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.
The Economic Accounts for Agriculture (EAA) provide detailed information on income from agricultural activity.
The methods are laid down in the Regulation (EC) 138/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council.
3.2. Classification system
The EAA are an integral part of the ESA. As such, they are compiled based on NACE Rev.2, the statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community. The list of activities which defines the agricultural industry corresponds, in principle, to Division 01 of that classification: Crop and animal production, hunting and related service activities. However, some differences exist and they are detailed in Annex 1 of Regulation (EC) 138/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council.
3.2.1. Level of detail for compilation of EAA
See the detail below.
3.2.1.1. Components of the Production account : Output
See sheets 3.2.1.1.(a) to 3.2.1.1.(c) in the attached Excel file 'Annex 1 - Components of the Production account - Output' in the section Annexes at the end of the file.
3.2.1.2. Components of the Production account : Intermediate consumption
See sheets 3.2.1.2 (a) to 3.2.1.2 (c) in the attached Excel file 'Annex 2 - Components of the Production account - Intermediate consumption' in the section Annexes at the end of the file.
3.2.1.3. Components of the Generation of income account
See sheet 3.2.1.3 in the attached Excel file 'Annex 3 - Components of the Generation of income account' in the section Annexes at the end of the file.
3.2.1.4. Components of the Entrepreneurial income account
See sheet 3.2.1.4 in the attached Excel file 'Annex 4 - Components of the Entrepreneurial income account' in the section Annexes at the end of the file.
3.2.1.5. Components of the Capital account
See sheet 3.2.1.5 in the attached Excel file 'Annex 5 - Elements of the Capital account' in the section Annexes at the end of the file.
3.3. Coverage - sector
The sector covers all units involved in agricultural production, even if some of those units have more important economic activities or if the purpose of some others is not commercial. However, kitchen gardens (producing for own-consumption only) are not included.
The list of agricultural activities characteristic of the EAA corresponds to the seven groups of Division 01 of NACE Rev 2 activities (01.1 to 01.7), with the following caveats:
- the inclusion of the production of wine and olive oil (exclusively using grapes and olives grown by the same holding),
- the exclusion of certain activities which, in NACE Rev. 2, are considered as agricultural services (e.g. the operation of irrigation systems - only agricultural contract work is taken into account here).
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
A detailed methodology can be found in Annex I of Regulation (EC) 138/2004.
The EAA are satellite accounts of the European System of Accounts (ESA) providing complementary information and concepts adapted to the particular nature of the agricultural industry.
The EAA are shown as a sequence of inter-related accounts. As the EAA are based on the industry concept, the sequence of accounts is limited to the first accounts of the current account:
- the production account and
- the generation-of-income account
whose balancing items are value added and operating surplus, respectively.
Nevertheless, it should be possible to compile other accounts, at least in part, in so far as the relevant flows can be clearly attributed to them. The accounts in question are the following:
- the entrepreneurial income account (one of the current accounts) and
- the capital account (one of the accumulation accounts).
The EAA provide a wide range of indicators on the economic activities in the agricultural sector: these include output, intermediate consumption, gross and net value added, gross fixed capital formation (GFCF), both in current prices and in constant prices, as well as compensation of employees, other taxes and subsidies on production, net operating surplus or net mixed income, property income and net entrepreneurial income in current prices.
Three indicators of the economic performance of agriculture are defined in the EAA:
•Indicator A: Index of the real income of factors in agricultural per annual work unit. •Indicator B: Index of real net agricultural entrepreneurial income per unpaid annual work unit. •Indicator C: Net entrepreneurial income of agriculture.
3.4.1. Components of the Production account : Output
Agricultural output is the total of agricultural products and the goods and services produced in inseparable non-agricultural secondary activities created during the accounting period. It is recorded as a resource in the production account and it is valued and recorded at the time it is generated, that is when produced and not when paid by the purchaser.
In the compilation of the EAA, output is progressively broken down in quantity terms (see paragraph 2.037 of Regulation (EC) 138/2004).
