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.
The purpose of statistical survey on service enterprises – to prepare and publish statistical information on the sales income (net turnover) and their indices of the enterprises engaged in the activities of transportation and storage, information and communication, business, social and cultural services. This information is necessary for the assessment of gross domestic product (GDP) in national accounts and price statistics.
3.2. Classification system
National version (EVRK Rev. 2) of the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community (NACE Rev. 2).
3.3. Coverage - sector
The indicator in this sector covers economic activities listed in sections:
Sections H, I, J, L, M (excluding M701, M72 and M75) and N of NACE Rev. 2 (H – Transportation and Storage, I – Accommodation and Food Service Activities, J – Information and Communication, L - Real estate activities, M_STS – Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities required by STS regulation, N – Administrative and Support Service). For national needs we also prepare statistical information on the activities listed in the sections P, Q, R and S (except division 94).
Sampling rates by sections in 2025:
Aggregate
Sample rate, %
HTNXK
11.1
H
11.8
I
25.9
J
12.8
L
9.0
M_STS
5.9
N
14.2
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
Net turnover (sales income) – net turnover consists of sales revenue recognised during the reference period by statistical unit in the course of sale of goods and (or) provision of services, and is presented net of all price reductions, discounts, and taxes directly related to sales revenue. All income not arising in the course of ordinary activities of the statistical unit, usually classified as ‘other (operating) income’ or ‘financial income’ in the financial statements are not included.
The indices of net turnover at current prices – is a comparative indicator showing changes in sales income over a certain period of time.
3.5. Statistical unit
Reporting unit – legal entity, observation unit – KAU
3.6. Statistical population
The survey frame is based on Business Register. The frame population covers all active enterprises without any threshold, whose principal activity is classified into transportation and storage, accommodation and food service, information and communication, professional, scientific and technical, administrative and support service activities: sections H, I, J, L, M (excluding M701, M72, M75), N of NACE Rev. 2. Business Register for each enterprise provides information: EVRK Rev. 2 code (6 digit level), net turnover, number of persons employed, address and others. In 2025 the population covers 46 628 active enterprises, of which the sample population comprises 5 189 observation units.
3.7. Reference area
Territory of Lithuania. The activities outside Lithuania are not included.
3.8. Coverage - Time
Since 1998 – quartely;
Since 2015 – monthly.
3.9. Base period
The base year 2021=100.
Indices are transmitted to Eurostat, nationally data on net turnover is published in absolute figures (thous. EUR) and indices.
Month.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
In the process of statistical data collection, processing and analysis and dissemination of statistical information, the State Data Agency fully guarantees confidentiality of the data submitted by respondents (households, enterprises, institutions, organizations and other statistical units), as defined in the Confidentiality policy guidelines of the State Data Agency.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
Statistical Disclosure Control Manual, approved by Order No DĮ-26 of 19 January 2024 of the Director General of the State Data Agency;
The State Data Governance Information System Data Security Regulations and Rules for the Secure Management of Electronic Information in the State Data Governance Information System, approved by Order No DĮ-163 of 20 August 2024 of the Director General of the State Data Agency.
8.1. Release calendar
Statistical information is published in accordance with an approved release calendar.
Statistical information is prepared and disseminated under the principle of impartiality and objectivity, i.e. in a systematic, reliable and unbiased manner, following professional and ethical standards (the European Statistics Code of Practice), and the policies and practices followed are transparent to users and survey respondents.
All users have equal access to statistical information. All statistical information is published at the same time – at 9 a.m. on the day of publication of statistical information as indicated in the calendar on the Official Statistics Portal. Relevant statistical information is sent automatically to news subscribers.
Statistical information is published following the Official Statistics Dissemination Policy Guidelines and Statistical Information Dissemination and Communication Rules of the State Data Agency approved by Order No DĮ-208 of 8 October 2024 of the Director General of the State Data Agency.
The data are sent to Eurostat.
