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.
DCSE - Central Directorate for Economic Statistics SEC - Structural Statistics Service on Enterprises, Public Institutions and Non-Profit
1.3. Contact name
Confidential because of GDPR
1.4. Contact person function
Confidential because of GDPR
1.5. Contact mail address
Via Tuscolana n.1788, 00173 Roma
1.6. Contact email address
Confidential because of GDPR
1.7. Contact phone number
Confidential because of GDPR
1.8. Contact fax number
Confidential because of GDPR
2.1. Metadata last certified
30 October 2025
2.2. Metadata last posted
30 October 2025
2.3. Metadata last update
30 October 2025
3.1. Data description
Foreign Affiliates Statistics (FATS) measure the commercial presence through affiliates in foreign markets.
In country-level business statisticsoutward foreign affiliates statistics (OFATS) describe the activity of domestic affiliates of every resident ultimate controlling institutional unit which has at least one foreign affiliate and the activity of foreign-controlling enterprises resident in the compiling country (Table 15 of the EBS Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197).
In statistics on international activities outward foreign affiliates statistics (OFATS) describe the activity of foreign affiliates abroad ultimately controlled by an institutional unit resident in the compiling country (Table 33 of the EBS Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197).
Variables on country-level business activities in the OFATS data category:
Number of foreign-controlling enterprises (UCI concept) and domestic affiliates
Number of employees and self-employed persons in foreign-controlling enterprises (UCI concept) and domestic affiliates
Net turnover of foreign-controlling enterprises (UCI concept) and domestic affiliates
Variables on the international activities in the OFATS data category:
Number of enterprises abroad ultimately controlled by institutional units of the reporting country
Number of employees and self-employed persons in enterprises abroad ultimately controlled by institutional units of the reporting country
Employee benefits expense in enterprises abroad ultimately controlled by institutional units of the reporting country
Gross investment in tangible non-current assets of enterprises abroad ultimately controlled by institutional units of the reporting country
Net turnover of enterprises abroad ultimately controlled by institutional units of the reporting country
3.2. Classification system
Classification systems used in the FATS are as follows:
Market producers of NACE Sections B to N and P to S.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
In country-level business statisticsOutward Foreign Affiliates Statistics (OFATS) describe the activity of domestic affiliates of every resident ultimate controlling institutional unit which has at least one foreign affiliate and the activity of foreign-controlling enterprises resident in the compiling country (Table 15 of the EBS Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197).
In statistics on international activities Outward Foreign Affiliates Statistics (OFATS) describe the activity of foreign affiliates abroad ultimately controlled by an institutional unit resident in the compiling country (Table 33 of the EBS Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197).
Foreign affiliate in the framework of outward FATS is an enterprise or branch not resident in the compiling country over which an institutional unit resident in the compiling country has ultimate (direct or indirect) control.
Domestic affiliate shall mean an enterprise resident in the compiling country over which a UCI resident in the same compiling country has control.
Ultimate Controlling Institutional of a foreign affiliate (UCI) shall mean the institutional unit, proceeding up a foreign affiliate’s chain of control, which is not controlled by another institutional unit.
Control is the ability to determine the general policy of the affiliate by choosing appropriate directors, if necessary. In this context, enterprise A is deemed to be controlled by an institutional unit B when B controls, whether directly or indirectly, more than half of the shareholders' voting power or more than half of the shares.
Indirect control means that an institutional unit may have control through another affiliate which has control over enterprise A.
Active enterprise is a statistical units which at any time during the reference period was ‘enterprise’, as defined in Regulation (EEC) No 696/93, and also active during the same reference period. A statistical unit is considered to have been active during the reference period if, in said period, it either realized positive net turnover or produced outputs or had employees or performed investments.
Employees and self-employed persons are persons who work for an observation unit on the basis of a contract of employment and receives compensation in the form of wages, salaries, fees, gratuities, piecework pay or remuneration in kind; and persons who are the sole owners or joint owners of the statistical unit in which they work. Family workers and outworkers, whose income is a function of the value of the outputs of the statistical unit, are also included.
Employee benefits expense contains all expenses arising in relation with employee benefits, recognized by the statistical unit during the reference period. Those are are all forms of consideration given by the statistical unit in exchange for service rendered by employees or for the termination of employment.
Gross investment in tangible non-current assets includes all additions to tangible non-current assets, recognized as such by the statistical unit during the reference period, except any increases from revaluations or reversals of previously recognized impairment losses and from reclassifications (transfers) of other tangible non-current assets.
Net turnover consists of all income arising during the reference period in the course of ordinary activities of the statistical unit, and is presented net of all price reductions, discounts and rebates granted by it.
