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.
Building permits, by number of dwellings and usefull floor area
3.2. Classification system
Classification of Products by Activity (CPA)
3.3. Coverage - sector
All building permits with building costs of EUR 50,000 or more.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
Building The smallest structural unit that is still functionally and structurally-constructively independent, directly and permanently connected to the ground and accessible and lockable.
Residential object – dwelling/house Stay object with at least a residential function and possibly one or more other utilisation functions.
Non-residential object Stay object with one or more utilisation functions but without a residential function.
3.5. Statistical unit
Reporting unit: Municipalities.
Observation unit(s): The building permit
3.6. Statistical population
Building permits from municipalities
3.7. Reference area
All regions of the Netherlands are covered.
3.8. Coverage - Time
Time periods coverd by the data: 2000-2025
3.9. Base period
Not relevant
Number of dwellings Usefull floor area in square meters
Reference year of this report: 2025 The serie is a monthly serie
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
Statistics Netherlands is fully independent in terms of its statistical operations with respect to methodology and publications. Independence was granted by the Royal Act of 1899 and reconfirmed by law in 1996, 2003 and 2019. The The Statistics Netherlands Act is available in English and Dutch. The public can find it at the CBS website: Statistics Netherlands Act
The Statistics Netherlands Act section 3 states: "The task of the CBS is to carry out statistical research for the government for practice, policy and research purposes and to publish the statistics compiled on the basis of such research".
For the surveys carried out under the provisions of the Law irregularities with respect the obligation to provide information can be punished with a fine of a maximum of EUR 5,000.
The references to the EBS Regulation and its implementing legal acts can be found on the Eurostat website.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
The Statistics Netherlands Act Section 3 states: "The task of the CBS is to carry out statistical research for the government for practice, policy and research purposes and to publish the statistics compiled on the basis of such research".
Sections 33 through 36 describe the collection of information, sections 37 and 38 describe the use of information gathering and sections 39 through 42 the dissemination of results. The most relevant clauses are the following. Section 33: “The director general is authorised to use, for statistical purposes, data from registers (..) the director general is authorised to request, for statistical purposes, data (..) from the categories of companies, independent professionals, institutions and legal persons (..) Section 37: The data (..) shall be used solely for statistical purposes. The data (..)shall only be published in such a way that no recognisable data can be derived from them about an individual person, household, company or institution, unless, (..) there are good reasons to assume that the company or institution concerned will not have any objections to the publication.
The Statistics Netherlands Act is available in English and Dutch. The public can find it at the CBS website:Statistics Netherlands Act.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
Statistics Netherlands is fully independent in terms of its statistical operations with respect to methodology and publications. Independence was granted by the Royal Act of 1899 and reconfirmed by law in 1996 and 2003.
Data provision was made compulsory by law in 1936. Confidentiality is guaranteed. Individual data are never published without consent. The Royal Act of 1899 and the Law of 1996 have been repealed by the Law of 20 November 2003. This Law on the Central Bureau of Statistics describes the independence of the director-general of Statistics Netherlands: "The director general shall determine the methods by which the studies included in the work programme and the multi-annual programme will be carried out and the manner in which the results of those studies will be published"
The Law of 2003 established the Central Bureau of Statistics and the Central Commission for Statistics. Section 3 states: "The task of the CBS is to carry out statistical research for the government for practice, policy and research purposes and to publish the statistics compiled on the basis of such research".
Sections 33 through 36 describe the collection of information, sections 37 and 38 describe the use of information gathering and sections 39 through 42 the dissemination of results. The most relevant clauses are the following. Section 33: "The director general is authorised to use, for statistical purposes, data from registers (..) the director general is authorised to request, for statistical purposes, data (..) from the categories of companies, independent professionals, institutions and legal persons (..)."
Section 37: "The data (..) shall be used solely for statistical purposes. The data (..) shall only be published in such a way that no recognisable data can be derived from them about an individual person, household, company or institution, unless, (..) there are good reasons to assume that the company or institution concerned will not have any objections to the publication."
The CBS Law of 2003 is available in English and Dutch. The public can find it at the CBS website: Statistics Netherlands Act
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
No confidential data is published. Information on individual companies or units will not be revealed.
8.1. Release calendar
A rolling 5 months-ahead release calendar is published in the schedule by date of Statistics Netherlands:
Simultaneous release to all interested parties: The data are released simultaneously to all interested parties by loading them into the on-line database StatLine at
and posting a notification under updates on the home-page.
Identification of internal government access to data before release: There is no internal government access to the data before their release to the public
Transmission to Eurostat and further use of the statistics : Transmission via EDAMIS few days after the national release
Monthly
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
Name of national paper publications: No paper publication available
The data are transmitted monthly to Eurostat (eDamis) and disseminated monthly to national users (Statline)
10.6. Documentation on methodology
Dissemination of documentation on methodology and sources used in preparing statistics: Not available. Description of standard tables produced: Monthly data, no further breakdown.
