INE (INSTITUTO NACIONAL DE ESTADÍSTICA)

Science and Technology Unit

Avenida de Manoteras 50-52

28050 Madrid

Data on the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) usage and e-commerce in enterprises are survey data. They are collected by the National Statistical Institutes or Ministries and are in principle based on Eurostat's annual model questionnaires on ICT usage and e-commerce in enterprises.

Large part of the data collected is used to measure the progress in the implementation of one of the main political priorities of the European Commission for 2019 to 2024 – A Europe fit for the digital age. Part of this is the "European strategy for data", envisioning a single market for data to ensure the EU's global competitiveness and data sovereignty, in which context a comprehensive set of new rules for all digital services was proposed: the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act, which are centrepieces of the EU digital strategy. Furthermore, the Commission and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy presented a new “EU cybersecurity strategy”, which is intended to bolster the EU's collective resilience against cyber threats, safeguard a global and open internet and protect EU values and the fundamental rights of its people. Furthermore, data will allow monitoring the progress towards  A Europe fit for the digital age, one of the six priorities for the period 2019-2024 of the von der Leyen European Commission.

The aim of the European survey on ICT usage and e-commerce in enterprises is to collect and disseminate harmonised and comparable information at European level.

 NACE Rev.2 2008

All economic activities in the scope of Annex I of the Commission Regulation are intended to be included in the general survey, covering enterprises with 10 or more employees and self-employed persons. These activities are: NACE Rev. 2 sections C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, L, M and N, division 95.1.

For micro-enterprises see the sub-concepts below.

The model questionnaire on ICT usage and e-commerce in enterprises provides a large variety of variables covering among others the following areas:

-          Access to and use of the Internet

-          E-commerce and e-business

-          Use of cloud computing services

-          Artificial Intelligence

-          Other topics: Data utilisation, sharing, analytics and trading, Invoicing.

The annual model questionnaires and the European businesses statistics compliers’ manual for ICT usage and e-commerce in enterprises comprise definitions and explanations regarding the topics of the survey.

The statistical unit is enterprise but the sampling and respondent unit is legal unit.

We consolidate data from legal units to enterprise using Eurostat rules. 

Target Population

As required by Annex of the Commission Implementing Regulation, enterprises with 10 or more employees and self-employed persons shall be covered by the survey.

For micro-enterprises see the sub-concepts below.

[0-2][3-9]

All national territory was considered. 

Data for a specific set of variables were delivered on NUTS 2 regional level.

Years 2022 and 2023.

Not applicable

Percentages of enterprises, Percentages of turnover, Percentages of employees and self-employed persons, Million euro.

The reference period is:

2022 for the % of sales data and where specified

Where not specified respondents should consider as reference their current situation (first quarter of 2023)

Complementary national legislation constituting the legal basis for the survey on the use of ICT in enterprises:

Statistical Law No. 12/1989 "Public Statistical Function" of May 9, 1989, (https://www.boe.es/buscar/doc.php?id=BOE-A-1989-10767) and Law No. 4/1990 of June 29 on “National Budget of State for the year 1990" amended by Law No. 13/1996 "Fiscal, administrative and social measures" of December 30, 1996, makes compulsory all statistics included in the National Statistics Plan. The National Statistical Plan 2009-2012 was approved by the Royal Decree 1663/2008. It contains the statistics that must be developed in the four year period by the State General Administration's services or any other entity dependent on it. All statistics included in the National Statistics Plan are statistics for state purposes and are obligatory. The National Statistics Plan 2021-2024, approved by Royal Decree 1110/2020, of 15  December, is the Plan currently implemented. This statistical operation has governmental purposes, and it is included in the National Statistics Plan 2021-2024 (https://www.boe.es/diario_boe/txt.php?id=BOE-A-2022-3056).