Data are transmitted monthly to Eurostat and disseminated monthly, quartely and yearly for national users.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
News releases are not prepared.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
Not available
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
Database of Indicators (Business statistics -> Services -> Indicators of service enterprises -> Sales of service enterprises (VAT excluded)),
Database of Indicators (Business statistics -> Services -> Index and changes of sales of service enterprises -> Indices of sales of service enterprises at current prices (2021 – 100)).
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
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 Depersonalization and Pseudonymization. More information is available on the Official Statistics Portal, in the section Data Provision.
Quality documentation (Metadata) is updated each month and disseminated on the Business statistics section in the Official Statistics Portal: Services.
In 2007, a quality management system, conforming to the requirements of the international quality management system standard ISO 9001, was introduced at Statistics Lithuania. The 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 the areas which need improvement and to promptly eliminate the shortcomings.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
The system for measurement and monitoring of performance quality implemented at Statistics Lithuania allows making expeditious decisions, based on impartial information, which are important for the improvement of performance, detection and elimination of drawbacks.
Statistics Lithuania uses the following tools for quality monitoring and assurance:
Monitoring of performance indicators (comprising ESS quality indicators, the response burden and indicators related to time used for different statistical processes),
Self-assessment of survey managers (based on DESAP (European checklists for survey managers)),
Statistical audits,
Testing of previously approved statistical questionnaires.
Collecting information is submitted to the quality requirements, consistent with the standard quality components of European Statistical System, namely: relevance, accuracy, timeliness and punctuality, accessibility, clarity, comparability, coherence.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
The main users of statistical information are State and municipal authorities and agencies, Eurostat, international organisations, the media, research and business community, students, whose needs are satisfied without a breach of the confidentiality principle. The index of number of persons employed is used for analytical, planning, forecasting, market research purposes.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
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 the State Data Agency, 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 State Data Agency website.
12.3. Completeness
All STS indicators are compiled and published to the extent defined in the legislation governing their compilation and publication. More detailed statistics are compiled according to individual user requests.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
The survey is carried out by sampling method. The sampling plan is compiled on the basis of the information of the Statistical Register of Economic Entities on the type of economic activity of the enterprise, the number of employed persons and the annual net turnover. Enterprises are stratified by type of activity and number of persons employed. Non-response rate is low. Data are revised by collecting data for all periods of the reporting year (new information is received - data from administrative sources, respondents revise the reports submitted). Data processing errors are avoided by analyzing primary information when communicating with respondents. The coefficient of variation (CV) is used to evaluate the accuracy of the results.
13.2. Sampling error
Population is divided into 4 strata: enterprises with Value Added Tax payers, enterprises with no Value Added Tax payers, enterprises with high sales income of the reference year, estimation domain which have less than 3 enterprises. For the first two strata probability sample is used. Two another strata – completely enumerated.
Aggregate
CV (%) in September 2025
HTNXK
0.5
H
0.4
I
0.6
J
1.5
L
2.2
M_STS
1.5
N
1.7
13.3. Non-sampling error
Non-sampling errors do not significantly affect the results. Some cases of little scope appear due to data changes or appearance of the new enterprises in the Statistical Register of Economic Entities (when the enterprise is significant and has 50 and more employees data is recalculated at the end of the year). There are not many cases of non-receipt of data from respondents, therefore the non-response rate is low and did not exceed 2.2% in 2025.
Estimates of errors not related to the sample are negligible. Under-coverage, over-coverage impact is insignificant, we cannot evaluate exactly. In the case of a large enterprise, it is included in the sample with a weight 1.
14.1. Timeliness
Statistical information is published on the 60th day after the end of the reference month.
The rate of data publications at SL and transmissions to Eurostat on time is equal to 100 per cent.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Statistical information is comparable between EU countries.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Since I quarter 1998 – for quartely data;
Since January 2015 – for monthly data.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
The statistical information (change rates) of sales of service enterprises is comparable with the structural business survey data. Differences may occur due to different statsistical units.
