State data agency (Statistics Lithuania)

Enterprise statistics division

Gedimino Ave. 29, 01500 Vilnius, Lithuania

Structural business statistics (SBS) describes the structure, conduct and performance of economic activities, down to the most detailed activity level (several hundred economic sectors). SBS covers all activities of the business economy with the exception of agricultural activities, public administration and (largely) non-market services such as education and health. Main characteristics (variables) of the SBS data category:

• "Business demographic" variables (e.g. Number of active enterprises)

• "Output related" variables (e.g. Net turnover, Value added)

• "Input related" variables: labour input (e.g. Number of employees and self-employed persons, Hours worked by employees); goods and services input (e.g. Purchases of goods and services); capital input (e.g. Gross investments)

Business services statistics (BS) collection contains harmonised statistics on business services. From 2008 onwards BS become part of the regular mandatory annual data collection of SBS. The BS’s data requirement includes variable “Turnover” broken down by products and by type of residence of client. 

The annual regional statistics collection includes three characteristics due by NUTS-2 country region and detailed on NACE Rev 2division level (2-digits).

Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community (NACE):  NACE Rev.2 is used from 2008 onwards. Key data were double reported in NACE Rev.1.1 and NACE Rev.2 only for 2008. From 2002 to 2007 NACE Rev. 1.1 was used and until 2001 NACE Rev.1

The regional breakdown of the EU Member States is based on the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS). 

The product breakdown is based on the Classification of Products by Activity (CPA) as stated in the Regulation establishing CPA 2008 and its amending Commission Regulation (EU) No 1209/2014  (from reference year 2015 onwards).

Starting reference year 2021 onwards SBS cover the economic activities of market producers within the NACE Rev. 2 Sections B to N, P to R and Divisions S95 and S96.

Until 2007 the SBS coverage was limited to Sections C to K of NACE Rev.1.1 and from the reference year 2008 to 2020 data was available for Sections B to N and Division S95 of NACE Rev.2.
From 2013, as the first reference year, to 2020 information is published on NACE codes K6411, K6419 and K65 and its breakdown.

From 2008 reference year data collection BS covers NACE Rev 2 codes: J62, N78, J582, J631, M731, M691, M692, M702, M712, M732, M7111, and M7112.

SBS constitutes an important and integrated part of the new European Business Statistics Regulation N° 2152/2019

Data requirements, simplifications and technical definitions are defined in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197

Statistical unit enterprise is used for compiling the SBS data. 

The survey population is comprised of all active public and private companies, state and municipal enterprises, foreign affiliates, all types of partnerships, individual enterprises, natural persons carrying out economic activity and public institutions* operating in the country during the reporting period, and whose main economic activity is NACE Rev. 2, Sections B-J, L-N and P-R and sections S95 and S96.

* Only public institutions that cover more than half of their operating costs with earned income are included.

Country. The branches of foreign enterprises are included. The exclusion of the results relating to the activity abroad is not performed as their impact is insignificant.

1995-2021

Statistical information is fully comparable from 1995-2004, 2005 to 2017. In 2005 natural persons carrying out economic activity was included in the survey population and the statistical unit was equal to legal unit or of part of legal unit. The statistical unit an enterprise has been implemented since 2018.  Statistical unit an enterprise is equal to legal unit, a combination of legal units (complex enterprise) or of part of legal unit. In 2018-2020 the complex enterprises were identified and applied for the largest enterprise groups. From 2021 the complex enterprises has been applied for all enterprise groups.

Not applicable.

• Number of enterprises and number of local units are expressed in units.

• Monetary data are expressed in millions of €.

• Employment variables are expressed in units.

• Per head values are expressed in thousands of € per head. 

Ratios are expressed in percentages.

Starting with reference year 2021 two new regulations currently form the legal basis of SBS:

• · Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistics (EBS Regulation), and
• · Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197 laying down technical specifications and arrangements (general implementing act) pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152

Year 1995 was the first year for the implementation of the Council Regulation No 58/97 (SBS Regulation).

The Council Regulation No 58/97 has been amended three times: by Council Regulation No 410/98, Commission Regulation No 1614/2002 and European Parliament and Council Regulation No 2056/2002. As a new amendment of the basic Regulation it was decided to recast the Regulation No 58/97 in order to obtain a new "clean" legal text.

In 2008 the European Parliament and Council adopted Regulation No 295/2008 and the provisions of this Regulation were applicable from the reference year 2008 to reference year 2020. Regulation No 295/2008 was amended by Commission Regulation (EU) No 446/2014.

Not applicable.

In the process of statistical data collection, processing and analysis and dissemination of statistical information, Statistics Lithuania fully guarantees the confidentiality of the data submitted by respondents (households, enterprises, institutions, organisations and other statistical units), as defined in the Confidentiality Policy Guidelines of Statistics Lithuania.