At national level:

The exchanges of information needed to elaborate statistics between the INE and the rest of the State statistical offices (Ministerial Departments, independent bodies and administrative bodies depending on the State General Administration), or between these offices and the Autonomic statistical offices, are regulated in the LFEP (Law of the Public Statistic Function). This law also regulates the mechanisms of statistical coordination, and concludes cooperation agreements between the different offices when necessary.

There are two types of agreement for the data distribution:

A. Framework Agreements between the INE and the statistics institutions of the Autonomous Communities.

Via said agreements, it is established that the INE will send the non-anonymised microdata file for their territorial area to those Autonomous Communities with which it has an agreement. Currently, this is sent to all of the Autonomous Communities, except Castilla y León, Ceuta,  Melilla and País Vasco.

B. Agreements between the INE and other public institutions.         

The agreement currently in force is the Ministry of Energy, Tourism and Digital Agenda, through of ONTSI.

At european level:

Implementation Act 2023:

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/1344 of 1 August 2022 laying down the technical specifications of data requirements for the topic 'ICT usage and e-commerce' for the reference year 2023, pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council

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.

At national level : 

The Statistical Law No. 12/1989 specifies that the INE cannot publish, or make otherwise available, individual data or statistics that would enable the identification of data for any individual person or entity. Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics 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

Data are transmitted via eDamis (encrypted) and delivered to a secure environment where they are treated. Flags are added for confidentiality in case results must not be disclosed.

At national level : 

INE provides information on the protection of confidentiality at all stages of the statistical process: INE questionnaires for the operations in the national statistical plan include a legal clause protecting data under statistical confidentiality. Notices prior to data collection announcing a statistical operation notify respondents that data are subject to statistical confidentiality at all stages. For data processing, INE employees have available the INE data protection handbook, which specifies the steps that should be taken at each stage of processing to ensure reporting units' individual data are protected. The microdata files provided to users are anonymised.

This statistical operation follows all of the guidelines referring to meeting and safeguarding statistical secrecy.

The calendar is disseminated on the INEs Internet website (Publications Calendar)

https://www.ine.es/en/daco/daco41/calen_en.htm

The data are released simultaneously according to the advance release calendar to all interested parties by issuing the press release. At the same time, the data are posted on the INE's Internet website (www.ine.es/en) almost immediately after the press release is issued. Also some predefined tailor-made requests are sent to registered users. Some users could receive partial information under embargo as it is publicly described in the European Statistics Code of Practice

Annual

National dissemination of results:

INE publishes a press release at 11:00 AM the day the figures are published (25-10-2023)

https://www.ine.es/en/prensa/tic_e_2022_2023_en.pdf

See detailed section 10.3.1.

Results for selected variables collected in the framework of this survey are available for all participating countries on Digital economy and society of Eurostat website.

At national level :

The data from this statistical operation may be viewed in INEbase, within the "INEbase /Science and Technology / New information and communication technologies" section in www.ine.es. More specifically, it may be viewed at the following link: https://www.ine.es/dyngs/INEbase/es/operacion.htm?c=Estadistica_C&cid=1254736176743&menu=ultiDatos&idp=1254735576692 the website with the database may be accessed. The structure of said database is as follows:


1. National results.

    Enterprises with 10 or more employees: E-commerce in 2022 for group of economic activity (except CNAE 56, 64-66 and 95.1) and size of the enterprise
    Enterprises with 10 or more employees: ICT usage in (first quarter 2023) for group of economic activity (except CNAE 56, 64-66 and 95.1) and size of the enterprise
    Enterprises with less than 10 employees: E-commerce in 2022
    Enterprises with less than 10 employees: ICT usage in the enterprises (first quarter of 2023)

2. Results by Autonomous City or Community.

    ICT usage in the enterprises with 10 or more employees (first quarter of 2023) by group of economic activity (except CNAE 56, 64-66 and 95.1) and size of the enterprise
    ICT usage in the enterprises with less than 10 employees  (first quarter of 2023)

3. Sampling errors

This Statistical Operation does not provide microdata files to any public or private institution, with the exception of the Statistics Institutes of the Autonomous Communities and Red.es. These mailings microdata files are regulated via Framework Agreements with the INE. These are provided the information from the statistics units with headquarters in any of the provinces comprising them.

