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.
Enforcement of immigration legislation data (EIL statistics) contain statistical information based on Article 5 and 7 of the Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 as amended by the Regulation (EU) 2020/851 with reference to third-country nationals:
refused entry at the external border,
found to be illegally present,
ordered to leave,
returned following an order to leave.
3.2. Classification system
See table 3.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables EIL 2024’.
3.3. Coverage - sector
Migration and asylum – Enforcement of Immigration Legislation statistics.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
See table 3.4. in annex ‘Quality report tables EIL 2024’.
3.5. Statistical unit
Number of persons
3.6. Statistical population
See table 3.6. in annex ‘Quality report tables EIL 2024’.
3.7. Reference area
Denmark
3.8. Coverage - Time
See table 3.8. in annex ‘Quality report tables EIL 2024’.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
Number of persons
Calendar quarter and calendar year.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
Compilation of statistics on asylum applications is based on Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 and amending Regulation (EU) 2020/852, which depicts in detail the data provisions Member States are bound to supply Eurostat with.
The law on Statistics Denmark, "Bekendtgørelse af lov om Danmarks Statistik", LBK nr 610 of 30 May 2018, is the main national legal act regarding official national and international statistics.
All statistics on asylum are collected and processed by the statistical unit at the Danish Immigration Service. The unit provides statistics on behalf of all migration authorities in Denmark including the Ministry of Immigration and Integration.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Not applicable.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)), 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 general information security and data confidentiality of Statistics Denmark can be found here: Information security and data confidentiality - Statistics Denmark (dst.dk).
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
The Danish Immigration Service treats personal information in line with the General Data Protection Regulation, supplemented by the national "Databeskyttelsesloven" LOV 289 of 08 March 2024. More information on processing of personal data can be found here: New to Denmark (nyidanmark.dk).
8.1. Release calendar
Statistical information is published in accordance with an approved release calendar.
Apart from providing data on Enforcement of Immigrationn Legislature statistics to Eurostat, the Danish Immigration Service monthly and yearly publications in Danish on its website: Tal og statistik (us.dk). A release calendar can be found under each publication.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
Ad-hoc press releases are usually published by the Ministry of Immigration and Integration.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
Monthly and yearly publications are released on the website of the Danish Immigration Service: Tal og statistik (us.dk) (in Danish).
In regards to data from the Danish immigrations authorities, data checks and data validation are performed regularly. The Statistical Unit is in constant contact with the specialist offices for consultation on suspicious/unusual registrations (outliers or obvious mistakes such as a negative age) and feedback on the plausibility of the numbers. Case managers have access to statistics with a delay of maximum one day and can thereby follow the development of the numbers almost in real time. Finally, there are more extensive checks performed at the end of a year and in connection with regular publications, such as the delivery of data to Eurostat.
In regards to data from the Danish National Police (NUC), data checks and data validation are performed regularly. The statistical unit fill in the Eurostat templates with the data provided.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
Enforcement of Immigration Legislature statistics are based on administrative sources which allows a good quality of the data.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Users of Eurostat Enforecement of Immigration Legislature statistics are:
Various policy DGs in the European Commission, like DG Migration and Home Affairs for designing, funding and implementing enforecement of immigration legislature related policies in the EU,
European Parliament,
national authorities (Ministries of Interior, Ministries of Justice, immigration agencies) who use data to monitor or project the development of their national enforcement of immigration legislature procedures,
researchers and students conducting analysis and research in the field,
journalists and international organisations in the area of migration.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
The Danish Immigration Service does not conduct user satisfaction surveys per se. Instead, the user satisfaction is monitored on a constant way through informal and formal contacts and communications with users and through requests and comments received by users.
12.3. Completeness
See table 12.3. in annex ‘Quality report tables EIL 2024’.
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
Not applicable.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
The overall accuracy is high.
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
See table 13.3.1. in annex ‘Quality report tables EIL 2024’.
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
Not applicable.
13.3.2. Measurement error
The only errors can come from recording errors (erroneous variable or missing data).
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
For quarterly data it takes around 2 weeks before the data for the previous month gets published on us.dk and sent to Eurostat.
For yearly data the Danish Immigration Service performs a Data Freeze in the beginning of February and after a period of data checks it gets sent to Eurostat in March.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
Not applicable.
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
Not applicable.
14.2. Punctuality
See table 14.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables EIL 2024’.
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
Not applicable.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
There is only one national system responsible for accumulating and processing the data.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
See table 15.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables EIL 2024’.
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
Not applicable.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
See table 15.3. in annex ‘Quality report tables EIL 2024’.
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
There are differences between subannula and annual statistics due to corrections and subsequent deliveries.
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
Not applicable.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Statistics are consistent between the same datasets.
Not applicable.
17.1. Data revision - policy
The data material undergoes validation on a regular basis. The Danish Immigration Service will send revised data to Eurostat if significant changes occur.
17.2. Data revision - practice
See table 17.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables EIL 2024’.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
Not applicable.
18.1. Source data
See table 18.1. in annex ‘Quality report tables EIL 2024’.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Continuous registrations.
18.3. Data collection
By default, the Danish Immigration Service and the Danish Return Agency record administrative data.
The collected data of the original electronic file system is transferred to the data warehouse overnight in the form of statistic-relevant data records. Each data record is clearly identifiable via the person id already assigned in advance.
Exception: Table Y1 is collected via the Danish Police.
18.4. Data validation
The statistics are carried out annually as a complete survey on the basis of an electronic file system. Consequently, sample-related errors are excluded. The input data is continuously validated during the process and subjected to a plausibility check. Errors due to incorrect information in the input data cannot be ruled out. As a result, the results of the asylum business statistics are generally of high significance, quality and validity.
18.5. Data compilation
The processing and compilation of the asylum statistics are solely based on administrative records – from ECDH. As a main rule, the compilation of statistics is based on figures directly retrieved from the ECDH system by using a Business Intelligence (BI) solution– no cell rounding of the data is applied. The data material undergoes validation on a regular basis.
Enforcement of immigration legislation data (EIL statistics) contain statistical information based on Article 5 and 7 of the Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 as amended by the Regulation (EU) 2020/851 with reference to third-country nationals:
refused entry at the external border,
found to be illegally present,
ordered to leave,
returned following an order to leave.
7 April 2025
See table 3.4. in annex ‘Quality report tables EIL 2024’.
Number of persons
See table 3.6. in annex ‘Quality report tables EIL 2024’.
Denmark
Calendar quarter and calendar year.
The overall accuracy is high.
Number of persons
The processing and compilation of the asylum statistics are solely based on administrative records – from ECDH. As a main rule, the compilation of statistics is based on figures directly retrieved from the ECDH system by using a Business Intelligence (BI) solution– no cell rounding of the data is applied. The data material undergoes validation on a regular basis.
See table 18.1. in annex ‘Quality report tables EIL 2024’.
Apart from providing data on Enforcement of Immigrationn Legislature statistics to Eurostat, the Danish Immigration Service monthly and yearly publications in Danish on its website: Tal og statistik (us.dk). A release calendar can be found under each publication.
For quarterly data it takes around 2 weeks before the data for the previous month gets published on us.dk and sent to Eurostat.
For yearly data the Danish Immigration Service performs a Data Freeze in the beginning of February and after a period of data checks it gets sent to Eurostat in March.
There is only one national system responsible for accumulating and processing the data.
See table 15.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables EIL 2024’.