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 primary and secondary confidentiality is applied on the dataset. Data are considered to be confidential if the number of units in a cell is less than 3 (primary confidentiality). A minimum frequency rule is applied to identify secondary confidentiality. T-Argus software is used for identification and protection of confidential data.

Statistical information is published in accordance with an approved release calendar.

Official Statistics Calendar

Statistical information is published following the Official Statistics Dissemination Policy Guidelines and Statistical Information Dissemination and Communication Rules of Statistics Lithuania approved by Order No DĮ-176 of 2 July 2021 of the Director General of Statistics Lithuania.

Annual.

News release is not provided.

Statistical information is published in an electronic publications Statistical Yearbook of Lithuania and Business in Lithuania.

The publications are available in Lithuanian and English languages.

Statistical indicators are published in the Database of Indicators (Business statistics -> Business structure and finance -> Annual structural business statistics). SBS results  are disseminated twice in the national on-line database. The preliminary data is diseminated in October (t+10) and final data - in June (t+18).

The Indicators Database page is for viewing and analyzing statistical information. For more information on the Indicators Database, see the Indicators Database User Guide

The State Data Agency may, on the basis of contracts concluded with higher education institutions or research institutes, provide statistical data to researchers of these higher education institutions and research institutes to carry out specific statistical analyses for research purposes. Statistical data are provided in accordance with the provisions specified in the Description of Procedure for Data Depersonalisation and Pseudonymisation. More information is available on the Official Statistics Portal, in the section Data Provision.

Statistical information can also be provided upon individual requests (more information is available on the Official Statistics Portal, in section Services).

Methodological documents are published in the Official Statistics Portal section Business structure and finance. The methodology  Survey on the performance of non-financial enterprises methodology  is available only in Lithuanian. The metadata on nationally published  Structural business statistics indicators is available in Lithuanian and English languages. 

Quality of statistical information and its production process is ensured by the provisions of the European Statistics Code of Practice and ESS Quality Assurance Framework.

Methodological documents are published in the Official Statistics Portal section Business structure and finance. (in Lithuanian only)

The metadata is available in the Official Statistics Portal (in Lithuanian and English)

Quality of statistical information and its production process is ensured by the provisions of the European Statistics Code of Practice and ESS Quality Assurance Framework.

In 2007, a quality management system, conforming to the requirements of the international quality management system standard ISO 9001, was introduced at Statistics Lithuania. Main trends in activity of Statistics Lithuania aimed at quality management and continuous development in the institution are established in the Quality Policy.

Monitoring of the quality indicators of statistical processes and their results and self-evaluation of statistical survey managers is regularly carried out in order to identify areas which need improvement and to promptly eliminate shortcomings.

More information on assurance of quality of statistical information and its preparation is published in the Quality Management section on the Statistics Lithuania website.

The quality of the statistical results meets the requirements of accuracy, timeliness and punctuality, comparability and consistency.

The results of the quality indicators of the observed statistics are presented in fields 12–15 of this metadata description. 

In 2020, a self-assessment of the survey was performed. It showed that the results of the survey meet the quality requirements of statistical information.

Statistical information is considered reliable due to thorough verification and validation of the data. The consistency of the data is checked and the results of the survey are compared with the results of the previous year. In the event of significant deviations, the data providers shall be contacted, the errors have been corrected or reasons for the deviations explained. 

The comparability of the data with the results of the previous year is affected by methodological changes have been applied for 2021 data. In 2018-2020, the complex enterprises were defined and applied for the largest enterprise groups. Since 2021 the complex enterprises have been defined and applied for all enterprise groups.

The main users of statistical information are internal: State and municipal authorities and agencies, the Central bank, the media, research and business communities, students.

The external users are: Eurostat, ECB, UN and other international organisations. The SBS data of enterprises are an important source for the analysis of the business (except agriculture) and the compilation of national accounts.

Regular consultations are organised with the main internal user – the National Accounts Division and the Central Bank – in order to clarify their needs. The relevance of the variables collected and the needs of users are discussed.

Since 2005, user opinion surveys have been conducted on a regular basis. The Official Statistics Portal traffic is monitored, website visitor opinion polls, general opinion poll on the products and services of Statistics Lithuania, target user group opinion polls and other surveys are conducted.

In 2007, the compilation of a user satisfaction index was launched. The said surveys are aimed at the assessment of the overall demand for and necessity of statistical information in general and specific statistical indicators in particular.

More information on user opinion surveys and results thereof are published in the User Surveys section on the Statistics Lithuania website.

A survey related to the users' satisfaction regarding the availability and the quality of the SBS data is not organised.

All indicators established by legislation are available.

