Statistics Austria

Business Statistics

Guglgasse  13,  A-1110 Wien

Quarterly business demography data (QBD) comprise quarterly data on registrations and bankruptcies of legal units. Data on bankruptcies are based on the judicial bankruptcy proceedings, and the main source is the Austrian Judicial Edict File. This data is stored in the statistical business register (SBR) and the administrative register (ABR) and enriched with characteristics from the registers. For the data of registrations, the recordings of legal units in the business register for administrative purposes (ABR) constitute the main database under certain conditions.

Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community, NACE Rev. 2, is used.

Data cover all market activities in sections B to S without section O and division S94 of NACE Rev. 2. No units are excluded from coverage because of their size.

Quarterly data on registrations are defined and compiled as follows:
Registration is the recording of a legal unit in the business register for administrative purposes (ABR) under certain conditions The following sources from the ABR are used to determine the number of registrations, the registration date and characteristics:

• Commercial register (FB)
• Chamber of Commerce (WKÖ)
• Main association of the Austrian social insurance agencies (DV)
• Chambers of the Liberal Professions (KfB)
• Basic tax data, advance sales tax returns and income tax data (tax)

The creation of the statistics on registrations takes place in several steps. In a first step, rules (conditions) are defined when a legal unit is counted as a registration:

1) Registration in the FB
2) Registration in WKÖ
3) Registration in DV as an employer
4) Registration in DV as a self-employed person
5) Registration in the Chambers of Liberal Professions as self-employed
6) Registration in the tax and sales figures ​​from the sales tax advance returns or income tax data are available.

The registrations of associations are non-market and therefore are not counted.

In a second step, the date of registration is defined. This is determined on the basis of the first sign of life in the sources, i.e. the first registration is counted.
Since the NACE Rev. 2 code is not always available in the data sources at the time of registration, the WKÖ subject allocation is used as the data source for an initial allocation of the NACE Rev. 2 code. All other missing NACE codes are estimated in a third step using a NACE distribution based on the new entries in the SBR.

Quarterly data on bankruptcies are defined and compiled as follows:
The data on the bankruptcies are based on the judicial bankruptcy proceedings. The initiation of bankruptcy proceedings of a legal unit is counted in accordance with the Bankruptcy Code - IO, RGBl. No. 337/1914. These bankruptcy proceedings are: bankruptcy opening proceedings, bankruptcy proceedings, restructuring proceedings with and without self-administration.

Data for bankruptcies are created in several steps:

(1) The main source of data is the Judicial Edict File. Data recorded there is made available by the Federal Ministry of Justice
(2) stored in the SBR and the ABR and
(3) Enriched with further characteristics.
(4) Changes of procedure are not counted, i.e. there are no double counting of legal units in the case of a change of procedure.
(5) Units that have opened bankruptcy proceedings several times in a period of 12 months are adjusted and only the first bankruptcy proceedings are counted.
(6) Subsequent distributions are excluded.
(7) For units for which NACE Rev. 2 is not available, an estimate is made using a NACE distribution based on the new entries in the SBR.

Legal unit

The target population are legal units in the following activities of NACE Rev. 2:

B-E Manufacturing
F Construction
G Wholesale and retail trade
H Transportation and storage
I Accommodation and food service activities
J Information and communication
K-N Financial Services/other services
P-S (without S94) Personal services.
Sole proprietors are included.

Austria

From first quarter 2019; no breaks in time series

Not applicable

Number of registrations and of bankruptcies, absolute values.

Reference quarter

• Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council of November 27, 2019 on European business statistics obliges to continuously compile quarterly data on registrations andbankruptcies of legal units from the first quarter of 2021 onwards.
• National Regulation for Business Demography (Unternehmensdemografiestatistik-Verordnung, BGBl. II Nr. 270/2009)

Data (QBD absolute values) are sent to Eurostat.

Confidentiality policy is laid down in the Federal Statistics Act - due to the national rules the number of units is not confidential. Therefore confidentiality is not an issue for quarterly business demography data - all data and breakdowns are published. 

Not applicable

Data on registrations and bankruptcies are released every three months (February, May, August, November). Results are published approximately 40 days after the end of the respective reporting quarter. Dates of the release are preannounced in the release calendar of statistics Austria.

https://www.stat.at/en/medien/release-calendar

The results of the statistics on bankruptcies and registrations are available free of charge to the public.

The results are published quarterly (to Eurostat and nationally at nearly the same time).

For each quarter, a press release is disseminated.

No specific thematic publications.

Registrations and bankruptcies: https://www.stat.at/en/statistics/industry-construction-trade-and-services/business-demography/registrations-and-bankruptcies

Database for registrations: https://statcube.at/statcube/opendatabase?id=deregistr

Database for bankruptcies: https://statcube.at/statcube/opendatabase?id=deinsolv

Micro data access for quarterly bankruptcies and registrations is possible through the newly created AMDC (Austrian Micro Data Catalogue) as of reference year 2019.

QBD data (absolute values) are transmitted to Eurostat within 40 days after the reference period. The transmission is done by eDAMIS using the SDMX format.

