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 definied in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197

The population of interest consists of all Swedish units that carried out market activities in the relevant reference year. The Structural Business Statistics use two different observation units: enterprise unit (ENT) and local unit (LU).

There are three target populations identified by the Business Register, namely:
- Institutional: the amount of all non-financial Swedish enterprises that, in the reference year, conducted their main activities as indicated in sections A-S, excluding O, according to the Swedish Standard for Industrial Classification, SNI 2007.
- Functional: the amount of all Swedish activities that, in the reference year, conducted activities as indicated in sections A-S, excluding O, according to the Swedish Standard for Industrial Classification, SNI 2007.
- Regional (and functional): the amount of all Swedish regional activities that, in the reference year, conducted activities as indicated in section A-S, excluding O, according to the Swedish Standard for Industrial Classification, SNI 2007.

Sweden. Branches of foreign enterprises are included.

1996 to 2021

With the transmission of data from reference year 2018, Sweden has fully implemented the statistical unit ‘enterprise’ in the SBS domain in accordance with Regulation 696/93. The transition from the ‘legal unit’ to the ‘enterprise’ has caused breaks in the series of the SBS characteristics, for example an enterprises consisting of several legal units will only be counted once and intraflows between the legal units within the enterprise will be eliminated (consolidated) in SBS statistics.

Not applicable.

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

• Monetary data are expressed in thousands of SEK.

• Employment variables are expressed in units.

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

Ratios are expressed in percentages.

2021

The statistical target characteristics are attributed mainly to the calendar year. This applies to both target populations and to most target variables. Target variables that measure a state of things, such as balance sheet variables at institutional level, are exempt from this. These refer to the end of the reference year, that is, 31 December.

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.

With regard to confidentiality concerning the agency's specific task in the production of statistics, Chapter 24, Section 8 of the Public Access to Information and Secrecy Act (2009:400) applies.

To safeguard information subject to confidentiality belonging to natural persons or enterprises, it is ensured that the information cannot be disclosed directly or indirectly in the published statistics.

With regard to personal data, that is, information that directly or indirectly relates to a living person, the Official Statistics Act (2001:99), the Official Statistics Ordinance (2001:100) and the Personal Data Act (1998:204) apply.

Primary confidentiality: we calculate primary confidentiality using the P-Percentage rule from 2014 and onwards. We have permission from some of the more important enterprises to publish aggregates that would otherwise be confidential.

Secondary confidentiality: generated by a version of TauArgus developed by Statistics Sweden.

We also ask some of the largest enterprises if it is OK to publish the data in their activity. This process is quite formal and so far only a few enterprises have agreed but it will be expanded. The goal is to reach around 30 enterprises that are complicated from a confidentiality perspective, which would allow for no confidentiality at a 3digit NACE level.

Dissemination follows the publishing calendar for the Official Statistics of Sweden. The dates of planned publications are found in the publishing calendar in advance on Statistics Sweden website.

Dissemination follows the publishing calendar for the Official Statistics of Sweden. 

Swedish: https://www.scb.se/hitta-statistik/publiceringskalendern/

English: https://www.scb.se/en/finding-statistics/publishing-calendar/

We can provide further information which is not available in the dissemination. Everyone with a specific request, given no confidentiality issues, can access the data. Depending on the complexity of the request there may be a cost involved.

Annual.

Regular press release to the data. The news release is published online at each dissemination. 

Swedish: https://www.scb.se/hitta-statistik/statistiknyheter/?selectedProduct=NV0109

English: https://www.scb.se/en/finding-statistics/statistical-news/?selectedProduct=NV0109

Regular press release to the data. The electronic publication can be found on SBS Sweden. The publication is available in English and Swedish. 

Last publication is from 2020.