10.7. Quality management - documentation
There are internal quality reports that are used for the validation of the data to be published every month/quarter. There is no general report publicly available describing the different quality indicators of these statistics.
11.1. Quality assurance
There are different policies and procedures guarantying quality. Statical improvements are reviewed by an independent department. There is also a list of methods that have been accepted as best practice. New statistics should use these methods or only deviate with good reasons. Every month the results of STS statistics are validated by a independent ststistician.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
The quality of the STS statistics are considered good. All quality aspects for STS statistics have been covered.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
STS provide statistical information necessary to monitor the competitiveness and performance of the business community in the EU. The STS are used by different users (European Commission, national governments and central banks, economic analysts in private companies and financial institutions) and serve different purposes.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
We do not have information about this.
12.3. Completeness
There are no gaps or missing data parts (according to Eurostat's requirements).
13.1. Accuracy - overall
The statistical errors are considered small.
13.2. Sampling error
It is a census.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Response rate: The response rate of the building permits a month after the reference month is about 97%.
Actions to speed up or increase the rate of response: To increase the response rate, quarterly enforcement procedures are applied. On a monthly basis there is a paper reminder. We investigate an enforcement procedure with a monthly frequency.
The first estimates have little bias of 1%. This mainly due to a high respondents rate.
14.1. Timeliness
Timeliness: The first publication is made 6 weeks after the end of the reference period.
Timetable of data collection: Every month in the first week after the reference month they have to respond and usually 6 weeks after the end of the reference month the data is available by internet questionair or by sending a data set.
14.2. Punctuality
All releases are published according to the release calendar
15.1. Comparability - geographical
The EBS Regulation and the EBS methodological guidelines are applied by the countries transmitting STS data. This ensures a good comparability between national data and good-quality European aggregates. However, in order to best use their available data, the countries may apply different collection methods (surveys, use of administrative sources) and different calculation procedures for the data. Within the Netherlands, no separate geographical data is compiled, thus there is no comparability between regions.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Published time series are comparable over time
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Dissemination of information that support statistical cross-checks and provide assurance of reasonableness : Not available.
Confrontation with other data sets : No confrontation.
15.4. Coherence - internal
The data is internally coherent.
The persons hour per year for SN is about 4000 hours. The respondents burden is estimated at 6000 hours per year.
17.1. Data revision - policy
The Eurostat data will be revised the same way as nationally.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Provision of information about revision and advance notice of major changes in methodology: Conforming to policy.
Calculations for CPA_F41001X410014_PNUMMR are: MR= 2.4 and MAR= 4.0
18.1. Source data
Type of source : Statistical surveys building permits. Frame on which the source is based: An exhaustive survey (all municipalities are respondents) collecting all building permits above EUR 50,000. Sample or census: Census.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Monthly
18.3. Data collection
Questionnaires used in the survey: partly internet questionnaire, partly by sending a data set. Planned changes in national questionnaires: no changes are planned. Data collection media: Partly postal questionnaire and partly electronic questionnaire. Planned changes in data collection methodology: no changes are planned.
18.4. Data validation
The data file structure is validated by the program Genedi.
The results of STS are presented in excel-datatables and graphs. The validity of the results is done by examing the tables and graphs.
18.5. Data compilation
Estimates for non-response: correction for non-response. Estimates for grossing-up to population levels: no. Type of index: no. Method of weighting and chaining: based on number of inhabitants in the municipality. Planned changes in production methods: no.
18.6. Adjustment
The links to the Statistical Law are updated.
No comments
Building permits, by number of dwellings and usefull floor area
20 August 2025
Building The smallest structural unit that is still functionally and structurally-constructively independent, directly and permanently connected to the ground and accessible and lockable.
Residential object – dwelling/house Stay object with at least a residential function and possibly one or more other utilisation functions.
Non-residential object Stay object with one or more utilisation functions but without a residential function.
Reporting unit: Municipalities.
Observation unit(s): The building permit
Building permits from municipalities
All regions of the Netherlands are covered.
Reference year of this report: 2025 The serie is a monthly serie
The statistical errors are considered small.
Number of dwellings Usefull floor area in square meters
Estimates for non-response: correction for non-response. Estimates for grossing-up to population levels: no. Type of index: no. Method of weighting and chaining: based on number of inhabitants in the municipality. Planned changes in production methods: no.
Type of source : Statistical surveys building permits. Frame on which the source is based: An exhaustive survey (all municipalities are respondents) collecting all building permits above EUR 50,000. Sample or census: Census.
Monthly
Timeliness: The first publication is made 6 weeks after the end of the reference period.
Timetable of data collection: Every month in the first week after the reference month they have to respond and usually 6 weeks after the end of the reference month the data is available by internet questionair or by sending a data set.
The EBS Regulation and the EBS methodological guidelines are applied by the countries transmitting STS data. This ensures a good comparability between national data and good-quality European aggregates. However, in order to best use their available data, the countries may apply different collection methods (surveys, use of administrative sources) and different calculation procedures for the data. Within the Netherlands, no separate geographical data is compiled, thus there is no comparability between regions.