Description of the coverage of Special Purpose Entities (SPE): In line with the EBS compilers manual for FATS, the questionnaire asks you to indicate the SPEs among the subsidiaries resident abroad
The statistical unit of FATS is the enterprise as defined in line with the Regulation (EEC) No 696/93 on the statistical units for the observation and analysis of the production system in the Community.
3.6. Statistical population
Market producers of NACE Sections B to N and P to S (for the EBS Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197 table 15) and market producers of NACE Sections B to N and P to S abroad (should cover the foreign affiliates of all ultimate controlling institutional units of the reporting country) (for the EBS Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197 table 33).
3.7. Reference area
Italy
3.8. Coverage - Time
2007-2023.
From 2007 to 2020 the data are per legal unit, from 2021 they are per enterprise
3.9. Base period
Not applicable
Number of enterprises and employment variables are recorded in absolute figures.
Monetary data of enterprises are recorded in thousands Euro
2023
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice, ISTAT disseminates national OFATS statistics on ISTAT website respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably.
Annual
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
The news release will be published on the Istat website on 11 November 2025
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
Statistical yearbooks will be published on the Istat website in 2026
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
Online database is not available
10.3.1. Data tables - consultations
Not available
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
After the pubblication of the news release the microdata will be available at the laboratory ADELE respecting the access protocol.
In addition to dissemination at national level, the data was sent to Eurostat on 7 august 2025
10.5.1. Metadata - consultations
Not available
10.6. Documentation on methodology
Methodological documents will be available with the pubblication of the news release.
10.6.1. Metadata completeness - rate
Not available
10.7. Quality management - documentation
Not available
11.1. Quality assurance
Not available
11.2. Quality management - assessment
Not available
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Users of OFATS are: Internal users, European Commission services, international organisations, ministries, chambers of commerce, trade unions, journalists, researchers etc. User needs go beyond what data compilers can provide.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Not available
12.3. Completeness
Data are completed
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
Please see Table 12.3.1 in the Annex at the bottom.
13.1.3. Comments on the Extra EU-27 not allocated and on the Activity “not allocated”
We have no cases
13.1.4. UCI Approach applied to identify the relevant population of reporting units
UCI Approach applied to identify the relevant population of reporting units is in line with the definitions of EBS compilers manual for FATS.
In order to identify the relevant target population for the Outward FATS survey, we have used business register (BR and EGR) and administrative data. Balance sheet data, integrated with BR and EGR information, permit to identify all resident companies with at leats one foreign affiliate abroad. It is not possible to calculate the exact percentages of contributions from each source.
13.1.5. Update date (or frequency of updates) of the information regarding the country of the UCI by the “source administration”
In October of each year the survey starts with reference year t-9. Therefore in September of each year we update the frame with information from the balance sheet, BR, EGR and profiling with reference year t-8.
13.2. Sampling error
This is a census survey
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
This is a census survey
13.3. Non-sampling error
There are various procedures to minimize non-sampling erorr
13.3.1. Coverage error
Not relevant, frame population and the target population do not diverge as we use all the sources at our disposal (business register, EGR, balance sheet etc.) to identify the target population
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
Not relevant
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
All the survey units are present in the administrative sources
13.3.1.3. Misclassification errors
Not relevant, companies correctly reply to the questionnaire
13.3.1.4. Under- and over-coverage problems
Not relevant, companies correctly reply to the questionnaire
13.3.2. Measurement error
Not relevant, companies correctly reply to the questionnaire
13.3.3. Non response error
Unit non-response occurs when not all the reporting units in the sample participate in the survey.
Item non-response occurs when a respondent provides some, but not all, of the information requested or if the information reported is unusable (note that entirely unusable questionnaires are already counted in the unit non-response).
OFATS statistics are calculated annually for reference year T.
Data collection takes place at t+9 months after the end of the reference period.
Data transmission to Eurostat takes place at t+20 months.
Data dissemination at national level takes place at t+23 months.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
First dissemination is the delivery to Eurostat at t+20
First e final dissemination at the nationa level is only one and takes place at t+23 months. There is only one dissemination
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
First e final dissemination at the nationa level is only one and takes place at t+23 months. There is only one dissemination
14.2. Punctuality
The punctuality of the data collection and dissemination was respected
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
Dissemination of OFATS 2022 final data to Eurostat was on 7 August 2025 (23 days before 31st August 2025, the target date).
National dissemination of OFATS 2023 on 11th November 2025 (expected date).
