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 Quarterly Business Demography data collection covers the following two indicators:
Business Registrations (BURE)
Business Bankruptcies (BUBA)
The statistic offers quarterly information on the number of registrated companies, and the number of bankrupted companies in the reference period.
3.2. Classification system
The classification system used is the NACE rev 2.0
3.3. Coverage - sector
The number of registrations and bankruptcies are classified by their main activity in the following NACE rev 2.0 breakdowns:
BTE (sections B to E)
F
G
H
I
J
KTN (sections K to N)
PTSXS94 (sections P to S except S94)
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
BURE
Registration The act of registering a new company in the mercantile register.
Company The company corresponds to an organisation unit that produces goods and services, and that enjoys a certain autonomy in decision-making, mainly at the time of using the available current resources. The company carries out one or more economic activities in one or more places.
BUBA
Bankruptcy court order Court order issued by the judge of a mercantile court notifying of bankruptcy proceedings. Persons affected by these are considered in "concurso de acreedores".
Bankrupt debtors Natural or legal person legally declared in "concurso de acreedores" by a bankruptcy court order
3.5. Statistical unit
BURE
The statistical units are the created companies, recorded in the mercantile registers during the reference period.
BUBA
The statistical units are the bankrupt debtors declared during the reference period.
3.6. Statistical population
BURE
The statistical population is made up of all the companies registered in the Registro Mercantil Central.
BUBA
The statistical population is made up of all the bankrupt debtors.
3.7. Reference area
The entire Spanish territory
3.8. Coverage - Time
The statistics are carried out on a quarterly basis. There is available data from 2021Q1
3.9. Base period
Not applicable because data is sent in absolute figures
BURE
Pure number of created companies
BUBA
Pure number of bankrupt debtors
The reference period is the natural quarter
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
This statistics is made according to:
REGULATION (EU) 2019/2152 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 27 November 2019 on European business statistics, repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistics
COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) 2020/1197 of 30 July 2020 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 statistics
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
The BUBA indicator is made by the CORPME (Colegio de Registradores de la Propiedad y Mercantiles de España) and is first sent to the INE. Then the INE sends it to Eurostat along with the BURE indicator.
The exchange of information between the CORPME and the INE is regulated by the FFEP (Law of the Public Statistic Function)
In order to produce the aggregates for the European Union, QBD data are transmitted to Eurostat every quarter using the EDAMIS platform. Eurostat is the only international organisation receiving this data.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
Data may be public
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
Both Registrations and Bankruptcies data are public data. Registrations must be made public in the BORME and bankruptcies must be be made public in the BOE. For this, there is no need to apply extra measures to ensure confidentiality.
8.1. Release calendar
No national dissemination.
8.2. Release calendar access
Not applicable.
8.3. Release policy - user access
Not applicable or Transmitted to Eurostat.
The statistics are disseminated by Eurostat on a quarterly basis. The statistics is not disseminated by the INE.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
News Release is not published.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
There is no specific paper publication for QBD data.
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
QBD data are not published in online database.
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
Microdata are/are not available in online database.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
QBD data have been disseminated to Eurostat through eDamis.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
BURE
BURE indicator is made based on the data of Mercantile Companies Statistics. Its methodology can be consulted in the Standardised Methodological Report.
BUBA
BURE indicator is made based on the data of Bankruptcy Proceedings Statistics. Its methodology can be consulted in Standardised Methodological Report.
10.7. Quality management - documentation
Fields 10.6 to 17 constitute the user-oriented quality report of this operation.
11.1. Quality assurance
Quality controls are made for the national statistics the QBD indicators are based on.
The national statistics the QBD indicators are based on are high-quality statistical operations that meet all criteria of coherence, comparability, precision and timeliness.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Statistics users include:
Ministries and other public bodies, answers to parliamentary requests.
Territorial administrations (Autonomous Communities, municipal councils, etc.), for dissemination of their territorial data.
Companies and non-profit institutions.
Each one of these users have different needs according to the purpose and use they will make of the information they require.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
BURE
The INE has carried out general user satisfaction surveys in 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019 and it plans to continue doing so every three years. These surveys cover the national statistics the BURE indicator is based on (Mercantile Companies Statistics). The purpose of these surveys is to find out what users think about the quality of the information of the INE statistics and the extent to which their needs of information are covered. In addition, additional surveys are carried out in order to acknowledge better other fields such as dissemination of the information, quality of some publications...