Output is valued at the basic price. The basic price is the price receivable by the producers from the purchaser for a unit of a good or service produced, minus any tax (i.e. taxes on products) payable on that unit plus any subsidy (i.e. subsidies on products) receivable on that unit. The basic price excludes any transport charges invoiced separately by the producer. It also excludes holding gains and losses on financial and non-financial assets.
The valuation of output at the basic price makes it necessary to distinguish between taxes (other than VAT) on products and subsidies on products, on the one hand, and other taxes and subsidies on production, on the other.
3.4.2. Components of the Production account : Intermediate consumption
Intermediate consumption represents the value of all goods and services used as inputs in the production process, excluding fixed assets whose consumption is recorded as fixed capital consumption.
The inputs used for intermediate consumption should be valued at the purchaser prices for similar goods and services applicable at the time of their insertion in the production process. The purchaser price includes taxes less subsidies on products (but excluding deductible taxes like VAT on the products). It also includes any transport charges paid separately by the purchaser to take delivery at the required time and place.
3.4.3. Components of the Generation of income account
In the case of the generation of income account, the distributive transactions relate to other taxes on production, other subsidies on production and the compensation of employees.
For details please see sheet 3.4.3 - Other questions in the attached Excel file 'Annex 3 - Components of the Generation of income account' in the section Annexes at the end of the file.
3.4.4. Components of the Entrepreneurial income account
The entrepreneurial income account records certain types of property income (mainly land rents, interest and property income attributed to insurance policy holders).
For details please see sheet 3.4.4 - Other questions in the attached Excel file 'Annex 4 - Components of the Entrepreneurial income account' in the section Annexes at the end of the file.
3.4.5. Elements of the Capital account
In addition to Gross fixed capital formation (GFCF), the capital account records distributive transactions corresponding to aid for investment and other capital transfers.
3.5. Statistical unit
The overall unit is the agricultural sector. However, in order to provide more detailed information and to analyse flows generated by the production process and the use of goods and services, it is necessary to select units which emphasise relationships of a technical-economic kind. This means that, as a rule, institutional units must be broken-down into smaller and more homogeneous units with regard to the kind of production (local kind-of-activity units/local KAUs) are intended to meet this requirement (ESA 2010, 2.147).
The local KAU is defined as the part of a KAU which corresponds to a local unit. The institutional unit's information system must be capable of indicating or calculating for each local KAU at least the value of output, intermediate consumption, compensation of employees, the operating surplus and employment and gross fixed capital formation (ESA 2010, 2.148).
The agricultural holding, (the unit currently used for statistical studies of agriculture (censuses, surveys of the structure of agricultural holdings), is the local KAU most appropriate to the agricultural industry (even though certain other units, such as wine or olive oil cooperatives, or units performing contract work, etc., have to be included in it). Nevertheless, it should be pointed out that the variety of agricultural activities that can be performed on agricultural holdings makes them a special type of local KAU. The strict application of the ESA rule to units and their group should in fact result in a division of the agricultural holding into several separate local KAUs in cases where several activities of the NACE Rev. 2 four-digit class are performed on the same holding.
3.6. Statistical population
Although the ESA gives pre-eminence to local KAUs, the unit best suited to analyse the production process is the unit of homogeneous production (UHP). This unit is used to analyse inputs and outputs, since it corresponds exactly to a type of activity. Institutional units are thus divided into as many UHPs as there are activities (other than ancillary). By grouping these units of homogeneous production it is possible to break down the economy into 'pure' (homogeneous) branches. A UHP cannot, as a rule, be directly observed. Therefore, the accounts of homogeneous branches cannot be compiled on the basis of groups of UHPs. The ESA describes a method for compiling these accounts.
The use of the local KAU as the basic unit for the agricultural industry entails recording non-agricultural secondary activities where they cannot be distinguished from the main agricultural activity (inseparable non-agricultural secondary activities of local agricultural KAUs) The selection criterion for inseparable non-agricultural secondary activities is rather the type of activity than the nature of the product. For example, agro-tourism services provided by a farm must only be included if they cannot be separated from its agricultural activities.
