Statistics Norway 

Division for housing, property, spatial and agricultural statistics

Otervegen 23, 2211 Kongsvinger

Name of indicator/source : Building permits. Number of dwellings and useful floor space.

NS 3457-3:1995 Classification of building types, national classification system comparable to CC.

Activities covered : The statistics measure the developments in construction of all types of new buildings and extensions of existing ones. The classification of buildings is the one used in the Matrikkel (see 20.1), with a few exceptions, is comparable with the Buildings Section of the CC (Classification of Construction).

Size classes covered : None.

List and definition of variables :

Approved building . When project application is granted it is considered as an approved building in the statistics. A granted project application gives permission to start up preparetory work. In cases where the municipality uses a one-step-application (applications where for different reasons there are no need for a two-stepwise executive work; first a general permission and then a project starting permission), the date for general permission is set to be equal to date for project starting permission.

Building work started . Building work started. Until 1999 building work was counted as started when the work with piles, the laying of the foundation wall and founding of footing begins. From 2000 the starting date used is the date when starting permission is given.

Buildings under construction . Buildings are considered under construction when the work is reported started but not yet reported completed even when the construction is stopped in the meantime. If a building is still under construction after a mighty long period, an investigation is made to see if the construction is stopped, or if the building is supposed to be completed. The registration is cancelled when a building that is started is not expected to be completed, and the building will not be considered in the statistics. This may affect the numbers.

Buildings completed . A buildings is considered completed when either temporary permission to use is given or when certificate for building accomplished is given.

Registered dates . For approved buildings, building work started and buildings completed, dates are used from when the buildings where registered in Matrikkelen by the municipalities.

Utility floor space is the floor area measured within the outer walls, defined in Norwegian Standard NS 3940 Area and volume calculations of buildings.

Dwellings . A dwelling is defined as one or more rooms and it must be possible to have access to the room(s) without having to go through another dwelling. Both dwelling units and single rooms are counted as dwellings.

Dwelling units is a dwelling with kitchen.

Single rooms is a dwelling without kitchen or with a shared kitchen.

Dwellings equal dwelling units plus single rooms.

Room . A room must satisfy the room requirements of the Building Act. Kitchen, bath, hallway and the like are not counted as rooms.

Floor . The number of dwellings and area in the basement, lower floor and loft are registered. The difference between basement/lower floor and lower floor/regular floor is stipulated in the building regulations and in principle is determined by how high the panelled ceiling is above level terrain. A regular floor shall have a height of 2.10 metres or more above a breadth of minimum 1.20 metres. An accessible volume above the upper regular floor is called a loft. A free height of 1.90 metre with a minimum width of 0.60 metres is required.

Type of building is established according to function, combined buildings, for instance combined dwelling and business buildings and storage and production buildings, are grouped by the function that occupies the main part of the utility floor space.

Industrial classification . In addition to building type, it is also registered what industry the user of the building belongs to. The Industrial Classification is attached to the user and is therefore independent of the building type. At the time of filling out the statistical form it is not always known who the user of the building will be. Because of this the industrial classification is considered to be more uncertain than the classification of the building type. The industrial classification is in accordance with the EU Industrial Classification NACE.

Planned changes in information collected : None.

Accounting conventions : Monthly, quarterly and annually.

Reporting unit : The local authority. 357 reporting municipalities.

Observation unit(s) : New buildings and extension of old ones.

The population is licensed, started and completed buildings during the month, quarter and year. The observation unit is building. The population does not include constructional alteration of already existing buildings.

From 2010 and onwards the statistics include buildings with a utility floor space of over 15 square meters. In addition buildings with a utility floor space of less than 15 square meters are included if there is a new dwelling unit. Before 2010 the treshold value for utility floor space was 30 square meters.

From 2014 and onwards the statistics is based upon registered buildings from 6 ^th of January to 5 ^th of January the year after. Before 2014 the statistics is correspondingly based upon a statistical year from 11 ^th of January one year to 10 ^th of January the next year.

From 2017 and onwards the statistics is based upon registered buildings from 6 ^th of January to 31 ^st of December.

From 2018 and onwards the statistics is based upon registered buildings from 1 ^st of January to 31 ^st of December.

All regions of Norway are covered, on municipal, county and national level.

Date of first use as a source : 1983

Not applicable.

Number of dwellings and square metres of utility floor space.

Reference year of this report : 2000 and onwards. Month.

Legal basis : 

• Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European business statistics, repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistics (EBS-Regulation)
• Commission Implementing Regulation 2020/1197 laying down technical specifications and arrangements pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European business statistics repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistic (General Implementing Act)

Obligation on units to provide data : The local authorities are obliged to provide the data according to The Cadastre Act (Act relating to survey, sub-division and registration of real property, "Matrikkelloven", dated Jun. 17 2005).

Planned changes in legal basis, obligation to respond and frame used : None.

Datasharing on nightly basis. Shared with Eurostat.