On the INE website, in its section Methods and Projects / Quality and Code of Practice / INE quality management / User surveys are available surveys conducted to date.(User surveys).
The specific needs of users, which are not covered with the information provided by these statistics, are taken into account whenever customised requests are carried out, and to the extent possible, are incorporated in the statistics when the methodology is updated.
BUBA
The BUBA indicator is calculated based on the national Bankruptcy Proceedings Statistics, whic is made by the Colegio de Registradores de la Propiedad, Mercantiles y Bienes Muebles de España (CORPME).
COPME has not yet done any user satisfaction surveys but plans to do one every three years. The purpose of these surveys will be to find out what users think about the quality of the information of the CORPME statistics and the extent to which their needs of information are covered. In addition, additional surveys are carried out in order to acknowledge better other fields such as dissemination of the information, quality of some publications...
12.3. Completeness
The indicators provide all the information required by the regulation mentioned in section 6 of this metadata file.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
The procedure for collection, coverage control, error filtering and validation of the information allow obtaining a high degree of reliability in the statistics.
13.2. Sampling error
As quarterly business demography indicators are "event based" statistics based on complete enumeration, sampling error is not applicable.
13.3. Non-sampling error
As for other administrative event based data, the registration delays might be a source of errors, in particular for declarations of bankruptcies. For example, there might be a delay longer than 40 days for registering a declaration of bankruptcy for the reference quarter ("data collection and access error"). This issue is adressed via data revisions.
14.1. Timeliness
INE reports the data to Eurostat within 40 days after the end of the reference quarter (Q+40). Dissemination is done by Eurostat afterwards.
14.2. Punctuality
All the QBD reports are made within the stablished Q+40 days limit
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Data are comparable between countries. Results are based on the requirements of the EU Regulation, which is in use in all EU Member States. This ensures a good comparability between national data and high-quality European aggregates.
The same statistical concepts are applied in all the regions within Spain. Therefore there is a good comparability within Spanish regions.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Data on QBD indicators is available from 1st quarter of 2021. Including the last quarter of 2024 ,the length of the comparable time series data is CC2=16.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
The BURE indicator is made from the data of the national Mercantile Company Statistics, which follows the same trend as the Company Statistics compiled by the Central Mercantile Register.
The BUBA indicator is made from the data of the national Bankruptcy Proceedings Statistics, which follows the same trend as the data disseminated by Consejo General del Poder Judicial (CGPJ).
15.4. Coherence - internal
NACE breakdowns are consistent within the publication. There are controls to ensure that NACE section PTSXS94 figures are compatible with the other sections.
COST
The BURE indicator is made based on the data of Mercantile Companies Statistics. The budgetary credit necessary to finance this statistics in the Annual Program 2024 comes to a total of 55.64 thousand euros.
The BUBA indicator is made based on the data of Bankruptcy Proceedings Statistics. The budgetary credit necessary to finance this statistics in the Annual Program 2024 comes to a total of 41.80 thousand euros.
BURDEN
The national statistics which are used to make the QBD indicators use administrative sources so the information is already held by the administration. Therefore, making these QBD indicators does not involve any cost for the users, as it doesn't need their participation to obtain the data.
17.1. Data revision - policy
BURE
The INE of Spain has a policy which regulates the basic aspects of statistical data revision, seeking to ensure process transparency and product quality. This policy is laid out in the document approved by the INE board of directors on 13 March of 2015, which is available on the INE website, in the section "Methods and projects/Quality and Code of Practice/INE’s Quality management/INE’s Revision policy" (INE's Revision policy).
This general policy sets the criteria that the different type of revisions should follow: routine revision- it is the case of statistics whose production process includes regular revisions-; more extensive revision- when methodological or basic reference source changes take place-; and exceptional revision- for instance, when an error appears in a published statistic-.
For some statistics, in which users particularly value having data as soon as possible, the initial estimates are published with the expectation that they might be revised and updated when new data is available. This is characteristic of short-term statistics, such as the monthly or quarterly statistics.
The same revision policy is applied both nationally and in transmission to Eurostat.
BUBA
The BUBA indicators are based on the data of the Estadística del Procedimiento Concursal, publiched by the CORPME (Colegio Oficial de Registradores de la Propiedad y Mercantiles de España). Its revision policy can be seen here: (Standardise Methodological Report)
17.2. Data revision - practice
BURE indicator figures are not revised, as Mercantile Companies Statistics national data revisions show minimal changes from initial to final data.