Swedish: https://www.scb.se/hitta-statistik/statistik-efter-amne/naringsverksamhet/naringslivets-struktur/foretagens-ekonomi/#_Rapporter

English: https://www.scb.se/en/finding-statistics/statistics-by-subject-area/business-activities/structure-of-the-business-sector/structural-business-statistics/#_Publications

The statistics are made accessible in the Statistical Database. All this is available via Statistics Sweden's website www.scb.se/NV0109, on which other tables and figures are also presented. 

MONA (Microdata Online Access) is the standard tool for delivering microdata at Statistics Sweden. Users that get deliveries via MONA can process data over an internet connection without microdata leaving Statistics Sweden. The Public Access to Information and Secrecy Act protects data for individual respondents (microdata), but it is possible to apply for access to data for research or statistical purposes. When a request for data is granted, access to MONA may be given in order to receive the delivery.

Data are sent to Eurostat to be used in European aggregates and is also released as national data. 

Documentation on methodology is available in Swedish.
It can be found on the following link: https://www.scb.se/contentassets/9dd20ce462644cc19f6f04eb2edbbe28/nv0109_st_slut2021_v1_20230510.pdf

Quality documentation is available in Swedish. There is an English version for the reference year 2015.
A quality of the statistics (Quality Declaration) in the Swedish language can be found on the following link: https://www.scb.se/contentassets/9dd20ce462644cc19f6f04eb2edbbe28/nv0109_kd_slut2021_v1_20230510.pdf
An English version from reference year 2015 can be found on the following link https://www.scb.se/contentassets/9dd20ce462644cc19f6f04eb2edbbe28/nv0109_kd_2015_jbv_en_170420.pdf

The quality policy includes quality of the statistics, processes and operations. It describes the overall guidelines for Statistics Sweden's quality work.
More information about Statistics Sweden's quality management can be found on the website.

Sweden uses administrative data for the majority of the enterprises. We supplement the administrative data with surveys. Statistical uncertainty must be taken into account and work is carried out to reduce bias associated with sample surveys (outlier detection/editing/imputation etc). The quality of the statistics is generally considered to be high.

The Structural Business Statistics is primarily used by the National Accounts Department, which uses Structural Business Statistics as the basis for calculating the gross national product (GDP) on the production approach, and financial accounts.
Other users of the Structural Business Statistic, who would use the statistics as a basis for analyses of cost levels, productivity, industry development, and the calculation of key figures etc. are as follows:

Internal users:
- Other departments at Statistics Sweden
- The Ministry of Finance
- The National Institute of Economic Research
- Trade organisations, banks, accounting firms, media
- Enterprises/businesses
- Researchers and students
 

External users:
- Eurostat
- The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
- The United Nations
- Other international organisations

Not available

NACE H563 does not exist in Sweden by law.

In no specific order, the most significant sources of errors are modelling errors, coverage errors and measurement errors.

Most of the estimates are based on administration data (standardised accounting statements SRU, collected from the Swedish Tax Agency), therefore there are no sampling error. 

The non-sampling error is regarded to be small. Non-response in the SRU are compensated by mean value imputation with respect to industry and size. The measures taken to minimise the unit non-response is with the help of several postal reminders and telephone reminders for the larger enterprises. An evaluation of the questionnaire is carried out after each survey period. Also, under the Swedish Official Statistics Act (2001:99), information collected directly from enterprises is subject to obligation to provide information.

For the estimation methods, the bias is small with a limited effect in the overall accuracy of the estimate.

The production time, that is, the time between the endpoint of the reference time and point in time when the statistics are disseminated, is 16 months. The delivery to Eurostat is no more than 18 months.

No delay of transmission of data to Eurostat.

There is a high degree of comparability across the different Swedish geographical domains.  

Lenght of comparable time series: 1996 to 2021

NACE changes are making it difficult to compare different years. Furthermore the sampling procedure was improved between 2002 and 2003. 2018 the enterprise unit was implemented which has reduced the number of enterprises and has had an impact on most NACE aggregates.

For the main variables comparability is adequate.