Dissemination of terms and conditions under which official statistics are produced, including confidentiality of individual responses : Information about how the statistics are produced is given as "About the statistics" at the website. This applies to - among other things - information about collection methods, explanation of terms and information about sources of errors.

Data are not confidential.

Advance dissemination of release calendar : The publication schedule is pre-released in Statistics Norway's Advance Release Calendar. See http://www.ssb.no/en/kommende-publiseringer

http://www.ssb.no/en/kommende-publiseringer

Simultaneous release to all interested parties : Statistics Norway releases statistics at its website, www.ssb.no. The statistics are released at 08.00 in Norwegian and English.

Identification of internal government access to data before release : No other governmental or non-governmental bodies have prior access to data before its release.

Transmission to Eurostat and further use of the statistics : Data are transmitted electronically to Eurostat within minutes after publication on the Internet.

Monthly, quarterly and yearly.

News are published on the Internet at https://www.ssb.no/en/bygg-bolig-og-eiendom/bygg-og-anlegg/statistikk/byggeareal

Name of national paper publications : From 2004 there is no dissemination in paper publications.

Name of national electronic dissemination : The data are published on the Internet at https://www.ssb.no/en/bygg-bolig-og-eiendom/bygg-og-anlegg/statistikk/byggeareal

https://www.ssb.no/statistikkbanken/selecttable/hovedtabellHjem.asp?KortNavnWeb=byggeareal&CMSSubjectArea=bygg-bolig-og-eiendom&PLanguage=1&checked=true

Not applicable.

Planned changes in national dissemination methods : Transmission to Eurostat and dissemination in Eurostat's online database.

Dissemination of documentation on methodology and sources used in preparing statistics : Documentation on methodology and sources used in preparing statistics are published on the Internet at https://www.ssb.no/en/bygg-bolig-og-eiendom/bygg-og-anlegg/statistikk/byggeareal ("About the Statistics").

Description of standard tables produced : The figures of building permits are published monthly according to the main categories of the building classification in the Matrikkelen. The classification of buildings corresponds mainly to the CC (Classification of Construction).

Municipalities can make mistakes in registering data in Matrikkelen. There are also some municipalities which for various reasons do not always follow the current registration rules for Matrikkelen. Several munipalities cooperate on registrering data in Matrikkelen, hence some municipalities have outsourced the registration of data in Matrikkelen to other municipalities.

Registered building permissions . Figures for buildings in the building statistics rely on dates for when permits are registered by the municipalities in Matrikkelen. A building permit does not always mean that construction will be started at once. Especially in low conjunctures it might be that construction project are not realized, or may be postponed after a building permit has been granted. When the building activity trend turns from a low to a high level, and vice versa, this could affect the interpretation of the statistics.

The building statistics are a complete census, but with larger delays in registrations of buildings these buildings will not be included in the statistics.

The building statistics are a complete census, and the figures in the statistics therefore have no sample variance.

The municipalities are responsible for entering building applications in Matrikkelen. There is a certain amount of lag in the registration of building applications by the municipalities. The registration delay means that not all buildings registered as started or completed during the statistical year were also actually started or completed during the statistical year. The longer the registration delay the smaller this share will be. Tables 3 and 4 show how large a percentage of the buildings which each year were registered as started and completed in the period from 1993 to 2021 which were also actually started and completed these years.

Table 1. Average annual registration delay. Residential buildings. 1993-2023. Months

Table 2. Average annual registration delay. Non-residential buildings. 1993-2023. Months

Table 3. Percentage of residential buildings that actually belongs to the statistical year. 1993-2023

Table 4. Percentage of registered non-residential buildings that actually belong to the statistical year. 1993-2023

Consequences and interpretation of registration delays

Registration delays entail two main problems with respect to interpreting the registered figures:

• Registered building activities do not necessarily coincide with actual building activities.
• Registered change in building activities from one year to the next does not necessarily coincide with the actual change in building activities.

The longer the registration delay is, the greater the chance of major deviations between registered and actual building activities.

Table 5. Number of started dwellings. Registered as started during the statistical year, actually started as of December in the statistical year and actually started as of December 2023

Table 6. Started utility floor space for dwellings. Registered as started during the statistical year, actually started as of December in the statistical year and actually started as of December 2023

Table 7. Started utility floor space of buildings other than dwellings. Registered as started in the statistical year, actually started as of December in the statistical year and actually started as of December 2023

How much building activity there actually is during a certain year or month can never be known until long after the end of the statistical period. For example, buildings that were actually started in 2000 have been registered every year in Matrikkelen until now.

Moreover, no one knows exactly how many building projects have gone unregistered in municipalities in the course of a year. As long as no one knows whether the delay in registration will increase or decline in the future, it is not easy, such a short time after the end of the statistical year, to say whether the registered building activities in a given year are too high or too low in relation to the actual building activities.

Table 8. Comparison of the number of dwellings registered started and registered completed. 1983-2023. Number of dwellings

Table 8 shows that over a period of time the number of dwellings registered started is higher than the number of dwellings registered completed. The main reason for this is lack of or late registration of completed dwellings in the municipalities. According to Statistics Norway’s routines for dwellings registered completed more than 3 years after actual completion are not included in the statistics.