15.4. Coherence - internal
The values of the indicators are internally coherent. The aggregated values of the indicators are derived from lower-level values in accordance with an established procedure. The full coherence of monthly, quartely and annual indicators of service enterprises is ensured.
The cost is determined for statistical survey in total and it is not possible to calculate for separate indicators.
In 2025 total cost (NSI) 17 123 hours per year for all variables of STS on services - net turnover, persons employed, hours worked, wages and salaries.
The same revision policy is applied for the data released nationally and transmitted to Eurostat.
Long-term planned (major) revisions are conducted after amendments in legal acts, due to changes in the base year, methodology and classifications entail revisions.
17.2. Data revision - practice
When publishing data for the 12th month of the reporting year, the sales income for all periods of the two previous years are revised. Previous-year income declarations from natural persons engaged in individual economic activities or working with business certificates are obtained from the State Tax Inspectorate (STI). Data are sorted according to NACE Rev. 2. activities, and are included in the final statistical information of that year, and become the basis for the forecast of income of natural persons of the previous and current year.
Aggregate
Differences between growth rates, 2023-2025 average
Mean revision (MR)
Mean Absolute Revision (MAR)
Unadjusted*
Calendar adjusted*
Seasonally and calendar adjusted**
Unadjusted*
Calendar adjusted*
Seasonally and calendar adjusted**
HTNXK
0.5
0.5
0.0
0.9
1.0
1.1
*As compared to the corresponding month of the previous year
**As compared to the previous month
18.1. Source data
Main statistical data source - a monthly statistical sample survey on the activities of service enterprises (sample – 5 189 respondents, i.e. 11.1 per cent of all economic entities). Statistical indicators of accommodation activity (division I55) are evaluated using statistical data of the survey of accommodation services (census survey, 522 respondens). Statistical indicators of food and beverage activities (division I56) are evaluated using statistical data of the monthly statistical sample survey of trade and catering enterprises (sample – 529 respondents, i.e. 14.9 per cent of all economic entities).
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Monthly.
18.3. Data collection
The data are collected using the Business Services Enterprise Activity Statistical Questionnaire (PS-20) via the Internet, through the Electronic Statistical Business Data Preparation and Transmission System e.Statistics.
18.4. Data validation
To ensure the quality of statistical data, statistical data analysis, data verification and validation, editing and recording of missing values at the level of statistical data arrays are performed. Statistics are checked as they are entered and processed. Arithmetic, logical and compatibility statistics control, comparison of data with the data of the previous period and the corresponding period of the previous year is provided. Statistics are corrected taking into account the type of error: mandatory and ignored (warnings to respondents about possible errors). Reminders are sent to respondents who have not provided statistics, reasons for non-reporting are clarified.
18.5. Data compilation
Sampling plan is a simple random stratified sample. In compiling population strata, the smallest assessment areas (hereinafter referred to as the “SAA"), i.e. the smallest non-overlapping subsets of the population where it is intended to calculate estimates of the parameters being evaluated, are taken into account. The parameters evaluated are the sums of the survey variables in the SAA and in the population as a whole. Here are the formulas for evaluating the survey parameter - sales revenue (net turnover) in one SAA. It is clear that the estimate of a parameter in the whole population is the sum of its estimates in all SAA. For simplicity, suppose the SAA consists of only one layer of the sample plan. The parameters are evaluated using additional information - sales according to VAT returns. In one case, the sum of the regression estimate and the direct estimate (Horvitz and Thompson, or H-T) is used, in the other case only the Horvitz and Thompson estimate is used.