Many of the differences between the SBS characteristics and the same characteristics in other business related statistics are due to differeces in definitions in the regulations followed.

The sources for the variables in the Business Register differs to SBS.

There are two main differences between SBS and BD for reference year 2021. Historically SBS and BD have always used slightly different frames, where SBS misses some units that have been active only parts of the reference year. These units will still be part of BD and is the main reason why SBS and BD have never been coherent.
The second and bigger issue for reference year 2021 is however the statistical units used, where SBS use the Enterprise (since reference year 2018) and BD still uses legal units. Statistics Sweden have 50,000 enterprises consisting of more than one legal unit which drastically affects the number of enterprises in the population.
We are working towards implementing common and coherent frames for all business statistics.

For reference year 2022, the Swedish Business Register has finally implemented the new interpretation of the enterprise as a statistical unit.

This is in line with what SBS has delivered for reference year 2018-2021. This also means that now there is the possibility for BD to switch from legal units to enterprises and for reference year 2022 BD and SBS will both be based on the same annual frame, thus being consistent.

SBS and Prodcom compares production value data on micro-level for the largest enterprises, there are some differences in definitions between the surveys. The statistical unit in Prodcom is Kind of Activity Unit (KAU).

For value added of national accounts there are differences due to different definitions. SBS is based on accounting rules while national accounts have definitions according to economics. The statistical unit in national accounts is Kind of Activity Unit (KAU).

For Short Term Statistics the values for largest enterprises are compared and if possible aligned with SBS.

No comparison are made between SBS and the following domains:

- Labour statistics (LFS, LCI and JVS)

- Tourism statistics

- Sectorial statistics

- Business services

In the statistical sense the aggregates are always consistent with their main sub-aggregates, in numerical sense they are not always strictly consistent. Due to rounding errors aggregates may not be fully consistent with sub-aggregates. Regional aggregates may not be fully consistent with national aggregates due to missing NUTS-Code on a small number of enterprises.

The burden on respondents are calculated in hours. For year 2021 the burden amounted to 20,000 hrs. The calculation of respondents burden covers both the statistics for national requirements and SBS requirements. 

If large errors are detected, revisions are made. Revisions are in this case made annually.  For national purposes we implemented a revision policy from reference year 2014, revising data for t-1 when publishing year t. 

We are using tax data delivered to Statistics Sweden in August t+1. Another delivery of tax data is done at January t+2 causing some differences between the preliminary and the definitive data. In addition, some editing is done after the preliminary data delivery.

The main data sources are a tailored sample survey in combination with administrative data. Many of the main indicators are based solely on the admin. data, i.e not affected by any sampling error.
However, the discrepancies between the tax data population and the SBS population result in coverage and/or non-response errors for those estimates.

The administrative source is the administrative material standardised accounting statements (SRU), collected from the Swedish Tax Agency, which is the information submitted by enterprises in an appendix to the income tax declaration. The administration source contains micro data on 1,100,000 enterprises. SRU is obtained in two batches, in which the first delivery is obtained in August the year after the reference year, and the second delivery is in January the year after, that is, 13 months after the end of the reference year. The administrative material from the Swedish Tax Agency is considered to have high accuracy and should therefore cause only minor measurement errors. Accuracy is due to many observation variables being directly linked to specific accounts according to the current accounting manual BAS account plan. It is used as a main data source, basic data for some characteristics and for imputation in case of non-response. However, SRU is not used for the approximately 400 largest enterprises. Instead, there is a direct collection of data, the "complete form".  The SRU data is subjected to several revisions with (increasing) degree of completeness.

The sample design is stratified and carried out by a sample. The stratification criteria is by activity and turnover size class. The selection schemes (sampling rates) are approximately 19,000 enterprises out of approximately 1,100,000 enterprises in the population (which includes some sectors outside the SBS-domain). The relation between the reporting unit for the survey/administrative data and the enterprise is in 99.9% of the cases 1 to 1. No treshold values are being used.