There are current agreements with all of the Autonomous Communities, except Castilla y León, Ceuta, Melilla and País Vasco.

The microdata files are not send to the remaining private institutions. Nevertheless, tailor-made requests may be made of specific tabulations from said microdata file. Said tabulations are performed by the responsible department, and sent to the user, once the quote is accepted, in the case of there not being a partnership agreement between the INE and the requesting entity.  

Not requested

Not requested

The methodological manual describing the features of this statistical operation may be viewed at the following link:

https://www.ine.es/dyngs/INEbase/en/operacion.htm?c=Estadistica_C&cid=1254736176743&menu=ultiDatos&idp=1254735576799.

The questionnaires from the previous editions of this statistical operation may also be viewed at this link.

Not requested

INE publishes a Methodological Report at the same time that the publication is relesed in the following link

https://www.ine.es/dynt3/metadatos/en/RespuestaDatos.html?oe=30169

The European businesses statistics compliers’ manual for ICT usage and e-commerce in enterprises provides guidelines and standards for the implementation of the surveys. It is updated every year according to the changed contents of the model questionnaires.

At national level :

 Quality assurance framework for the INE statistics is based on the ESSCoP, the European Statistics Code of Practice made by EUROSTAT. The ESSCoP is made up of 16 principles, gathered in three areas: Institutional Environment, Processes and Products. Each principle is associated with some indicators which make possible to measure it. In order to evaluate quality, EUROSTAT provides different tools: the indicators mentioned above, Self-assessment based on the DESAP model, peer review, user satisfaction surveys and other proceedings for evaluation.

The compilation process of this statistical operation has established controls in the information collection process to detect and correct errors, for the purpose of guaranteeing their quality. Said controls are implemented in the computer application that enables respondents to fill in the questionnaire online. This means guarantees that the information arrives, at an individual level, without response coherence errors or magnitude aggregation errors. In addition, once the information is received in the unit responsible for this statistical operation, the data from the specific respondent units is compared with the item of data from the stratum to which they belong.

European level :

At European level, the recommended use of the annual Eurostat model questionnaire aims at improving comparability of the results among the countries that conduct the survey on ICT usage and e-commerce in enterprises. Moreover, the Methodological Manual provides guidelines and clarifications for the implementation of the surveys.

National level :

Main strengths:

. Timing: the survey is collected in the first quarter of the reference year and published in October of that same year, being one of the fastest structural surveys of the INE in this regard.

. Response rate: since the survey is collected through the Iria web portal, the response rate is usually very high. This allows us to have very low sampling errors in general, which affects the accuracy of the data.

. Flexibility: This survey changes a lot from year to year as technologies change. This survey is designed to collect all the technologies that are contemplated by Eurostat, as well as the technologies that are suggested to us by other national agents.

Qualitative improvements:

. The strong point about flexibility creates a problem: the questionnaire can be too long if you try to cover too many technologies in the questionnaire. It is difficult to balance the number of questions to ask, therefore every year it is necessary to decide on which technologies to include and discard in the questionnaire, in consensus with all the agents involved (Eurostat, national agents, INE's own needs ...)

. Complicated terms: many terms in the questionnaire are very complicated for informants in general, so it is always tried to include clarifications, definitions, annexes ... within the questionnaire to clarify these terms.

European level : 

At European level, European Commission users (e.g. DG CNECT, DG GROW, DG JUST, DG REGIO, DG JRC) are the principal users of the data on ICT usage and e-commerce in enterprises and contribute in identifying/defining the topics to be covered. Hence, main users are consulted regularly (at hearings, task forces, ad hoc meetings) for their needs and are involved in the process of the development of the model questionnaires at a very early stage.