Provisional - final figures

The same principals and definitions are used in monthly, quarterly and yearly statistics.

However, corrections made in Matrikkelen (because of errors in registration), on which the statistics are based, make the total figures of three monthly statistics differ from figures in the quarterly statistics. In the same way total figures of four quarterly statistics will differ from figures in the yearly statistics.

Summary description of quality criteria calculated for national purposes :

The information about the buildings is checked with a set of fixed automatic and manual controls and revised if necessary. The variables which are to be checked are date, type of building, activity, useful floor space, number of dwellings, dwelling units, fixed baths and flush toilets. The revision procedures ensure that obvious errors in the register are corrected. The procedures ensure consistency of the various variables for the same building.

Statistics Norway's Quality policy: https://www.ssb.no/en/omssb/kvalitet-i-offisiell-statistikk

Every building was checked and revised if necessary with a set of fixed machine and manual checks and revision procedures. The variables that were checked are date, type of building, industry, utility floor space, number of dwellings, dwelling units, fixed baths and flush toilets. The revision procedures ensure that obvious errors in the register are corrected. The procedures ensure that there is correspondence between the various variables for the same building.

Totals are calculated by summation. Monthly series started are seasonally adjusted, while trend-cycle data are published both for utility floor space other than in dwellings and for dwelling units and utility floor space in dwellings. The numbers are adjusted for seasonal variations applying the X12ARIMA method with non-fixed seasonal effects and multiplicative model. Pre-correction of trading day effects, Easter effects and extreme values if they are significant.

Quality reports on data sources, with numerous quality indicators, are produces and disseminated to data source managing authorities. Available on request.

Users of building statistics include the building and construction industry, the Ministry of Finance, Norges Bank, Statistics Norway's national accounts section, municipalities, various domestic and foreign organizations and institutions.

http://www.ssb.no/en/omssb/kontakt-oss

The building statistics are a complete census.

The building statistics are a complete census, but with larger delays in registrations of buildings these buildings not be included in the statistics.

The building statistics are a complete census, and the figures in the statistics therefore have no sample variance.

Not applicable.

Not applicable. 

Timeliness : Approximately 3 weeks after the end of the reference period.

Timetable of data collection : Data are updated from the Matrikkelen approximately 1 weeks after the end of the reference period.

No time lag.

100 percent.

Consequences and interpretation of registration delays

Registration delays entail two main problems with respect to interpreting the registered figures:

• Registered building activities do not necessarily coincide with actual building activities.
• Registered change in building activities from one year to the next does not necessarily coincide with the actual change in building activities.

The longer the registration delay is, the greater the chance of major deviations between registered and actual building activities.

The statistics of building permits is not directly confronted with other datasets.

100 percent.

No burden and no additional cost in data collection. 900 person-hours per year.

Disseminated data/statistics are not revised. Same revision policy is applied nationally and in transmissions to Eurostat.

Monthly statistics on building permit data are disseminated as preliminary data, but the figures are not revised. The annual statistics are published as final; completed with new registrations from previous quarters. The preliminary and final figures are not revised, unless major errors are detected. In case of revisions due to errors, the policy states that all users should get the same information at the same time. The information about the revision will among other things include which data has been corrected and when.  Zero to 5 percent increase in released statistics, from monthly to annual figures.

MAR-Mean = 0.

Type of source :

Administrative source: The property register Matrikkelen is a computer register containing information about ground properties and addresses in Norway. The register also contains information on all buildings under construction at 31 December 1982 and all buildings that have been built or changed since 1 January 1983. Data to Matrikkelen are collected pursuant to the Cadastre act.

AS from 2009 the municipalities have been transferred from the Ground Parcel, Address and Building Register (GAB) to the new property register, Matrikkelen.

The owner of the register is the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, with the Norwegian Mapping and Cadastre Authority professionally responsible. The County Mapping Offices administrate the register system in the districts and together with each of the municipalities they are responsible for entering the data.

Frame on which the source is based : The source itself is a register.

Sample or census : Census.

Criteria for stratification : Not applicable.

Threshold values and percentages : Not applicable.

Frequency of updating the sample : Not applicable.

Monthly.

Questionnaires used in the survey : Not applicable.

Planned changes in national questionnaires : Not applicable.

Data collection media : Administrative declaration.

Planned changes in data collection methodology : None.

A set of fixed machine and manual checks and revision procedures. SAS, Oracle, PC Axis and Statbank. 

Estimates for non-response : Not applicable.

Estimates for grossing-up to population levels : Not applicable.

Type of index : Not applicable.

Method of weighting and chaining : Not applicable.

Planned changes in production methods : None.

WDA, SA and other calculations : There is seasonal adjustment and calendar adjustment of the statistics of building permits.

On seasonal adjustment of Building statistics

http://www.ssb.no/a/english/kortnavn/byggeareal_en/sesongjustering_en.html