BUBA indicator figures are revised once. When the initial data of a given year is disseminated, the final data of the previous year is disseminated too.
As of 6 June of 2025, final BUBA data has been published for the quarters 2022Q1 - 2024Q1 (9 periods). The MAR and RMAR indicators for these periods are:
MAR = 575.89 RMAR = 24.95%
These indicators have been calculated using the number of bankruptcies for the biggest breakdown BTSXO_S94.
18.1. Source data
The BURE indicator is made based on the data of Mercantile Companies Statistics. Its source data is the information regarding the registerable acts of the companies is obtained from the territorial mercantile registers, which each month send the Central Mercantile Register all the company movements. The Central Mercantile Register is the body that sends the INE the information necessary for compiling the statistics, and it does so via computer media.
The BUBA indicator is made based on the data of Bankruptcy Proceedings Statistics. Its source data is Registro Público Concursal, a database held by the CORPME that is fed by the commercial courts of Spain.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
The data used to make the BURE indicator is received by the INE on a monthly basis.
The data used to make the BUBA indicator is continuosly (daily) being incorporated in the Registro Público Concursal.
18.3. Data collection
Administrative sources are used to make the QBD indicators.
For the BURE indicator, The Central Mercantile Register sends the data in an encrypted file via e-mail, to the INE.
For the BUBA indicator, the CORPME has direct access to the administrative database Registro Público Concursal.
18.4. Data validation
Data is sent to Eurostat using the Edamis platform. Data must pass the structural and content validations (STRUVAL and CONVAL) in Edamis to be accepted.
18.5. Data compilation
There is no treatment for non-response.
18.6. Adjustment
No adjustment is made at national level.
Seasonal adjustment is done by Eurostat using the non-adjusted national data.
Not applicable
The Quarterly Business Demography data collection covers the following two indicators:
Business Registrations (BURE)
Business Bankruptcies (BUBA)
The statistic offers quarterly information on the number of registrated companies, and the number of bankrupted companies in the reference period.
6 June 2025
BURE
Registration The act of registering a new company in the mercantile register.
Company The company corresponds to an organisation unit that produces goods and services, and that enjoys a certain autonomy in decision-making, mainly at the time of using the available current resources. The company carries out one or more economic activities in one or more places.
BUBA
Bankruptcy court order Court order issued by the judge of a mercantile court notifying of bankruptcy proceedings. Persons affected by these are considered in "concurso de acreedores".
Bankrupt debtors Natural or legal person legally declared in "concurso de acreedores" by a bankruptcy court order
BURE
The statistical units are the created companies, recorded in the mercantile registers during the reference period.
BUBA
The statistical units are the bankrupt debtors declared during the reference period.
BURE
The statistical population is made up of all the companies registered in the Registro Mercantil Central.
BUBA
The statistical population is made up of all the bankrupt debtors.
The entire Spanish territory
The reference period is the natural quarter
The procedure for collection, coverage control, error filtering and validation of the information allow obtaining a high degree of reliability in the statistics.
BURE
Pure number of created companies
BUBA
Pure number of bankrupt debtors
There is no treatment for non-response.
The BURE indicator is made based on the data of Mercantile Companies Statistics. Its source data is the information regarding the registerable acts of the companies is obtained from the territorial mercantile registers, which each month send the Central Mercantile Register all the company movements. The Central Mercantile Register is the body that sends the INE the information necessary for compiling the statistics, and it does so via computer media.
The BUBA indicator is made based on the data of Bankruptcy Proceedings Statistics. Its source data is Registro Público Concursal, a database held by the CORPME that is fed by the commercial courts of Spain.
The statistics are disseminated by Eurostat on a quarterly basis. The statistics is not disseminated by the INE.
INE reports the data to Eurostat within 40 days after the end of the reference quarter (Q+40). Dissemination is done by Eurostat afterwards.
Data are comparable between countries. Results are based on the requirements of the EU Regulation, which is in use in all EU Member States. This ensures a good comparability between national data and high-quality European aggregates.
The same statistical concepts are applied in all the regions within Spain. Therefore there is a good comparability within Spanish regions.
Data on QBD indicators is available from 1st quarter of 2021. Including the last quarter of 2024 ,the length of the comparable time series data is CC2=16.
