranteed. Individual data are never published without consent. The Royal Act of 1899 and the Law of 1996 have been repealed by the Law of 20 November 2003. This Law on the Central Bureau of Statistics describes the independence of the director-general of Statistics Netherlands: “The director general shall determine the methods by which the studies included in the work programme and the multiannual programme will be carried out and the manner in which the results of those studies will be published”. The Law of 2003 established the Central Bureau of Statistics and the Central Commission for Statistics. Section 3 states: “The task of the CBS is to carry out statistical research for the government for practice, policy and research purposes and to publish the statistics compiled on the basis of such research". Sections 33 through 36 describe the collection of information, sections 37 and 38 describe the use of information gathering and sections 39 through 42 the dissemination of results. The most relevant clauses are the following. Section 33: “The director general is authorised to use, for statistical purposes, data from registers (..) the director general is authorised to request, for statistical purposes, data (..) from the categories of companies, independent professionals, institutions and legal persons (..).” Section 37: “The data (..) shall be used solely for statistical purposes. The data (..) shall only be published in such a way that no recognisable data can be derived from them about an individual person, household, company or institution, unless, (..) there are good reasons to assume that the company or institution concerned will not have any objections to the publication.” The CBS Law of 2003 is available in English and Dutch. The public can find it at the CBS website https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/participants-survey/overzicht/businesses/meer-over-cbs-enquetes/enforcement.

Confidential data are treated by suppression or by aggregation. 

Advance dissemination of release calendar: A rolling 5 months-ahead release calendar is published in the schedule by date of Statistics Netherlands https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/publication-calendar (https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/publication-calendar). When approximate release dates are given, the precise dates are announced on the last working day of the week prior to the release.

https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/publication-calendar

Simultaneous release to all interested parties: The data are released simultaneously to all interested parties by loading them into the online database StatLine on the internet-site www.cbs.nl and posting a notification under “updates” on the home-page of the web-site. At the same time the data is also sent to subscribers by e-mail for some branches.

Identification of internal government access to data before release: There is no internal government access to the data before their release to the public.

Transmission to Eurostat and further use of the statistics: Data are to be transmitted to Eurostat when they are first published in the Netherlands. The transmission is done by use of eDAMIS Web Application using the GESMES/TS coding system.

 Results are disseminated every quarter.

Identification of ministerial commentary on the occasion of statistical releases: Ministerial commentary and data from Statistics Netherlands are fully separated.

New data for the whole domain  is available every quarter through the online database StatLine. There are seperate tables for 1. Nace I, and 2. Nace J+M+N. The results for Nace I are spublished in a press release every quarter. The other data are published in a web magazine.

Name of national paper publications: There are no paper publications of these results.

Name of national electronic dissemination: The data of division 55 and 56 are published in a press release.Summary results of other divisions are to be published in different web magazines.

The data are published on the CBS Website (http://www.cbs.nl) in StatLine.

There is no user access to microdata.

Planned changes in national dissemination methods: None.

Data are sent to Eurostat (eDamis) in gesmes format.

A short description is available at https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/onze-diensten/methoden (dutch only). Standard tables consist of index numbers and annual growth rates. The groupings are a mixture of 3- 4- and 5-digit levels, as well as a number of standard aggregations.

Not available.

Summary description of quality criteria calculated for national purposes: The weighted response rate has to be above 70% for a total division if turnover figures are to be published.

There are different policies and procedures guarantying quality. Statical improvements are reviewed by an independent department. There is also a list of methods that have been accepted as best practice. New statistics should use these methods or only deviate with good reasons. Every quarter the results of STS statistics are validated by an independent statistician.

The quality of the STS statistics are considered good. All quality aspects for STS statistics have been covered.

STS provide statistical information necessary to monitor the competitiveness and performance of the business community in the EU. The STS are used by different users (European Commission and ECB, national governments and central banks, economic analysts in private companies and financial institutions) and serve different purposes.

User satisfaction is measured via download statistics of the online databank and with ad hoc user consultations.

Unadjusted and seasonnally adjusted figures are published. Working day adjusted figures are included.

The accuracy is tackled by eliminating as much as possible non-sampling errors, by calculating sampling errors and studying and analysing revisions.
Sources: The most important sources are the business register, survey data and VAT-data. For services turnover an integral dataset is created each quarter. Only the most large and complex companies are surveyed, turnover from the remaining enterprises is obtained from VAT.  The quality of both surveys and VAT-data is considered good. The statistical errors are considered small.
The business registered is considered to be a good source for producing unbiased STS figures. The business register is updated every month using both information of the chambers of commerce and information from the Tax authorities. The over/undercoverage of the business register is very small. The linking efficiency with VAT-data is over 99,5%. Since the business register is used to derive the population frame no significant bias is expected for the STS totals.
"The survey results are usually also of good quality. In some instances though, enterprises provide the wrong information. Some reasons for providing wrong information are:
* Enterprises provide information in euro's instead of k-euro's.
* Enterprises fill in information for only part of the business unit (for example 1 legal unit).
* Enterprises fill in the results for the wrong period.
In these cases extensive editing is necessary to correct the results."
The VAT-data is of high quality. In some cases records are edit to adjust inplausible VAT-patterns. Because VAT-data itself is of high quality and is available for each company, a high quality integral dataset is obtained.
* The quality of the T+60 figures is slightly lower then the definite estimates, as a result of late respondents and the fact that VAT-information of companies that provide this information to the tax office on a yearly basis is simply not available before the end of a reporting year. These records are imputed before yearly figures become available.
The impact of non-response is only limited due to high respons percentages (see 13.3) and high coverage of the VAT-data.