Information on the methodology of quarterly business demography data is available on the Website.

https://www.stat.at/fileadmin/pages/181/Registrations_Bankruptcies_Short-description-of-methodology.pdf

Official quality reporting on national level is done in the quality report for Business demography (which was updated in 2023).

Statistics Austria is committed to ensuring the highest quality with respect to the compilation of statistical information. In accordance with the Federal Statistics Act (Article 24), Statistics Austria has to use statistical methods and processes in compliance with internationally recognised scientific principles and standards, conduct ongoing analyses of the statistics with a view to quality improvements and ensure that statistics are as up-to-date as possible. This commitment to quality is also specified in Statistics Austria’s mission statement. In adopting the European Statistics Code of Practice, Statistics Austria has committed to adhering to principles and standards for the production and dissemination of high-quality statistics. As part of the European Statistical System (ESS), Statistics Austria recognises the Quality Declaration of the ESS. The Statistics Council has set up a Quality Assurance Committee, a primary focus of which is the ongoing examination of potential quality improvements.
Statistics Austria uses standard-documentation to provide users with information about the underlying concepts, definitions, methods used and the quality of the statistics (meta-information) in a standardised format.

In cooperation with the Statistic Committee’s Quality Assurance Committee, feedback meetings concerning the quality of the different statistical products are held regularly within the framework of Statistics Austria’s quality management programme. In addition quality audits are carried out. The content and objectives concern critical examination of the quality aspects of statistics with particular consideration of the methods and processes used; identification of quality improvement potential; development of recommendations for improvement measures; and improvement of the standard documentation relating to the statistics in question, with special attention to the views of users and external experts.
The last feedback meeting for BD statistics in Austria took place in November 2023. 

Due to the difficult economic situation and various crises, especially the data on bankruptcies are highly relevant for different kind of users.

Statistics Austria regularly carries out a user satisfaction survey. Though, this survey is not so detailed - views or opinions on quarterly data on registrations and bankruptcies in particular are not asked. 

The data on registrations and bankruptcies are complete.

Main source of errors are coverage errors in the data sources used - but in general, data sources are very complete. There is a certain time lag in availability.

As quarterly business demography statistics are based on complete enumeration, sampling error is not applicable.

The data for the last four quarters of the report are shown as provisional and are revised when a new quarter is published. The reason for this is that the relevant administrative sources to determine the time of registrations or bankruptcies are available with a certain time lag.

Quarter (relevant reporting period) + 40 days

Data were delivered on time.

For the entire national territory, the same definitions and concepts are applied.

The data is comparable over time (2019-2024), no break in time series

The difference to annual statistics on births and deaths of enterprises is that the units, definitions and reference periods are not the same (e.g. enterprises vs. legal units, registrations for administrative purposes are counted as well - starting an actual economic activity is no criterion, quarter vs. year).

Internal coherence is 100%.

As the quarterly business demography statistics are based on existing administrative sources, there is no extra burden to businesses. The costs for compilation of results at Statistics Austria is estimated by 50 person-hours for regular data production; implementation costs were 500 person-hours.

The data for the last four quarters are provisional. These data are revised when the data for a new quarter are published. The same revision policy is applied nationally and in transmission to Eurostat.

The  above-described revision policy means that slightly different data for the quarters which have been compiled earlier are produced.

Data sources for registrations:

• Business Register for Administrative Purposes (ABR)
• Commercial register (FB)
• Main association of the Austrian social insurance agencies (DV)
• Chamber of Commerce (WKÖ)
• Chambers of the Liberal Professions
• Basic tax data, advance sales tax returns and income tax data

Data sources for bankruptcies:

• Judicial bankruptcy proceedings of the judicial edict file (bankruptcy opening proceedings, bankruptcy proceedings, restructuring proceedings with and without self-administration)
• Statistical business register (SBR)
• Administrative register (ABR)

The data extraction is executed once a quarter.

The data are extracted and collected from different administrative data bases (see 3.4 and 18.1)

Different validation checks are performed, for example consistency and completeness checks, comparison with press releases of large bankruptcies, checks with SBR and external data sources, comparison with the last quarter and the reference quarter of the last year etc.

(see also 3.4)

Data compilation for registrations:
Different data sources are merged for defining the date of registration. This is determined on the basis of the first sign of life in the sources, i.e. the first registration is counted. Since the NACE Rev. 2 code is not always available in the data sources at the time of registration, the WKÖ subject allocation is used as the data source for an initial allocation of the NACE Rev. 2 code. All other missing NACE codes are estimated in a third step using a NACE distribution based on the new entries in the SBR. Finally, micro data are aggregated to the relevant NACE aggregations for publication.

Data compilation for bankruptcies:
The data on the bankruptcies are based on the judicial bankruptcy proceedings. Therefore, the main source of data is the judicial edict file. This data is stored in the statistical business register (SBR) and the administrative register (ABR) and enriched with characteristics (e.g. NACE). large units are checked manually. Missing NACE codes are estimated in a third step using a NACE distribution based on the new entries in the SBR. Finally, micro data are aggregated to the relevant NACE aggregations for publication.

not applicable

no specific comments