Statistics Netherlands

Business Statistics Heerlen

Henri Faasdreef 312, 2492 JP Den Haag

The number of bankruptcy orders issued by Dutch courts and the number of businesses that are newly registered. Quarterly business demography (QBD) comprises data on registrations and bankruptcies of legal units in the country. Data are collected as absolute values. Key data sets for dissemination are indices of registrations of legal units and legal units that have started bankruptcy procedures. The sources of data are court rullings for backruptcies and information from the Chamber of Commerce for registrations.

Nace rev2

Activities covered: The ‘registrations of new businesses’ and bankruptcies cover the Nace sections B to S, exluding O and S94.

List and definition of variables: Bankruptcy: A legal proceeding involving a legal entity (person or company) that has ceased to repay outstanding debts and is declared bankrupt by the court. All assets and income of the entity (the debtor) are seized and used to repay the debts. Bankruptcy may be initiated by a creditor, the debtor or the public prosecutor’s office. After payment of the assets and income to the creditors, the bankruptcy is filed as completed, but the debtor is often not free of debts as any residual debts will remain payable. Moreover, a declaration of bankruptcy at the request of a creditor is only possible if there are debts to other creditors as well.Number of business registered: the numbef of legal units newly registered at the chamber of commerce.

Reporting unit: There is no Reporting unit. Statistics Netherlands uses data that is already available at Statistics Netherlands.

Observation unit(s): Enterprises, institutions, natural persons with and withouth sole proprietorship.

 Bankruptcies: Enterprises, institutions, natural persons with and withouth sole proprietorship. The statistical population for registrations includes all legal forms.

The geographical area covered is the Netherlands. 

Bankruptcies: The first period is 2010 Q1.

Registrations: The first period is 2013 Q2. 

Not applicable.

The number of bankruptcies and the number of registrations 

Data on bancruptcies are published on a monthly basis at the website of Statistics Netherlands and transmission to Eurostat is also on a monthly basis. Registrations are not published on Statistics Netherlands website as births of enterprises (definition conform Eurostat/OECD Manual on Business Demography) are published on a quarterly basis.

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. The CBS Law of 2003 is available in English and Dutch. The public can find it at the CBS website (https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/over-ons/organisatie/jaarverslag/statistics-netherlands-act). 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". For the surveys carried out under the provisions of the Law of 2003 irregularities with respect the obligation to provide information can be punished with a fine of a maximum of EUR 5,000.

European legal basis: 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 (CELEX 32019R2152), Table 1 of the Commission implementing regulation 2020/1197.

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 https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/over-ons/organisatie/jaarverslag/statistics-netherlands-act.
These figures are only sent to Eurostat.

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 (https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/over-ons/organisatie/jaarverslag/statistics-netherlands-act).

The number of registrations and bankruptcies are not confidential.

Bankruptcies: A rolling 5 month-ahead release calendar is published in the schedule by date of Statistics Netherlands. When approximate release dates are given, the precise dates are announced on the last working day of the week prior to the release.

Registrations: Not applicable.

https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/publication-calendar

Simultaneous release to all interested parties:

Bankruptcies: Data are released simultaneously to all interested parties by issuing a press release through the internet website of Statistics Netherlands.

Registrations: Registrations on the basis of legal units are not published by Statistics Netherlands, only transmission to Eurostat.

Identification of internal government access to data before release:

Bankruptcies: There is no internal government access to the data before their release to the public.

Registrations: There is no internal government access to the data before their release to Eurostat.

Transmission to Eurostat and further use of the statistics:

Bankruptcies: As soon as the quarterly figures are published on the internet, they are also provided to Eurostat.

Registrations on the basis of legal units are not published by Statistics Netherlands.

Quarterly.

Bankruptcies: There is no ministerial commentary on the occasion of the release of the data. With each monthly release a standard news articel is released on: https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/economy/enterprises.

Registrations: Not applicable.

Name of national paper publications:

Bankruptcies: The number of bankruptcies are not published in paper publications.