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Not applicable
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable
15.2. Comparability - over time
Length of time series: 2007-2023
Length of comparable time series:
2007-2020
2021 onwards
Data from 2021 onwards are not comparable to data in previous years due the introductiom of the enterprise as a statistical unit. In previous years the legal unit was used
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
Length of time series: 2007-2023
Length of comparable time series:
2007-2020;
2021 onwards.
Data from 2021 onwards are not comparable to data in previous years due the introductiom of the enterprise as a statistical unit. In previous years the legal unit was used
15.2.2. Reasons and differences in concepts and measurement methods for breaks in time series
Data from 2021 onwards are not comparable to data in previous years due the introductiom of the enterprise as a statistical unit. In previous years the legal unit was used
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Not applicable
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
Not applicable
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
Not applicable
15.3.3. Coherence – Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
Not applicable. The Outward FATS survey was carried out by ISTAT independently from the FDI survey framework, set up and maintained by the Bank of Italy.
15.3.4. Coherence – EuroGroups Register (EGR)
Not available
15.4. Coherence - internal
Not aplicable
Not available
17.1. Data revision - policy
No revisions were necessary, if they are needed we do them to improve the quality of the data
No revisions of data. Data delivered are definitive
18.1. Source data
In order to identify the relevant target population for the Outward FATS survey, survey data, business register (BR and EGR) and administrative data. Balance sheet data, integrated with BR and EGR information, permit to identify all resident companies with at leats one foreign affiliate abroad.
It is not possible to estimate the share of each source
18.1.1. Methodological approach
The survey is census survey, is compulsory and the legal basis are National statistc programme
In October of each year the survey starts with reference year t-9. Therefore in September of each year we update the frame with information from the balance sheet, BR, EGR and profiling with reference year t-8.
18.1.2. Use of cut-off thresholds
No
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Annual
18.3. Data collection
Data is collected through an electronic questionnaire to minimize non-sampling errors..The electronic questionnaire has numerous controls to ensure the data entered is accurate.
Source to define your population: It is not possible to estimate the share of each source
… % census survey
0% sample survey
0% Structural Business Statistics (SBS)
0% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
… % EuroGroups Register (EGR)
… % Statistical Business Register (SBR)
… % Administrative sources
.....% Private data sources
0% Publicly available sources
0% Other data sources (indication of the sources: ...)
Economic data obtained using:
98% census survey
0% sample survey
0% Structural Business Statistics (SBS)
0% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
0% EuroGroups Register (EGR)
0% Statistical Business Register (SBR)
0% Administrative sources
2% Private data sources (Orbis)
0% Publicly available sources
0% Other data sources (indication of the sources: ...)
18.4. Data validation
After the sarvey is closed, quality checks are carried out, in particular the main multinational groups are all checked. The other groups are analyzed if they present a change in data of 5% compared to the previous year and with balance sheet.
The sources used for data validation are survey data from the previous year and balce sheet data.
18.5. Data compilation
The data is collected with an electronic questionnaire in order to minimize any compilation errors. Various actions are taken to minimize non-responses.
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
Not available
18.5.2. Use of a method to deal with non-response (both unit and item non-response)
An integrated approach involving the use of various methods is used.
The ORBIS database was successfully used to integrate unit and item non response with respect to key Italian MNEs depending on this international data source coverage by country and industry.
Item non response problems (limited to the turnover variable) were collected using standard donor system.
Unit non response is used imputation based on available information from previous reference periods. Furthermore Unit non response problems were emended using a weighting procedure. Strata defined to built the set of weights consider both respondent characteristics (economic size and main economic activity of the enterprise group) and foreign affiliate characteristics (number of foreign affiliates for each respondent and their distriubution by geografica areas).
18.5.3. Share of estimated values
For top Italian MNEs the share is 0%. For medium-large size businesses is about 2%
Foreign Affiliates Statistics (FATS) measure the commercial presence through affiliates in foreign markets.
In country-level business statisticsoutward foreign affiliates statistics (OFATS) describe the activity of domestic affiliates of every resident ultimate controlling institutional unit which has at least one foreign affiliate and the activity of foreign-controlling enterprises resident in the compiling country (Table 15 of the EBS Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197).
In statistics on international activities outward foreign affiliates statistics (OFATS) describe the activity of foreign affiliates abroad ultimately controlled by an institutional unit resident in the compiling country (Table 33 of the EBS Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197).