User needs are considered throughout the whole discussion process of the model questionnaires aiming at providing relevant statistical data for monitoring and benchmarking of European policies.

National level :

Main users are Regional Statistical Institute of Galicia and ONTSI. They include questions in the national questionnaire to get specific indicators.
On the other hand, this statistical operation provides relevant information on the Information Society for public/private entities according to requests as they are made.

European level : 

At European level, contacts within the Commission, the OECD and other stakeholders give a clear picture about the key users' satisfaction as to the following data quality aspects: accuracy and reliability of results, timeliness, satisfactory accessibility, clarity and comparability over time and between countries, completeness and relevance. Overall users have evaluated positively (good, very good) the data quality on the ICT usage and e-commerce in enterprises.

National level :

The INE has carried out general user satisfaction surveys in 2007, 2010, 2013,  2016 and 2019 and it plans to continue doing so every three years. The purpose of these surveys is to find out what users think about the quality of the information of the INE statistics and the extent to which their needs of information are covered. In addition, additional surveys are carried out in order to acknowledge better other fields such as dissemination of the information, quality of some publications...

On the INE website, in its section Methods and Projects / Quality and Code of Practice / INE quality management / User surveys are available surveys conducted to date. (https://www.ine.es/ss/Satellite?c=Page&pagename=MetodologiaYEstandares%2FINELayout&cid=1259944133654&L=1) 

 The specific needs of users are borne in mind, so long as methodological revisions of the survey are carried out. In this way, and based on the regulation governing it, the content thereof is adapted as much as possible to the specific requirements of its users, increasing their satisfaction levels.

In the User Satisfaction Surveys conducted to date, it is possible to view the evaluation of the sector Sciencie and Technology in which this statistical operation is centred, which can help direct us with regard to user opinions of it.

Detailed information is available in “ Annex I _ Completeness “ excel file - related to questionnaire, coverage, additional questions.

Not requested. 

Comments on reliability and representativeness of results and completeness of dataset

These comments reflect overall standard errors reported for the indicators and breakdowns in section 13.2.1 (Sampling error - indicators) and the rest of the breakdowns for national and European aggregates, as well as other accuracy measurements. The estimated standard error should not exceed 2pp for the overall proportions and should not exceed 5pp for the proportions related to the different subgroups of the population (for those NACE aggregates for the calculation and dissemination of national aggregates). If problems were found, these could have implications for future surveys (e.g. need to improve sampling design, to increase sample sizes, to increase the response rates).

More detailed information is available in “ Annex II. _ Accuracy “ excel file - related to European aggregates, comments on reliability and use of flag.

For calculation of the standard error see 13.2.1.1.

Standard error (for selected indicators and breakdowns)

Precision measures related to variability due to sampling, unit non-response (the size of the subset of respondents is smaller than the size of the original sample) and other (imputation for item non-response, calibration etc.) are not (yet) required from the Member states for all indicators.  Eurostat will make basic assumptions to compute these measures for all indicators produced (e.g. stratified random sampling assuming as strata the crossing of the variables “Number of employees and self-employed persons” and “Economic Activity” as it was defined in the 3 tables of section 18.1).

More detailed information is available in“ Sample and standard error tables 2023 “ excel file – worksheets starting with “Standard error".

Calculation of the standard error

Various methods can be used for the calculation of the standard error for an estimated proportion. The aim is to incorporate into the standard error the sampling variability but also variability due to unit non-response, item non-response (imputation), calibration etc. In case of census / take-all strata, the aim is to calculate the standard errors comprising the variability due to unit non-response and item non-response.

See detailed sections below.

See concept 18.1.1. A) Description of  frame population.

A2 (enterprises with less than 10 persons employed)= 6.1%

A2 (enterprises with 10 or more persons employed)= 1.6%

Not requested

 No measurement errors detected

See detailed sections below.