In order to eliminate the influence of season and/or the number of working days, seasonal adjustment of the indicator time series is performed using the TRAMO / SEATS method, JDemetra + (version 2.2.2) Program. The seasonal adjustment model for the time series of the statistical indicator shall be established for one year and updated once a year, with all periods for the reference year. The horizon revision covers 4 years: the current year and 3 years backwards. Seasonal and calendar factors are used in the modelling, regressors of working/non-working days, lifting years are used; exceptions are identified and adjusted; the calendar of Lithuanian public holidays is taken into account. Statistical significance of the variables, number of exclusions, statistical characteristics of the residues (seasonality of the residues, independence, normality, etc.) are checked during validation. Seasonal adjustment and balancing is performed following recommendations laid down in “Handbook on Seasonal Adjusment (2018)“.
The purpose of statistical survey on service enterprises – to prepare and publish statistical information on the sales income (net turnover) and their indices of the enterprises engaged in the activities of transportation and storage, information and communication, business, social and cultural services. This information is necessary for the assessment of gross domestic product (GDP) in national accounts and price statistics.
12 June 2026
Net turnover (sales income) – net turnover consists of sales revenue recognised during the reference period by statistical unit in the course of sale of goods and (or) provision of services, and is presented net of all price reductions, discounts, and taxes directly related to sales revenue. All income not arising in the course of ordinary activities of the statistical unit, usually classified as ‘other (operating) income’ or ‘financial income’ in the financial statements are not included.
The indices of net turnover at current prices – is a comparative indicator showing changes in sales income over a certain period of time.
Reporting unit – legal entity, observation unit – KAU
The survey frame is based on Business Register. The frame population covers all active enterprises without any threshold, whose principal activity is classified into transportation and storage, accommodation and food service, information and communication, professional, scientific and technical, administrative and support service activities: sections H, I, J, L, M (excluding M701, M72, M75), N of NACE Rev. 2. Business Register for each enterprise provides information: EVRK Rev. 2 code (6 digit level), net turnover, number of persons employed, address and others. In 2025 the population covers 46 628 active enterprises, of which the sample population comprises 5 189 observation units.
Territory of Lithuania. The activities outside Lithuania are not included.
Month.
The survey is carried out by sampling method. The sampling plan is compiled on the basis of the information of the Statistical Register of Economic Entities on the type of economic activity of the enterprise, the number of employed persons and the annual net turnover. Enterprises are stratified by type of activity and number of persons employed. Non-response rate is low. Data are revised by collecting data for all periods of the reporting year (new information is received - data from administrative sources, respondents revise the reports submitted). Data processing errors are avoided by analyzing primary information when communicating with respondents. The coefficient of variation (CV) is used to evaluate the accuracy of the results.
Indices are transmitted to Eurostat, nationally data on net turnover is published in absolute figures (thous. EUR) and indices.
Sampling plan is a simple random stratified sample. In compiling population strata, the smallest assessment areas (hereinafter referred to as the “SAA"), i.e. the smallest non-overlapping subsets of the population where it is intended to calculate estimates of the parameters being evaluated, are taken into account. The parameters evaluated are the sums of the survey variables in the SAA and in the population as a whole. Here are the formulas for evaluating the survey parameter - sales revenue (net turnover) in one SAA. It is clear that the estimate of a parameter in the whole population is the sum of its estimates in all SAA. For simplicity, suppose the SAA consists of only one layer of the sample plan. The parameters are evaluated using additional information - sales according to VAT returns. In one case, the sum of the regression estimate and the direct estimate (Horvitz and Thompson, or H-T) is used, in the other case only the Horvitz and Thompson estimate is used.
Main statistical data source - a monthly statistical sample survey on the activities of service enterprises (sample – 5 189 respondents, i.e. 11.1 per cent of all economic entities). Statistical indicators of accommodation activity (division I55) are evaluated using statistical data of the survey of accommodation services (census survey, 522 respondens). Statistical indicators of food and beverage activities (division I56) are evaluated using statistical data of the monthly statistical sample survey of trade and catering enterprises (sample – 529 respondents, i.e. 14.9 per cent of all economic entities).
Data are transmitted monthly to Eurostat and disseminated monthly, quartely and yearly for national users.
Statistical information is published on the 60th day after the end of the reference month.
Statistical information is comparable between EU countries.