3.7. Reference area
The entire territory of the country.
3.8. Coverage - Time
EAA time series are available from 1995 onwards.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable. The EAA regulation requires previous year prices and changes in volume measured by using the weightings for the preceding year.
EAA data at current and n-1 prices are given in million euros.
Agricultural labour input data are given in thousand annual work units (AWU).
calendar year
EU legislation:
Regulation (EC) No 138/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 December 2003 on the economic accounts for agriculture in the Community as amended
National legislation:
Agricultural and forestry accounts are enumerated in Schedule II of the Federal Statistics Act 2000, Federal Law Gazette I No. 163/1999 as amended.
REAA: Agreement concluded between the BML on its own behalf and on behalf of the federal provinces and Statistics Austria
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
EU legislation:
Regulation (EC) No 138/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 December 2003 on the economic accounts for agriculture in the Community as amended
National legislation:
Agricultural and forestry accounts are enumerated in Schedule II of the Federal Statistics Act 2000, Federal Law Gazette I No. 163/1999 as amended.
REAA: Agreement concluded between the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management on its own behalf and on behalf of the federal provinces and Statistics Austria
6.1.1. Responsible institution for compilation of EAA and unit values of agricultural products
The calculation of subsidies and capital transfers and the extrapolation/forecast of non-salaried labour input is performed by the Federal Institute of Agricultural Economics, Rural and Mountain Research.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
The strict confidentiality provisions of the Austrian Federal Statistics Act 2000 regulate the handling of confidential data relating to individuals and organisations.
Compliance with confidentiality provisions is monitored by a data protection officer.
Information Security (Informationssicherheit - InSi) includes the protection of data and information with the identified need for protection against loss, manipulation and undesired disclosure and thus also the protection of corresponding data and information storage media and processing facilities. Information on paper, digital storage media and the verbal transmission of information are also part of information security.
The Austrian Federal Statistics Act 2000 contains measures for the protection of the right to confidentiality of individuals and organisations as well as measures for ensuring the confidentiality of micro data. These include the deletion of names and addresses at the earliest possible moment and the obligation of secrecy imposed on persons entrusted with tasks of official statistics.
7.2.2. Comments on the amount of data affected by embargo
Since EAA are derivative statistics in Austria and due to their high degree of aggregation, EAA data are usually not confidential.
8.1. Release calendar
The EAA are annual statistics that are updated several times a year. The EAA release calender is as follows:
The first estimate is published in December of the current year n.
Up to and including the reporting year 2021, the second estimate was published in February of the following year n+1. From the reporting year 2022, the publication of the second estimate will take place in April n+1.
Semi-definitive EAA data are published in July n+1.
Definitive EAA data are published in July n+2.
However, as information from surveys with differing frequency is integrated into the calculation system and some statistics are only available at intervals of serveral years there are revisions also for already definitive EAA data. Furthermore the implementation of new data sources and improvements in the calculation methods may lead to revisions that – where necessary – are also implemented for preceding years in order to avoid discontinuities of time series.
Publication Principle: In accordance with the "special publication obligations" pursuant to Section 30 (3) of the Federal Statistics Act 2000, the Federal Statistical Office must inform the competent federal minister without delay of the results of statistical surveys and, at the same time, ensure that they are published in an appropriate manner. In addition, advance transmission of information may take place within a narrow framework (see https://www.statistik.at/en/medien/publication-policy).
see 8.1
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
A news release is published for the second estimate.
Statistics Austria disseminates EAA/REAA data mainly via electronic publications. The data are accessible via predefined tables and graphs, extractions from STATcube database and via "Statistik im Fokus" reports (available on the website of Statistics Austria as a pdf file containing the results and meta information).