See detailed sub-concepts below.

The following table contains the number of units (i.e. enterprises), by type of response to the survey and by the percentage of these values in relation to the gross sample size.

If all Legal Units of the sample belonging to a SUE are missing, the LeU and SUE are represented by weight factors.

If a SUE has any LeU in the sample and at least one LeU has responded, the other LeUs of the SUE are imputed.

Procedure for imputation:

There are two cases:

- Legal Unit is in the sample: we impute it with closets neighbour techniques

- Legal Unit is not in the sample:

1. We make a cluster with LeUs with the same NUTS2, size main activity and type (non-market producer7 market producer) of LeU.

2. We take a random LeU in the same cluster the LeU to impute: qualitative variables are imputed with their values and quantitative variables are imputed with the value of the median or mean value if there is any rule between values (e.g.: B2C+B2B+B2G=100%).

3. If there is not LeU in the cluster we need, we delete type of LeU condition; if there ie not LeU, discard NUTS2; if ther is not LeU, we eliminate size condition.

Not available

See 18.5.1

For each questionnaire used in the tabulation, each non-response item is imputed, so A5=A7

Other comments relating to the item non-response

No processing errors detected

Not requested

See detailed section below.

Not applicable

European level : 

Data are to be delivered to Eurostat in the fourth quarter of the reference year (due date for the finalised dataset is 5th October). European results are released before the end of the survey year or in the beginning of the year following the survey year (T=reference year, T+0 for indicators referring to the current year, T+12 months for other indicators referring to the previous year e.g. e-commerce).

At national level : 

The results of this statistical operation are published at the end of the second quarter of the year in which the information is collected, with a 6-month deadline as a maximum.

According to the above, the punctuality indicator value of the statistical operations that measures the period of time between the end of the reference period (31 March) and the publication date of the final results is 6,7 months. There are no preview results in this statistical operation, and therefore, the publication of said results is always finals.

 See detailed section below.

At national level, the publication of results of this statistical operation is always carried out  on the date established in the INE dissemination calendar (25-10-2023).

Data first delivery was submitted to Eurostat 02-10-2023

The model questionnaire is generally used by the countries that conduct the survey on ICT usage and e-commerce in enterprises. Due to (small) differences in translation, in the used survey vehicle, in non-response treatment or different routing through the questionnaire, some results for some countries may be of reduced comparability. In these cases, notes are added in the data.

Detailed information on differences in the wording of the questions in the national questionnaires is available in “ Annex I _ Completeness “ excel file - related to questionnaire, coverage, additional questions.

Data for specific set of variables were delivered on NUTS 2 regional level. There is no problem of comparability across the country’s regions.

Not applicable

See section below.

The length of comparable time series depends on the module and the variable considered within each survey module. Additional information is available in annexes attached to the European metadata.

Since the reference year 2022-2023, only the version based on Statistical enterprises will prevail

Length of the comparable time series under the Statistical Unit Enterprise approach: CC2=2, because it is the second year we publish under the Statistical Unit Enterprise approach

Not applicable

 Not applicable

Not applicable

Not applicable

Advanced results are not published in this statistical operation. The results published are final, and not subject to any revision.

 Not requested

A) Frame population description and distribution

For more information see concept 18.1.1.

B) Sampling design - Sampling method

Description of the sampling method used (e.g. stratified random sample, quota sampling, cluster sampling; one-stage or two-stage sampling) and information which variables were used to stratify, the categories of those variables, in particular for the NACE Rev. 2 categories related to the "possible calculation of European aggregates", and the final number of strata: 

According to the frame population (extracted from the DIRCE), the legal units are stratified by crossing the following variables: size, economic activity and location.

In every stratum, a systematic selection randomly started is executed, sorting out the legal units by size and location.