Variables on country-level business activities in the OFATS data category:
Number of foreign-controlling enterprises (UCI concept) and domestic affiliates
Number of employees and self-employed persons in foreign-controlling enterprises (UCI concept) and domestic affiliates
Net turnover of foreign-controlling enterprises (UCI concept) and domestic affiliates
Variables on the international activities in the OFATS data category:
Number of enterprises abroad ultimately controlled by institutional units of the reporting country
Number of employees and self-employed persons in enterprises abroad ultimately controlled by institutional units of the reporting country
Employee benefits expense in enterprises abroad ultimately controlled by institutional units of the reporting country
Gross investment in tangible non-current assets of enterprises abroad ultimately controlled by institutional units of the reporting country
Net turnover of enterprises abroad ultimately controlled by institutional units of the reporting country
30 October 2025
In country-level business statisticsOutward Foreign Affiliates Statistics (OFATS) describe the activity of domestic affiliates of every resident ultimate controlling institutional unit which has at least one foreign affiliate and the activity of foreign-controlling enterprises resident in the compiling country (Table 15 of the EBS Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197).
In statistics on international activities Outward Foreign Affiliates Statistics (OFATS) describe the activity of foreign affiliates abroad ultimately controlled by an institutional unit resident in the compiling country (Table 33 of the EBS Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197).
Foreign affiliate in the framework of outward FATS is an enterprise or branch not resident in the compiling country over which an institutional unit resident in the compiling country has ultimate (direct or indirect) control.
Domestic affiliate shall mean an enterprise resident in the compiling country over which a UCI resident in the same compiling country has control.
Ultimate Controlling Institutional of a foreign affiliate (UCI) shall mean the institutional unit, proceeding up a foreign affiliate’s chain of control, which is not controlled by another institutional unit.
Control is the ability to determine the general policy of the affiliate by choosing appropriate directors, if necessary. In this context, enterprise A is deemed to be controlled by an institutional unit B when B controls, whether directly or indirectly, more than half of the shareholders' voting power or more than half of the shares.
Indirect control means that an institutional unit may have control through another affiliate which has control over enterprise A.
Active enterprise is a statistical units which at any time during the reference period was ‘enterprise’, as defined in Regulation (EEC) No 696/93, and also active during the same reference period. A statistical unit is considered to have been active during the reference period if, in said period, it either realized positive net turnover or produced outputs or had employees or performed investments.
Employees and self-employed persons are persons who work for an observation unit on the basis of a contract of employment and receives compensation in the form of wages, salaries, fees, gratuities, piecework pay or remuneration in kind; and persons who are the sole owners or joint owners of the statistical unit in which they work. Family workers and outworkers, whose income is a function of the value of the outputs of the statistical unit, are also included.
Employee benefits expense contains all expenses arising in relation with employee benefits, recognized by the statistical unit during the reference period. Those are are all forms of consideration given by the statistical unit in exchange for service rendered by employees or for the termination of employment.
Gross investment in tangible non-current assets includes all additions to tangible non-current assets, recognized as such by the statistical unit during the reference period, except any increases from revaluations or reversals of previously recognized impairment losses and from reclassifications (transfers) of other tangible non-current assets.
Net turnover consists of all income arising during the reference period in the course of ordinary activities of the statistical unit, and is presented net of all price reductions, discounts and rebates granted by it.
Description of the coverage of Special Purpose Entities (SPE): In line with the EBS compilers manual for FATS, the questionnaire asks you to indicate the SPEs among the subsidiaries resident abroad
The statistical unit of FATS is the enterprise as defined in line with the Regulation (EEC) No 696/93 on the statistical units for the observation and analysis of the production system in the Community.
Market producers of NACE Sections B to N and P to S (for the EBS Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197 table 15) and market producers of NACE Sections B to N and P to S abroad (should cover the foreign affiliates of all ultimate controlling institutional units of the reporting country) (for the EBS Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197 table 33).
Italy
2023
Data is accurate
Number of enterprises and employment variables are recorded in absolute figures.
Monetary data of enterprises are recorded in thousands Euro
The data is collected with an electronic questionnaire in order to minimize any compilation errors. Various actions are taken to minimize non-responses.
In order to identify the relevant target population for the Outward FATS survey, survey data, business register (BR and EGR) and administrative data. Balance sheet data, integrated with BR and EGR information, permit to identify all resident companies with at leats one foreign affiliate abroad.
It is not possible to estimate the share of each source
Annual
OFATS statistics are calculated annually for reference year T.
Data collection takes place at t+9 months after the end of the reference period.
Data transmission to Eurostat takes place at t+20 months.
Data dissemination at national level takes place at t+23 months.
Not applicable
Length of time series: 2007-2023
Length of comparable time series:
2007-2020
2021 onwards
Data from 2021 onwards are not comparable to data in previous years due the introductiom of the enterprise as a statistical unit. In previous years the legal unit was used