The overall accuracy of the results is considered good. The survey is an exhaustive (census) survey based on statistical survey and administrative data. The definitions of the administrative data used meet the requirements of the Regulation, non-existent characteristics in administrative sources are estimated using statistical and mathematical estimation methods. The results are not significantly influenced by the estimation of missing values.

The sampling error of the statistical survey on the activity of non-financial corporations is not calculated. The sample is used only to select and survey the largest companies representing the activities. Data on the remaining enterprises are collected from administrative data sources.

At the national level, provisional statistical information (key indicators by NACE Rev. 2 at the 3-digit level) is published in 10 months, final (all indicators by NACE Rev. 2 at the 4-digit level, by size class and region) – in 18 months after the end of the reference year on the Official Statistical Portal.

Statistical information was delivered to Eurostat in accordance with the deadline set up in the EBS Regulation. At national level - in accordance with an Official Statistics Calendar.

Fully comparable geographically. In addition, statistical information is comparable across the EU.

Length of comparable time series is 1995-2004; 2005-2008; 2008-2017; 2018-2020 and from 2021 onward.

Since 2005, natural persons carrying out economic activity have been included in the survey population. Data for the reference years 1995–2008 are provided by NACE Rev. 1.1.

Since 2018 the statistical unit an enterprise has been changed: statistical unit is constituded by one legal unit, a combination of legal units (complex enterprise) or of part of legal unit. In 2018-2020, the complex enterprises were defined and applied for the largest enterprise groups. Since 2021 the complex enterprises have been defined and applied for all enterprise groups.

The SBS indicators of the number of enterprises, number of persons employed and number of employees are coherent with the Business Demography.

The indicator of Net turnover is also produced under the short-term statistics domain. The definitions of the indicators produced under STS and SBS domains have been harmonised, while statistical observation unit and survey methods are different.

Statistical information is fully coherent internally

In 2021, EUR 279.1 thousand were allocated for the statistical Survey on Activity of Non-Financial Enterprises. The costs refer to the SBS requirements and other statistics requirements (National and Financial Accounts and national requirements).

In 2021, there were 10 585 legal entities sampled for the survey.

In 2021, the average time spent by a respondent on the filling-in statistical questionnaire F-01 or F-01 (detailed) on the activity of non-financial enterprise was 4 hrs 43 min. (in 2020, 4 hrs 34 min.). Compared to the previous year, the statistical reporting burden has increased insignificantly.

The revision policy applied by Statistics Lithuania is described in the Description of Procedure for Performance, Analysis and Publication of Revisions of Statistical Information.

The revision of the data for reference years 2010–2017 has been conducted. During the revision, primary data used for the estimation of the production value and intermediate consumption indicators were checked and adjusted, particularly turnover, purchases of goods and services and their items and etc. The revised information is published in the Database of Indicators marked "revised". The main objective of this activity is potential improvement of the Lithuanian GDP and GNI data by addressing the shortcomings identified by the EC in the transaction-specific reservation “Balancing – SBS data”.

Annual data collection.

Statistical data are collected via the electronic statistical data preparation and transfer system e-Statistics.

To ensure statistical data quality, data checking and validation is performed. The verification determines whether data meet the mathematical, logical, and boundary control conditions. If discrepancies are found, statistics shall be corrected for the nature of the error. Errors to be ignored are corrected according to the reason given by the respondent. Mandatory errors are always corrected. The verification and editing of administrative data are performed automatically, significant amounts are verified on the basis of the notes to the financial statements of the companies. Once all the data has been collected, the data is re-checked: outlier values are identified, the comparability and consistency of the aggregated data is analysed and validity of the statistical data is confirmed. The checking rules cover the SBS checking rules incorporated in the Eurostat validation corporate too (InputHall). The reasons of the rest deviations are identified and described in a reported provided to Eurostat.

The sampled largest enterprises provide statistical data according to SQ. The mass imputation of administrative data is used to evaluate not sample enterprises (mostly small business) and the non-response units. The non-existent variables in the administrative sources are estimated and imputed using the structural coefficients of donor unit’s (the nearest neighbour method) or the structural coefficients of the same enterprise from the previous year. Non-responding units (defined under the chapter 18.1) are estimated and imputed using a data of donor (the nearest neighbour) unit.

When primary data have been approved as reliable, the composite indicators such as value of output, value added and etc. are calculated from primary indicators. Statistical information is calculated by summing up the primary data by different breakdowns.

Not applicable

Since 2018 an enterprise is constituted by one legal unit, a combination of legal units or of part of legal unit. The enterprise corresponds to a combination of legal units in cases then legal units belongs to an Enterprise Group and their performace constitutes an operating segment. In that cases the non-additive variables (Net turnover, purchases, gross investments in fixed tangible and intangible assets) are consolidated (inter-unit transactions are eliminated).