The frame population is established in November of the reference year. It is delineated using a snapshot of Statistics Sweden's Business Register. To belong to the frame population, the enterprise must be active, according to the Business Register, which it is if it is registered as an employer, is included in the VAT register, or is registered for corporate tax. In addition to those enterprises that are classified as active in the Business Register, the following is added:
-          Inactive enterprises holding properties with at least SEK 1 million in assessed value are included as property companies.
-          Inactive enterprises that have at least one active subsidiary are included as holding enterprise. (A holding company or investment company is a company whose primary business consists of controlling other companies.)

The frame population and target population are largely consistent, but there are some situations that lead to shortcomings in the frame coverage, such as
-          The enterprises registered during December are not included in the frame population. However, major enterprises are manually classified as active. The remaining part constitutes undercoverage.
-          Enterprises that operate during the year, but for various reasons terminate operations before November are also not included in the frame population. However, major enterprises are also manually classified here as active. The remaining part constitutes undercoverage.
-          Enterprises with out of date information in the Business Register regarding their activity status, due to a backlog in administrative work. Major enterprises are classified manually. Other enterprises constitute overcoverage and undercoverage, depending on whether they are active according to the Business Register, but are actually inactive, or vice versa.

Annual data collection.

The methods used for the basic data collection from the reporting units is by electronic questionnaire. The electronic questionnaires has built-in quality and consistency checks.  Direct collection is done via the complete form to about 400 enterprises, instead of using the standardised accounting statements material for these enterprises. This comprises, in principle, the 400 largest enterprises with regard to the previous year's production value. The purpose is to achieve sufficient accuracy when measuring the most important enterprises, which together comprise about one third of the total turnover and value added in the business sector, with regard to both basic and specification variables. Specifications of SRU are collected from the enterprises in the sample surveys. The objective is to give information on primarily detailed income and cost structures, on which the standardised accounting statements does not provide sufficient information. For the specification surveys, and in particular when detailed income and cost data are requested, the risk of measurement error is greater than in the standardised accounting statements material. This is the case even though the instructions and definitions, as far as possible, are adapted to applicable accounting standards. However, company reporting at such a detailed level may vary and sometimes specifications are required that could not be found in the accounting standard. This also applies for specification variables in the complete form. The measures taken to minimise the unit non-response include several postal reminders and telephone reminders for the larger enterprises. Under the Official Statistics Act (2001:99), information collected directly from enterprises is subject to obligation to provide information. Companies that do not submit information can be submitted with possible sanctions.

Administrative data: the method used to access administrative data (SRU) is by an extraction from a data base at the Swedish Tax Agency and delivered to Statistic Sweden. 

In the survey questionnaires there are built-in consistency checks. There are completeness checks (data integrity rules), validity checks (internal consistency) and plausibility checks, we also include time series checks and revisions. The checks are extensive. This is done before dissemination at NSI. Before dissemination and transmitting data validation of format and file structure checks are done. Interseries checks are done only with the help of Eurostat Inputhall validating programme.

The estimation procedure contains adjustments for non-response, through the use of imputation. A brief description follows below of the use of imputation in basic and specification variables respectively:

Basic variables:
Automatic imputation using mean value imputation is used in most cases. Imputation groups are created by classifying the respondents by legal form, size and industry, where the level of detail of industry depends on the number of available responses.

Specification variables:
A combination of automatic and manual imputation is used for the specification variables. In automatic imputation, the structure of the enterprise's submitted information for the previous year, or mean value imputation, is used. Imputation groups are created by classifying the respondents by industry, where the level of detail of industry depends on the number of available responses. Expert imputation means that data is collected from different sources, such as enterprises' official annual reports.

We use the accounting year which cover the most of the reference period. If shorter or longer than 12 months we recalculate the figures to be equivalent to 12 months.

Not available