Contributions setting out the results of the EAA can be found among others in the Green report of the BML (printed publication, electronically available at https://gruenerbericht.at)
10.6. Documentation on methodology
10.6.1. Further methodological guidelines available at national level
International institutions: European Commission/Eurostat; European Commission/DG Agriculture
National institutions: Federal ministries (Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management; Federal Ministry of Finance); provincial governments; federal institutions (Federal Institute of Agricultural Economics, Rural and Mountain Research); scientific institutes (Austrian Institute of Economic Research); universities; representative associations (e.g. social partners, chambers, professional organisations); Statistics Austria – internal users such as National Accounts
Media; general public
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
see quality report
12.3. Completeness
see quality report
13.1. Accuracy - overall
see quality report
13.2. Sampling error
see quality report
13.3. Non-sampling error
see quality report
14.1. Timeliness
see quality report
14.2. Punctuality
see quality report
15.1. Comparability - geographical
see quality report
15.2. Comparability - over time
see quality report
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
see quality report
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
see quality report
15.4. Coherence - internal
see quality report
Restricted from publication
17.1. Data revision - policy
see quality report
17.2. Data revision - practice
17.2.1. Years where retropolations are carried out and (if they are not yet available) when they will be available
EAA time series are available from 1995 onwards. Retropolations were carried out for the years 1995-1999.
17.2.2. Details of retropolation method used : items for which estimations are made and assumptions on which these estimations are based
Retropolations were made using the same methods as for the current calculations.
18.1. Source data
18.1.1. Data sources used - Components of the Production account : Output
See sheet 18.1.1 of the attached Excel file 'Annex 1 - Components of the Production account - Output' in the section Annexes at the end of the file.
18.1.2. Data sources used - Components of the Production account : Intermediate consumption
For detailed explanations on data sources used, please see remarks under concept 18.1.3.
18.1.3. Data sources used - Individual intermediate consumption items
See sheet 18.1.3 of the attached Excel file 'Annex 2 - Components of the Production account - Intermediate consumption' in the section Annexes at the end of the file.
18.1.4. Data sources used - Components of the Generation of the income account
See sheet 18.1.4 of the attached Excel file 'Annex 3 - Components of the Generation of income account' in the section Annexes at the end of the file.
18.1.5. Data sources used - Components of the Entrepreneurial income account
See sheet 18.1.5 of the attached Excel file 'Annex 4 - Components of the Entrepreneurial income account' in the section Annexes at the end of the file.
18.1.6. Data sources used – Elements of the Capital account
See sheets 18.1.6 of the attached Excel file 'Annex 5 - Elements of the Capital account' in the section Annexes at the end of the file.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
18.2.1. Time of the year where the updates of the EAA are carried out
Up to and including the reporting year 2021, updates were carried out at the following times:
January: second estimate for the year n-1, update for the year n-2
July: semi-definitive data for the year n-1 (for the Green Report of the BML and for the data transmission to Eurostat in September), final data for the year n-2
November: first estimate for the year n, update for the year n-1
From the reporting year 2022, updates will be carried out at the following times:
March: second estimate for the year n-1, update for the year n-2
July: semi-definitive data for the year n-1 (for the Green Report of the BML and for the data transmission to Eurostat in September), final data for the year n-2
November: first estimate for the year n, update for the year n-1
18.2.2. Years covered by each of these updates (i.e. update in September of year n for the years n-1, n-2, n-3 )
In the year n updates of the EAA are normally carried out for the years n-1 (second estimate and semi-definitive data) and n-2 (final data) (see 18.2.1). However, as the latest available data is being continually incorporated into the EAA, already completed reporting years can also be subject to revisions.
18.3. Data collection
See quality report
18.4. Data validation
See quality report
18.5. Data compilation
18.5.1. Calculation procedures
18.5.1.1. Components of the Production account - Output
See sheet 18.5.1.1 of the attached in the section Annexes at the end of the file.
See also Excel file 'Annex 6 - Calculation methods output'.
18.5.1.2. Components of the Production account : Intermediate consumption
See sheet 18.5.1.2 (a) and 18.5.1.2 (b) of the attached Excel file 'Annex 2 - Components of the Production account - Intermediate consumption' in the section Annexes at the end of the file.
18.5.1.3. Components of the Generation of income account
See sheet 18.5.1.3 of the attached Excel file 'Annex 3 - Components of the Generation of income account' in the section Annexes at the end of the file.
18.5.1.4. Components of the Entrepreneurial income account
See sheet 18.5.1.4 of the attached Excel file 'Annex 4 - Components of the Entrepreneurial income account' in the section Annexes at the end of the file.
18.5.1.5. Elements of the Capital account
See sheets 18.5.1.5 'Annex 5 - Elements of the Capital account' in the section Annexes at the end of the file.
18.5.2. Estimations
18.5.2.1. Components of the Production account : Output
See sheets 18.5.2.1 of the attached Excel file 'Annex 1 - Components of the Production account - Output' in the section Annexes at the end of the file.
18.5.2.2. Components of the Production account : Intermediate consumption
See sheet 18.5.2.2 of the attached Excel file 'Annex 2 - Components of the Production account - Intermediate consumption' in the section Annexes at the end of the file.
18.5.2.3. Components of the Generation of income account
See sheet 18.5.2.3 of the attached Excel file 'Annex 3 - Components of the Generation of income account' in the section Annexes at the end of the file.
18.5.2.4. Components of the Entrepreneurial income account
See sheet 18.5.2.4 of the attached Excel file 'Annex 4 - Components of the Entrepreneurial income account' in the section Annexes at the end of the file.
18.5.2.5. Elements of the Capital account
See sheet 18.5.2.5 of the attached Excel file 'Annex 5 - Elements of the Capital account' in the section Annexes at the end of the file.
18.5.3. Numerical example
Restricted from publication
18.5.3.1. Components of the Production account : Output
Restricted from publication
18.5.3.2. Components of the Production account : Intermediate consumption
Restricted from publication
18.5.3.3. Components of the Generation of income account
Restricted from publication
18.5.3.4. Components of the Entrepreneurial income account
Restricted from publication
18.5.3.5. Elements of the Capital account
Restricted from publication
18.5.4. Provisional and semi-definitive accounts and agricultural income index vs. definitive accounts
18.5.4.1. Components of the Production account : Output
See sheet 18.5.4.1 of the attached Excel file 'Annex 1 - Components of the Production account - Output' in the section Annexes at the end of the file.
18.5.4.2. Components of the Production account : Intermediate consumption
See sheet 18.5.4.2 of the attached Excel file 'Annex 2 - Components of the Production account - Intermediate consumption' in the section Annexes at the end of the file.
18.5.5. Calculation of non-deductible VAT
See sheet 18.5.5 of the attached Excel file 'Annex 2 - Components of the Production account - Intermediate consumption' in the section Annexes at the end of the file.
18.5.6. Calculation of compensation of VAT
Calculation of compensation of VAT on Other taxes on production:
see Annex 3, sheet 'Concept 3.4.3. Other Questions', item E2.1.11
Calculation of compensation of VAT on Other subsidies on production:
see Annex 3, sheet 'Concept 3.4.3. Other Questions', item E3.1.11
18.6. Adjustment
18.6.1. Components of the Production account : Output
See sheet 18.6.1 of the attached Excel file 'Annex 1 - Components of the Production account - Output' in the section Annexes at the end of the file.
18.6.2. Components of the Production account : Intermediate consumption
See sheet 18.6.2 of the attached in the section Annexes at the end of the file.
18.6.3. Components of the Generation of income account
See sheet 18.6.3 of the attached Excel file 'Annex 3 - Components of the Generation of income account' in the section Annexes at the end of the file.
18.6.4. Components of the Entrepreneurial income account
See sheet 18.6.4 of the attached Excel file 'Annex 4 - Components of the Entrepreneurial income account' in the section Annexes at the end of the file.
18.6.5. Elements of the Capital account
See sheet 18.6.5 of the attached Excel file 'Annex 5 - Elements of the capital account' in the section Annexes at the end of the file.