Registrations: Not applicable.

Name of national electronic dissemination:

Bankruptcies: The number of bankruptcies are published on the internet (https://opendata.cbs.nl/#/CBS/en/dataset/82242ENG/table?dl=69B17).

Registrations: Not applicable.

Bankruptcies: You can find the online database by using the link: https://opendata.cbs.nl/#/CBS/en/dataset/82242ENG/table?dl=69B17.

Registrations: Not applicable.

There is no user access to microdata.

The data are transmitted quartely to Eurostat and the bankruptcies are disseminated monthly to national users by our online database Statline. 

Dissemination of documentation on methodology and sources used in preparing statistics:

Bankruptcies: Documentation of the used methodology is published on the internet (https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/our-services/methods/surveys/korte-onderzoeksbeschrijvingen/bankruptcies). 

Registrations: Not applicable.

There are internal quality reports that are used for the validation of the data to be published every month. There is no general report available describing the different quality indicators of these statistics. 

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. 

The quality of the STS statistics are considered good. All quality aspects for STS statistics have been covered. 

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 and ECB, national governments and central banks, economic analysts in private companies and financial institutions) and serve different purposes. 

Not available.

The data series is complete. There are no gaps or missing data parts and the series are according to the requirements of Eurostat. 

The statistical errors are considered small. However it is an external source. 

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Timeliness: QBD data are prepared and transmitted to Eurostat within 40 days after the reference period.

The figures are transfered to Eurostat well within the deadlines.

Bankruptcies: The STS Regulations and the STS methodological guidelines are applied by the countries transmitting STS data. This ensures a good comparability between national data and good-quality European aggregates. However, the data are not 100% comparable with other countries. Each country may apply different collection methods (surveys, use of administrative sources) and different calculation procedures for the data. Within the Netherlands, seperate geographical data is compiled, thus there is possible comparability between regions such as provinces. 

Bankruptcies: The time series from 2010 on should be comparable over time, since no major changes in methodology or sources have been implemented in that period.

Registrations: The time series from 2013 on should be comparable over time, since no major changes in methodology or sources have been implemented in that period. 

Registrations: Registrations and Enterprise births differ in 2 aspects: 1) Registrations are based on legal units whereas births are based on enterprises that may consist of more than 1 legal unit. Enterprise births are corrected for several administrive events such as reactivation, mergers, split-offs. 

Bankruptcies: Not applicable. 

Not applicable (only one series). 

Not applicable. Statistics Netherlands uses data that is already available. The persons hours per year for Stastistics Netherlands is about 64 hours. 

Bankruptcies: The figures are published two weeks after the end of the reporting month. The figures remain preliminary three months before they become definite. There is no database for revisions and corrections.
Bankruptcies: Major changes in methodology are communicated centrally in advance. They are also briefly explained in the press releases and table explanations of the web-database (Statline) at the moment of publication using the new methodology.

Registrations: Not applicable

The same revision policy is applied nationally and in transmission to Eurostat.

Conforming to policy. 

Type of source:

Bankruptcies: The data is based on an administrative source.

Registrations: The figures are based on the Statistical Business Register, which copies overnight all relevant data from an administrative source.

Frame on which the source is based:

Bankruptcies: The source is based on the bankruptcy orders issues by Dutch courts.

Registrations: Bases on total population of legal units in Chamber of Commerce Register.

Bankruptcies: The data collection is daily.

Registrations: The data is available on a monthly basis. The output is calculated quarterly. 

Bankruptcies: Each day published relevant bankruptcy orders issued by Dutch courts are sent.
Registrations: Not applicable.

Bankruptcy data is checked for duplicity, relevancy and valid characteristics.
Registrations: The validity of the results is done by examining the tables and graphs constructed by R-scripts.

Estimates for non-response: not applicable.
Estimates for grossing-up to population levels: not applicable.
Planned changes in production methods: There are no changes planned. Microdata are collected from a database, aggregated into the relevant Nace groups and tabulated.

There are no manipulations made on the data.  

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