The categories of the variables used to stratify are: 
- size:
[0 to 2] and [3 to 9] employees and self-employed persons 
[10 to 19], [20 to 49], [50 to 99], [100 to 199],[200 to 499] and 500 or more (for legal units with 10 or more  employees and self-employed persons)

-main activity:

For legal units with less than 10  employees and self-employed persons the aggregations of NACE classification is as followed:
10 -39
41 -43
45
46
47
49 -53
55
56
58 -63
68 + 69 -75+ 77+78+80-82
79+95.1

For legal units with 10 or more  employees and self-employed persons the aggregations of NACE classification as followed:
10 - 18
19 - 23
24 - 25
26 - 33
35 - 39
41 - 43
45
46
47
49 -53
55
56
58 -63
68
69 -75
77-82

26.1 - 26.4, 26.8, 46.5, 58.2, 61, 62, 63.1, 95.1

- Region: All Spanish regions (19) are covered.

The total number of initial strata for the general questionnaire is 1.938 (17*6*19), including empty strata for legal units with 10 or more  employees and self-employed persons and 418
(11*2*19) for legal units with less than 10  employees and self-employed persons (following NACE rev.2).

The survey is carried out alone.

C) Gross sample distribution

More detailed information is available in “ Sample and standard error tables 2023  “ excel file (Worksheet: GROSS SAMPLE)

D) Net sample distribution

More detailed information is available in “ Sample and standard error tables 2023  “ excel file (Worksheet: NET SAMPLE)

Note: In some cases there are more units in the net sample than in the gross sample due to changes in stratum of some units.

A) Description of frame population

 B) Frame population distribution

More detailed information is available in “ Sample and standard error tables 2023  “ excel file (Worksheet: FRAME POPULATION)

Annual

See detailed sections below.

We use a web questionnaire to collect the data. If there are mistakes or a large difference between the time series in the final questionnaire, an agent contacts with the respondents by telephone to request the right information.
Moreover, enterprises can call to a free-charge telephone line to get clarification of the questions and to be helped with the filling out of the questionnaire.
In all cases there is a system of reminders, including letters and phone calls. The survey is mandatory and enterprises can be penalized in case of no response.

Grossing-up procedures

For the elaboration of the ICT SURVEY under the 'Statistical enterprise' approach, a method has been developed that is based on the following steps, each of which is described in more detail in the ICT SURVEY Methodology document available on the INE website together to the statistical results of the operation.

1. Delineation of the Statistical enterprises that operate in business groups through the so-called Profiling methodology and classification of the Legal Units that compose them (see details in section 3.3 of the ICT SURVEY Methodology )
2. Adequacy of the sample design and the information collection phase (see details in sections 5 and 6 of the ICT SURVEY Methodology ).
3. Aggregation of the Legal Units that make up each Sample Statistical enterprise and study of the combinations of typologies of said Legal Units (see details in section 7.2.1 of the ICT SURVEY Methodology ).
4. Consolidation for sample Statistical enterprises formed by more than one Legal Unit and containing relationships between them. For these enterprises, the flows between their Legal Units are identified to proceed with the cancellation of intra-enterprise transactions (see details in section 7.2.2 of the ICT Survey Methodology ).
5. Construction of the complete statistics, based on Statistical enterprises, whether they are independent Legal Units or enterprises of business groups (see details in section 7.2.3 of the ICT SURVEY Methodology ).

The essential idea is that if the Legal Units of a Statistical enterprise serve, exclusively or mainly, other Legal Units of the same enterprise (for example, because they sell products under a vertical integration of the production process or provide services as an auxiliary relationship) , said servile Legal Units must be combined with the others to which they support to form the authentic statistical unit "enterprise", therefore having to combine and consolidate the corresponding variables.

A7 (% of e-commerce sales)=0.15%

A7 (% of the total number of persons employed who have access to the Internet for business purposes)=0.08%

Not applicable

Not applicable

Problems encountered and lessons to be learnt: