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.
Economic Accounts in Agriculture and Forestry Department
1.3. Contact name
Restricted from publication
1.4. Contact person function
Restricted from publication
1.5. Contact mail address
Ilica 3
10000 Zagreb
1.6. Contact email address
Restricted from publication
1.7. Contact phone number
Restricted from publication
1.8. Contact fax number
Restricted from publication
2.1. Metadata last certified
24 April 2026
2.2. Metadata last posted
3 August 2026
2.3. Metadata last update
24 April 2026
3.1. Data description
The Economic Accounts for Agriculture (EAA) provide an overview of the agricultural activities in a systematic and comparable way to serve as basis for analyses, forecasts and political measures. The methodology is laid down in Annex I of the Regulation (EC) 138/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council. The EAA methodological manual provides further details and clarifications (LINK).
3.2. Classification system
The EAA are a satellite account of the European System of Accounts (ESA), therefore EAA constitute 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 that are detailed in Annex I of Regulation (EC) 138/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council.
3.3. Coverage - sector
The sector covers all units involved in agricultural production, even if some of those units have other more important economic activities even if the purpose of these activities is not commercial. However, kitchen gardens (producing for own-consumption only) are not included. The list of agricultural activities covered by EAA corresponds to the seven groups of Division 01 of NACE Rev 2 activities (01.1 to 01.7), with the following caveats/differences:
inclusion of the production of wine and olive oil (exclusively using grapes and olives grown by the same holding),
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
The EAA are a satellite account of the 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 accounts:
the production account (its balancing item: value added)
the generation-of-income account (its balancing item: operating surplus).
Nevertheless EAA contains other accounts (of the ESA) at least partly:
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 of the agricultural sector: these include output, intermediate consumption, gross and net value added, gross fixed capital formation (GFCF), both at current prices and at reference year 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 at current prices. (see for more details points 1.40-1.48 in Annex I of Regulation (EC) 138/2004.)
Three income indicators are defined in the EAA:
Index of the real income of factors in agriculture per annual work unit (indicator A).
Index of real net agricultural entrepreneurial income per unpaid annual work unit (indicator B).
Net entrepreneurial income of agriculture (indicator C).
See for more details chapter 5 in Annex I of Regulation (EC) 138/2004.
3.4.1. Components of the Production account : Output
Agricultural output is the total of the agricultural products and the goods and services produced in inseparable non-agricultural secondary activities 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, i.e. when produced and not when paid by the purchaser. In the compilation of the EAA, output is progressively broken down in quantity terms (see point 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.
The components of output in the production account are detailed in ANNEX II of the Regulation (EC) 138/2004. The other categories are wider, defined by the countries according to their special characteristics. The table below covers the list of products included under ‘other’ categories.
List of 'Other products'
Items
Other cereals except wheat and spelt, rye and meslin, barley, oats and summer cereals mixture, grain maize, rice
Triticale, Sorghum, Millet, Buckwheat
Other oleaginous products except Rape and turnip rape seed, Sunflower, Soya
Oilseed pumpkin, Hemp for oil, Poppy, Flax for oil
Other industrial crops: others than Oil seeds and oleaginous fruits (including seeds), Protein crops (including seeds), Raw tobacco, Sugarbeet, Fibre plants, Hops
Other crop products: Others: not elsewhere classified
The data does not exist
Other animals Other than cattle, pigs, equines, sheep and goats, poultry
The data does not exist
Other animal products: others than milk, eggs, raw wool, silkworm cocoons
Honey
Processing of agricultural products:
Items
Other animal products other than milk
The data does not exist
Other inseparable non-agricultural secondary activities (goods and services) Other than Processing of agricultural products
The data does not exist
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, the consumption of which 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 excludes 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.
The components of intermediate consumption in the production account are detailed in ANNEX II of the Regulation (EC) 138/2004. The other categories are wider, defined by the countries according to their special characteristics. The table below only covers the list of products included under ‘other’ categories.
List of 'Other products'
Items
Energy; lubricants other than electricity, gas, other fuels and propellants
There are no other products for Energy; lubricants other than electricity, gas, other fuels and propellants
Other goods and services other than listed under 2.108 in the Reg.
There are no Other goods and services other than listed under 2.108 in the Reg.
3.4.3. Components of the Generation of income account
In the generation of income account, the distributive transactions relate to other taxes on production, other subsidies on production and the compensation of employees.
The components of the generation of income account are detailed in ANNEX II of the Regulation (EC) 138/2004.
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).
The components of the entrepreneurial income account are detailed in ANNEX II of the Regulation (EC) 138/2004.
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.
The elements of the capital account are detailed in ANNEX II of the Regulation (EC) 138/2004.
3.5. Statistical unit
The statistical unit is the local kind of activity unit.
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, institutional units are broken-down into smaller and more homogeneous units with regard to the kind of production (local kind-of-activity units/local KAUs) (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 is 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 is the local KAU most appropriate to the agricultural industry. However, 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 and the information required according to the explanations above is available. The adoption of the agricultural holding as the local KAU of the agricultural industry in the national accounts (NA) and EAA is based on a statistical approach. The speciality and the aim of EAA is to cover all agricultural activity carried out by an agricultural holding or any other local KAU not having agriculture as its main activity.
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 are only included if they cannot be separated from its agricultural activities.
3.6. Statistical population
The agricultural industry includes all local KAUs at local level which perform the economic activities, as principal or secondary activity corresponds to Division 01 in NACE Rev. 2 (cf. 1.60 to 1.66 of EAA Reg.)
3.7. Reference area
The entire territory of the country.
3.8. Coverage - Time
EAA time series are available from 2005 onwards.
As of the date of this report, the length of time for which data are available: 2005 - 2025
3.9. Base period
Accounts for year n are calculated of the base period is year n-1. Data are derived by chain linking at prices of year 2015 (and at any other reference year prices).
EAA data at current prices and at prices for the preceding year are given in millions of units of national currency.
Agricultural labour input data are given in thousand annual work units (AWU).
2023 calendar year.
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 by Commission delegated Regulation (EU) No 2019/280 of 3 December 2018. Transmission of data for the regional EAA (REAA) at NUTS 2 level became obligatory in September 2023. Before September 2023, Eurostat collected REAA data on a voluntary basis.
National legislation:
Official Statistical Act
This Act regulates the organisation and coordination of the official statistics system, the competence and management of the Croatian Bureau of Statistics, the development and planning of the implementation of official statistics activities of the Republic of Croatia, the collection of data, the processing and storage of statistical material, the organisation and keeping of statistical registers, the dissemination and use of statistical data, the protection of confidential data collected for the production of official statistics, international statistical cooperation and other matters relevant to official statistics.
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society. The European Statistics Code of Practice provides conditions that have to be respected by statistical offices in regard to statistical confidentiality (Principle 5).
Rules on access to confidential data of the state statistical office within the official statistic system
INSTRUCTION ON THE METHOD OF PROTECTION OF CONFIDENTIAL STATISTICAL DATA IN THE CROATIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS
This Instruction regulates the procedures and methods of implementing physical, technical and organisational measures to ensure the physical, technical and logistical protection of confidential statistical data against unauthorised access, alteration, loss, removal or destruction, and other issues relevant to the security and protection of confidential statistical data collected for the production of official statistics within the scope of the Croatian Bureau of Statistics.
Once a year we issue the Publishing Programme (in Croatian and English), in order to inform our data users on our publishing activity as thoroughly as possible. Programme is free of charge and is available on web site of the Croatian Bureau of Statistics. In the first part of the Programme, users can find information on types of publications we issue, followed by a detailed review of issues planned for the whole 2025 and until May 2026, depending on when a processing of a particular statistical survey is finished and on possibilities of producing a particular type of publication.
There is also a description of each publication stating the type of a publication, number and title of a publication, data level, date of publishing, number of issues per year, language and form of publishing media (paper form, CD, DVD, e-mail, internet). Furthermore, in a separate chapter there is a review of publications issued by the end of November 2024.
The Croatian Bureau of Statistics provides the following services to all users of statistical data:
Economic Accounts for Agriculture, for Republic of Croatia, HR_NUTS 2021 – HR NUTS 2
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
Croatia in Figures is an annual publication of the Croatian Bureau of Statistics that provides an overview of selected statistical indicators from 24 different statistical areas. Given that we are continuously working to improve and modernise the process of dissemination of statistical data, we have once again prepared a digital version of this publication, focusing on a more modern and visually appealing presentation that will allow the data to be more easily understood and interpreted.
The CBS produces official statistics in accordance with well-designed methods and processes and conducts activities in accordance with the planned dynamics. Quality indicators and other important factors of processes and products are well defined, and the results are continuously monitored. If the quality indicators are not met, changes are made that include improvement processes and procedures. The CBS quality system is based on the 16 principles from the European Statistics Code of Practice, published by Eurostat, as follows:
National Accounts as well as Prices in Agriculture Unit (in the CBS)
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
students
scientists
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Croatian Bureau of Statistics conducts user satisfaction surveys.
From 18 October to 22 November 2024, the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (hereinafter: the CBS) carried out the User Satisfaction Survey. The aim of the survey was to find out the level of user satisfaction with the products and services of the Croatian Bureau of Statistics. At the same time, users had the opportunity to express their needs and remarks, thus participating in improving the overall quality of the CBS. The survey was conducted online, and the questionnaire could be accessed via the link on the CBS’s website, while users who gave their consent to participate in the User Satisfaction Survey were sent the link by e-mail. The questionnaire consisted of 22 questions; it was prepared in the Microsoft Forms programme, in Croatian and English, and covered the following topics:
sociodemographic characteristics of users
use of statistical data and products/services of the CBS
quality of statistical data
dissemination of statistical data
quality and trust in the CBS.
In order to promote the User Satisfaction Survey and to increase user response on the Facebook and Instagram social networks, a promotional advertising campaign was carried out, which lasted from 23 October to 22 November 2024, accompanied with the news about the campaign published on the CBS’s website, providing the link to the questionnaire
Quality of statistical data
Concerning the overall quality of the CBS’s data (their relevance, timeliness, accessibility and comparability) by statistical domains, the best reviewed by users are data in the domain of tourism, with an average rating of 3.66, then data in the domain of population, with an average rating of 3.60, and data in the domain of gross domestic product and national accounts, with an average rating of 3.57. The lowest average ratings go to data in the domain of justice and social protection, 3.46, and in the domain of agriculture, 3.36. The total average rating of the CBS’s data quality is 3.48.
The quality indicator for data completeness shows the following for the reference year 2023 in the detailed EAA: 1.000
[The indicator shows the ratio of data provided per data required, excluding derogations]
13.1. Accuracy - overall
To describe accuracy, the country uses the quality and performance indicator called ‘data revision – average absolute size’ under point 17.2.1 of this document.
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 applicable.
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
Not applicable.
13.3.2. Measurement error
Not applicable.
13.3.3. Non response error
Not applicable.
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
Time period between data availability and the event or phenomenon they describe is 9 months.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
Time lag – first estimate is T - 1 months
Time lag – second estimate is T + 3 months
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
Time lag – final result is T + 9 months
14.2. Punctuality
All data are delivered on time.
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
The quality indicator of punctuality delivered and publication, shows the following for the reference year 2023:
[The indicator shows the time lag of data delivery to Eurostat and the deadline of the transmission.In case data delivered earlier the indicator shows negative value.]
First estimates: -6
Second estimates: -3
Detailed EAA: 0
15.1. Comparability - geographical
The results of EAA are comparable between regions and countries.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Length of comparable time series is 19. The series is comparable though its complete length.
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
Length of comparable time series is 19. The start year is 2005.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
EAA statistics are reconcilable with National Accounts.
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
Not applicable
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
The National Accounts Unit uses data on Economic Accounts for Agriculture for their calculations.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Statistics are consistent within a given data set (EAA).
Not applicable
17.1. Data revision - policy
Revision policy aimed at ensuring the transparency of disseminated data. Chapter 8 of the EAA manual provides guidelines for a harmonised revision policy for EAA, including the ALI data.
17.2. Data revision - practice
We conduct two routine revisions for the second estimate and final data per year for EAA:
First estimate
Second estimate
Final data
For the first estimate we obtained estimated data from the crop and animal department.
For second estimate data from crop and animal department are better quality because they have data from the surveys they conduct, also we obtained complete information about subsidies from the Paying Agency (administrative source).
For the final EAA data we also have better quality of the data because errors in the raw data have been removed.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
Average of absolute revision is the average of absolute revisions for the years referring between the current quality (2023) and the 5-years' earlier.
Indicator A
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
Mean absolute revision (5 reference years)
1st estimate
EAA
1st estimate
EAA
1st estimate
EAA
1st estimate
EAA
1st estimate
EAA
Croatia
93.33
105.62
108.73
109.19
98.70
123.21
95.10
105.17
84.02
83.08
9.65
17.2.2. Years where retropolations are carried out and (if they are not yet available) when they will be available
Not applicable.
17.2.3. Details of retropolation method used : items for which estimations are made and assumptions on which these estimations are based
18.2.1. Time of the year where the updates of the EAA are carried out
Not applicable.
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 )
Not applicable.
18.3. Data collection
Data for Crop Production, Animal production and prices are obtained from internal units in Croatian Bureau of Statistics (Agricultural, Production and Structural Statistics Department; Animal Production, Forestry and Fisheries Statistics Unit; Economic Accounts in Agriculture and Forestry Department).
Data for subsidies are collected from administrative source Paying Agency.
18.4. Data validation
The main source of data is the Agricultural, Production and Structural Statistics Department and the Animal Production, Forestry and Fisheries Statistics Unit from CBS. We obtain data from them that have been validated.
18.5. Data compilation
Not applicable
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
Not applicable.
18.5.2. Calculation procedures
Please see the Calculation procedure for 1st estimates, 2nd estimates and full set of EAA in Annex 2 Methods for valuing EAA items.
18.6.2. Components of the Production account : Output
Not applicable
18.6.3. Components of the Production account : Intermediate consumption
Not applicable
18.6.4. Components of the Generation of income account
Not applicable
18.6.5. Components of the Entrepreneurial income account
Not applicable
18.6.6. Elements of the Capital account
Not applicable
The Economic Accounts for Agriculture (EAA) provide an overview of the agricultural activities in a systematic and comparable way to serve as basis for analyses, forecasts and political measures. The methodology is laid down in Annex I of the Regulation (EC) 138/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council. The EAA methodological manual provides further details and clarifications (LINK).
24 April 2026
The EAA are a satellite account of the 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 accounts:
the production account (its balancing item: value added)
the generation-of-income account (its balancing item: operating surplus).
Nevertheless EAA contains other accounts (of the ESA) at least partly:
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 of the agricultural sector: these include output, intermediate consumption, gross and net value added, gross fixed capital formation (GFCF), both at current prices and at reference year 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 at current prices. (see for more details points 1.40-1.48 in Annex I of Regulation (EC) 138/2004.)
Three income indicators are defined in the EAA:
Index of the real income of factors in agriculture per annual work unit (indicator A).
Index of real net agricultural entrepreneurial income per unpaid annual work unit (indicator B).
Net entrepreneurial income of agriculture (indicator C).
See for more details chapter 5 in Annex I of Regulation (EC) 138/2004.
The statistical unit is the local kind of activity unit.
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, institutional units are broken-down into smaller and more homogeneous units with regard to the kind of production (local kind-of-activity units/local KAUs) (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 is 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 is the local KAU most appropriate to the agricultural industry. However, 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 and the information required according to the explanations above is available. The adoption of the agricultural holding as the local KAU of the agricultural industry in the national accounts (NA) and EAA is based on a statistical approach. The speciality and the aim of EAA is to cover all agricultural activity carried out by an agricultural holding or any other local KAU not having agriculture as its main activity.
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 are only included if they cannot be separated from its agricultural activities.
The agricultural industry includes all local KAUs at local level which perform the economic activities, as principal or secondary activity corresponds to Division 01 in NACE Rev. 2 (cf. 1.60 to 1.66 of EAA Reg.)
The entire territory of the country.
2023 calendar year.
To describe accuracy, the country uses the quality and performance indicator called ‘data revision – average absolute size’ under point 17.2.1 of this document.
EAA data at current prices and at prices for the preceding year are given in millions of units of national currency.
Agricultural labour input data are given in thousand annual work units (AWU).
