About the statistics

1. Administrative information

1.1. Name

Agricultural properties

1.2. Subject group

10.04 - Agriculture and forestry

1.3. Frequency and timeliness

Annually.

1.4. Regional level

County and municipality.

1.5. Responsible division

430 - Division for Primary Industry Statistics

1.6. Legal authority

The Statistics Act §§2-1, 3-2

1.7. Legal document(EU)

Not relevant.

1.8. International reporting

Not relevant.

2. Background and purpose

2.1. Purpose and history

The statistics describes buildings, habitation and areas on agricultural properties. The statistics also give information about the owners of the properties and theirs business.

2.2. Users and applications

Users include public and private sector agencies, organizations and individuals.

3. Statistics production

3.1. Population

The statistics comprise all properties in the Farm Register of the Norwegian Agricultural Authority with at least 5 decares owned agricultural area and/or at least 25 decares productive forest area.

3.2. Data sources

The Farm Register of the Norwegian Agricultural Authority serves as the backbone of the statistics. The information from the Farm Register is combined with information at property level from different data sources like the Cadsatre System (no: Matrikkelen), the Central Population register, the Cultural Heritage Register (SEFRAK), SSB’s population of agricultural holdings, the Register on Personal Tax Returns and the Register on Tax Assessment for Personal Taxpayers.

3.3. Sampling

Not relevant.

3.4. Collection of data

All data are collected from administrative registers.

3.5. Control and revision

Data are checked by various machine controls.

3.6. Estimation

Not relevant.

3.7. Confidentiality

Figures are not presented if there is a risk of identifying any unit.

4. Concepts, variables and classifications

4.1. Definitions of the main concepts and variables

Agricultural and forestry property

Property that is used for or could be used for agriculture and/or forestry. All agricultural/forestry area belonging to the same owner within a municipality is regarded as one property, irrespective of the number of cadastral units.

Type of building

Type of building is determined according to the function of the building. In this statistics dwelling houses include buildings with the following building codes in the cadastral system; 111 – 199, excluding code 161, 171, 172, 181, 182 and 183. Agricultural buildings include buildings with the following codes in cadastral system; 231 – 290 and mountain farm huts, cabins for forest workers and boat-houses etc. 171, 172 and 183. Other buildings include the remaining codes and buildings missing code.

Building activity last 10 years

Information is collected from the cadastral system. Building activity last 10 years refers to construction of new buildings or extension of existing buildings in the last ten years period.

Inhabitation

An agricultural property is inhabited when at least one person has the property as place of residence registered in the Central Population register.

4.2. Standard classifications

Type of building

5. Sources of error and uncertainty

5.1. Measurement and processing errors

Errors may arise when data are entered into the various administrative registers.

5.2 Non-response errors

A concern is the quality of the Farm Register. The productive forest area of the properties is sometimes missing or erroneous. We also believe that some small properties without buildings and entrepreneurial activity may lack in the register.'

5.3. Sampling errors

Not relevant.

5.4. Other sources of error

Even though the registers have good quality, some errors could occur due to late or missing updating and classification errors. For instance, an agricultural property may contain a cadastral unit recently transferred to non-agricultural use. For instance, nursing homes and rental housing may be counted together with an agricultural property.

In that cases the number of inhabited will be corrected on cadstral level. Cadastral units with buildings as nursing homes, retirement homes, block of flats etc, or with buildings with more than six residences, the number of inhabited are corrected. In total, 19 000 persons are taken away from the agricultural properties.

6. Comparability and coherence

6.1. Comparability over time and space

Corresponding statistic are worked out for 2000. When comparing data from 2000 with data from 2006 and later, improved quality of the registers and different demarcation of the population may influence the statistics at municipality level.

In 2000, one of the indicators was "Inhabited on agricultural properties with building". From 2006 this was changed to" Inhabited on agricultural properties with dwelling house".

Introduction of property tax in some municipalities may cause changes in the classification of buildings by type of building. In special, holiday homes encoded as farmhose or detached house will influence on the share of properties with dwelling house.

At the moment a quality improvement of areas and units in the Farm Register is carried out at municipality level. This quality improvement will be finnished in 2010. For some municipalities this will result in considerable changes from one year to another.

As from 2007 information about registered owner of agricultural properties comes from the Cadastral System (Matrikkelen). More than 30 000 agricultural properties have more than one owner. In that cases, the owner with the largest share is choosen. If the share is equal, the oldest owner is choosen.

Before 2007, information of owners comes from the Farm Register. In some cases a contact person or a management company are registered as the property owner in that register. It is not clear in what way the information about the owner are treated when only a part of the property is sold.

Buildings registered without the need for application, after the introduction of the data register Matrikkelen in 2008, have to varying degrees been registered with all necessary information. In 2008 and 2009, this in turn has led to an underestimation of buildings in the agricultural sector. In 2010, 5000-6000 buildings were registered without need of application.

 

6.2. Coherence with other statistics

Not relevant.

7. Availability

7.1. Publications and other links

The statistics are published in Today's statistics.

7.2. Microdata

Primary data are stored at Statistics Norway.


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