As the turnover of services is estimated using an integral dataset (without sampling) no sampling errors occur.

Response rate: The surveys are compulsory. When first published, the weighted response rates are usually around 92%. The final indicators are normally based on weighted response rates of about 97%.
Actions to speed up or increase the rate of response: Missing responses are followed up by reminders in a first stage and then by telephone contacts.
The results of the questionaires are extensively checked and if necessary edited. For the largest units, the results are checked by a specialised organisational unit within Statistics Netherlands. This special unit has the ability to check the results with other data sources, profiling information and information derived from account management.
For the smaller units the VAT-data of a specific enterprise is checked mainly by the use of time series information of the unit.
The final estimates also have little or no bias.

Timeliness: The first preliminary results are to be published 60 days after the reference quarter. These dates are fixed for a period of one year in advance. Data will be revised 12 months after the first release.

Timetable of data collection:

• Quarterly questionnaires are sent to the reporting unit at the end of the reference quarter asking for a reply within two weeks.
• Monthly questionnaires are sent at the end of the reference month, asking for a reply within 10 working days. There is no fixed date for closing the data collection, but the indices are supposed to be definitive after 4 months.

 All releases are published according to the release calendar.

The STS Regulations and the STS methodological guidelines are applied by the countries transmitting STS data. This ensures a good comparability between national data and good-quality European aggregates. However, the data are not 100% comparable with other countries. Each country may apply different collection methods (surveys, use of administrative sources) and different calculation procedures for the data. Within the Netherlands, no seperate geographical data is compiled, thus there is no comparability between regions.

The time series 2003-2022 should be comparable over time. Some smaller adjustments have been made to the business register in 2006 and 2009. The introduction of administrative data for some divisions in 2011/2012 has not lead to continuity problems.

STS turnover is for the greater part measured by using VAT-data. Apart from the VAT-data a rather small sample survey is being used. There is no other statistical product that could be used instead of the current indicator other than survey/vat.

The data is internally coherent.

The persons hour per year for SN is about 3000 hours. The respondents burden is estimated at 5000 hours per year.

The data published are provisional. Final data for all 4 quarters of a year are published five months after the ending of the fourth quarter of the reporting year (the end of May of the next year).

There is no delay, the data are transmitted to Eurostat and released nationally at the same day. 　

Provision of information about revision and advance notice of major changes in methodology: The revision policy is described in the explanation of the online database tables. In case of changes in methodology or major changes in the data, the public will be informed on the internet website of Statistics Netherlands.

The revised figures of the previous year are published nationally together with the publication of the first quarter of the next year and also sent to Eurostat to assure coherence.

MR and MAR are available on section level:

Type of source: Partly statistical survey, partly administrative source (VAT register).

Frame on which the source is based: The General Business Register (Algemeen Bedrijfsregister - ABR).

Sample or census: Statistical survey.

Each branch is surveyed using a stratified sample with an exhaustive stratum. The sample is taken from enterprises with between 1 and 50 employees; the exhaustive survey is based upon all enterprises with 50 employees or more. Also enterprises that are part of a ‘complex enterprise group’ are in the exhaustive survey.

Criteria for stratification: Characteristics used for stratification of the sample are the main activity in terms of (sub)groups and size classes of employment.

 Threshold values and percentages: Units with 1 or more persons employed are sampled if no VAT is available. The sampling rates are as follows:

• 1 persons employed = 3%
• 2-4 persons employed = 6%
• 5-9 persons employed =12%
• 10-19 persons employed = 24%
• 20-49 persons employed = 47%
• 50+ persons employed = 100%

Frequency of updating the sample: The sample is updated yearly, in January. Moreover there is a quarterly/monthly refreshment for enterprise deaths and births.

Periodicity of data collection: Data collection is basically quarterly, but for some branches it is on a monthly basis to provide a basis for future obligations due to the EBS regulation.

Questionnaires used in the survey: Besides the VAT-register, a questionnaire regarding total turnover is used.

Planned changes in national questionnaires: No changes in national questionnaires are planned.

Data collection media: This data collection is done by electronic means, both e-mail and direct connection, after receiving a log-in code by mail.

Data validation is performed as a final step before releasing/disseminating the data. The validation is performed by an independent statistician.

Estimates for non-response: Non-response is treated using imputation technique. The estimation is done by using growth rates of the known average of a given sample-cell (stratum) multiplied with the(estimated average) value of the previous period. 

Estimates for grossing-up to population levels: The grossing up is based on the latest completed quarterly total number of enterprises per stratum in the General Business Register adjusted for population errors (such as non -active enterprises). The ratio of the total number of enterprise (N) within a given stratum to the corresponding number of enterprises (n) of the sample gives the grossing-up factor for the stratum. 

Type of index: The turnover index is a composite-weighted value index. 

Method of weighting and chaining: The composite index is weighted by the quarterly values of the underlying strata. The base year weights are based on SBS information. No chain linking is used to extend time series.

WDA, SA and other calculations: For sections I, J, M and N the results are revised for working days.

No further comments.