List of abbreviations:
AMA Agrarmarkt Austria
AGES Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety
BAB Federal Institute of Agricultural Economics, Rural and Mountain Research
BEA U.S. Bureau of Economic Analyses
BKI Federal Winery Inspectorate
BMF Federal Ministry of Finance
BML Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management
The Economic Accounts for Agriculture (EAA) provide detailed information on income from agricultural activity.
The methods are laid down in the Regulation (EC) 138/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council.
6 March 2024
A detailed methodology can be found in Annex I of Regulation (EC) 138/2004.
The EAA are satellite accounts of the European System of Accounts (ESA) providing complementary information and concepts adapted to the particular nature of the agricultural industry.
The EAA are shown as a sequence of inter-related accounts. As the EAA are based on the industry concept, the sequence of accounts is limited to the first accounts of the current account:
- the production account and
- the generation-of-income account
whose balancing items are value added and operating surplus, respectively.
Nevertheless, it should be possible to compile other accounts, at least in part, in so far as the relevant flows can be clearly attributed to them. The accounts in question are the following:
- the entrepreneurial income account (one of the current accounts) and
- the capital account (one of the accumulation accounts).
The EAA provide a wide range of indicators on the economic activities in the agricultural sector: these include output, intermediate consumption, gross and net value added, gross fixed capital formation (GFCF), both in current prices and in constant prices, as well as compensation of employees, other taxes and subsidies on production, net operating surplus or net mixed income, property income and net entrepreneurial income in current prices.
Three indicators of the economic performance of agriculture are defined in the EAA:
•Indicator A: Index of the real income of factors in agricultural per annual work unit. •Indicator B: Index of real net agricultural entrepreneurial income per unpaid annual work unit. •Indicator C: Net entrepreneurial income of agriculture.
The overall unit is the agricultural sector. However, in order to provide more detailed information and to analyse flows generated by the production process and the use of goods and services, it is necessary to select units which emphasise relationships of a technical-economic kind. This means that, as a rule, institutional units must be broken-down into smaller and more homogeneous units with regard to the kind of production (local kind-of-activity units/local KAUs) are intended to meet this requirement (ESA 2010, 2.147).
The local KAU is defined as the part of a KAU which corresponds to a local unit. The institutional unit's information system must be capable of indicating or calculating for each local KAU at least the value of output, intermediate consumption, compensation of employees, the operating surplus and employment and gross fixed capital formation (ESA 2010, 2.148).
The agricultural holding, (the unit currently used for statistical studies of agriculture (censuses, surveys of the structure of agricultural holdings), is the local KAU most appropriate to the agricultural industry (even though certain other units, such as wine or olive oil cooperatives, or units performing contract work, etc., have to be included in it). Nevertheless, it should be pointed out that the variety of agricultural activities that can be performed on agricultural holdings makes them a special type of local KAU. The strict application of the ESA rule to units and their group should in fact result in a division of the agricultural holding into several separate local KAUs in cases where several activities of the NACE Rev. 2 four-digit class are performed on the same holding.
Although the ESA gives pre-eminence to local KAUs, the unit best suited to analyse the production process is the unit of homogeneous production (UHP). This unit is used to analyse inputs and outputs, since it corresponds exactly to a type of activity. Institutional units are thus divided into as many UHPs as there are activities (other than ancillary). By grouping these units of homogeneous production it is possible to break down the economy into 'pure' (homogeneous) branches. A UHP cannot, as a rule, be directly observed. Therefore, the accounts of homogeneous branches cannot be compiled on the basis of groups of UHPs. The ESA describes a method for compiling these accounts.
The use of the local KAU as the basic unit for the agricultural industry entails recording non-agricultural secondary activities where they cannot be distinguished from the main agricultural activity (inseparable non-agricultural secondary activities of local agricultural KAUs) The selection criterion for inseparable non-agricultural secondary activities is rather the type of activity than the nature of the product. For example, agro-tourism services provided by a farm must only be included if they cannot be separated from its agricultural activities.
The entire territory of the country.
calendar year
see quality report
EAA data at current and n-1 prices are given in million euros.
Agricultural labour input data are given in thousand annual work units (AWU).
