Sewage and refuse disposal, sanitation and similar activities - structural business statistics
Statistics Norway: Statistics by subject, 10.16 Other service activities
Frequency: Annual
Timeliness: The statistics should be published within 10 months from the end of the reference period
National level
Division for Construction and Service Statistics (460)
Statistics Act Sections 2-2, 2-3 and 3-2.
None
None
The structural business statistics for construction are a part of the industrial statistics of Statistics Norway, and present detailed information about the activities in this sector on the basis of financial information. The statistics were first published in 1995
Users include public and private sector agencies, private organizations, individuals and international organizations such as EUROSTAT, as well as the National Accounts and other divisions of Statistics Norway.
The structural statistics for construction are organized according to the NACE-standard (see section 4.2) and include the following industry division:
90 Sewage and refuse disposal, sanitation and similar activities
The structural business statistics comprise most of the enterprises that are registered in the abovementioned industry division, as long as the enterprise was registered with activity in Norway in the relevant statistical year.
The exception is enterprises within the public service sectors 110, 510 and 550. Such units are not included in the structural business statistics for construction even though they should happen to have operations in the abovementioned industry.
However, all other enterprises in the public sector or owned by the public sector, i.e. units with sector codes 610, 630, 635, 660 and 680, are included in the statistics if they have activity in the abovementioned industry.
Preliminary figures are only published on 3-digit NACE-level.
For a sample of the enterprises in the population, including all enterprises with more than one local kind-of-activity unit (local KAU), the statistics are based on Trading Statements (NO) and a supplementary questionnaire. The Trading Statements are either attached to the questionnaires or submitted electronically via the Norwegian Internal Revenue Service.
Information, like the accounts and turnover, about the enterprises with only one local KAU outside the sample is obtained from the following sources:
Starting with the reference year 2004 also employment figures for enterprises included in the sample is collected through the Register of Employees and Employers (the Aa-register).
The Central Register of Establishments and Enterprises is used to obtain necessary information about the population. The VAT Register, the Central Coordinating Register for Legal Entities, information from trade organizations and direct input from the enterprises are used to update the Central Register of Establishments and Enterprises.
The population consists of all enterprises in the relevant industry divisions with registered activity in the reference year. The population is divided into subpopulations, called strata, after criteria like industrial classification and number of employees. In some of the strata, all enterprises are always included in the sample. From the remaining strata, a representative selection of enterprises is drawn. All enterprises in this sample are asked to report a full set of Trading Statements and to complete a questionnaire.
This detailed survey of accounting data is combined with the additional information from the various registers and the structural survey of Statistics Norway to form the basis for the estimation of the financial structures of the different industries and the sector as a whole.
A complete set of statements (NO with supplementary forms) is obtained from a sample of enterprises. The supplementary forms are collected by postal questionnaires, and it is possible to report data on the Internet. The questionnaires are sent out in April/May after the end of the statistical year, with a response deadline of four or five weeks. The enterprises that do not respond on the first letter will be given reminders in writing for about a further six months from the first deadline. Failure to respond is subject to fines.
For the other enterprises, sales figures and other essential accounting data were obtained from Trading Statements (NO) submitted electronically via the Norwegian Internal Revenue Service or from annual accounts in the Register of Annual Company Reports in Brønnøysund. Sales figures were furthermore obtained from enterprises in the "VAT Register".
Enterprises do not deliver information to the sources mentioned above, will receive a questionnaire
with a question about this
Revisions and corrections are carried out on the information obtained from the sample population and the structural survey. The raw data are checked against reports for last year, the Central Register of Establishments and Enterprises, the Register of Annual Company Reports in Brønnøysund and other available sources, and by contacting the respondent if necessary.
The preliminary figures are not as thoroughly revised as the final figures.
For the enterprises where a complete NO with supplementary form exists, no variables are estimated. For these enterprises the information in the forms are used.
For enterprises outside the sample that submit Trading Statements electronically, only data for the supplementary forms was estimated. Afterwards we used the existing data from the annual accounts according to the Register of Annual Company Accounts and split them up into respective sub items according to the relative shares shown in the data from the NO sample. We subsequently took data according the "VAT Register" into account in the statistical calculation.
The other items are estimated according to the division in the sample (organized by subclass and same size groups with respect to turnover, operating expenditure or other relevant distribution keys).
The NO items are estimated with sales as a key for the enterprises outside the sample where sales are obtained from the "VAT Register".
Employment figures for the enterprises are mainly obtained from the Register of Employees and Employers (the Aa-Register), but some are estimated on the basis of the enterprises’ wage costs or turnover. The Employment figures are revised, based on information from other sources, before dissemination.
If less than three enterprises/ Local KAUs represents a statistical variable, the numbers are not published. The reason is the risk that the units can be identified. This is especially critical when regional data are published
In the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) an enterprise is the smallest combination of legal entities that is an organizational unit producing goods or services, which benefits from a certain degree of autonomy in decision making.
Owners include owners of sole proprietorships, or general partnerships, and family members who work for the enterprise on a daily basis without receiving regular wages. Co-owners of limited companies and cooperatives who are paid for working for the enterprise are not included, nor are family members of owners of sole proprietorships or general partnerships when they receive regular wages.
The number of employees is mainly obtained from the Register of Employees and Employers (the Aa-Register), see section 3.6. An employee is a person that works for an employer and receive compensation in the form of wages, pay, fee, bonuses, payment in kind etc. There are conditions that the work should last for at least six days and that the employee must be employed on average four or more hours a week for the employee to be notifiable to the Aa-register. The number of employees in the structural statistics shows an average of the number that has been employed throughout the year.
Employment is the sum of owners and employees. Compared to the Registerbased Employment Statistics (http://www.ssb.no/regsys_en/), where persons are counted only in the main industry where they are employed, the structural statistics allows persons with more than one job to be counted as employee in several industries at the same time. The statistics on employment will therefore not be directly comparable.
Employment statistics show the average number of persons employed in the year.
Improvements are added while sales of used capital stock are deducted. Gross investment figures are minus incoming value added tax.
The Standard Industrial Classification (SN2002) used in Statistics Norway is based on the EU Standard NACE Rev. 1.1
Sources of error in the structural statistics are mainly errors in registers that are used for stratification and in sample selection, incorrect reporting of variables asked for, and errors in scanning or recording reported data.
Returned questionnaires are read optically and automatically checked. An optical image of the form is first saved electronically and then checked manually in order to ensure that the primary data are as correct as possible. Nevertheless, the results of a statistical survey may contain some measurement and processing errors.
Measurement errors occur when the provider of the data gives incorrect answers due to forgetfulness, misunderstanding of questions etc.
Processing errors are errors from coding or errors that occur during the transferring of information from the questionnaire to a machine-readable medium or during revisions.
Non-response, that is when the respondent does not return the form or returns the form with incomplete information, will always be an aspect of form-based surveys. In the structural business statistics, non-respondent enterprises are treated the same way as enterprises outside the sample population.
Not relevant. Preliminary figures are a full census.
In the structural business statistics, the Central Register of Establishments and Enterprises, the Register of Annual Company Reports in Brønnøysund, the VAT Register and the Register of Employees and Employers (the Aa-Register) are used in order to define the population and help collect the necessary data.
Errors in these administrative registers - like time gaps in registration, incorrectly identified unit characteristics etc. may therefore be a potential source of uncertainty in the statistics and may for instance have an impact when dividing the population into adequate strata.
Preliminary figures are published while data are still under revision, and may therefore deviate from the final figures that are published within 18 months of the end of the reference year. Preliminary data for the enterprises in the sample that has not yet responded at the time of publishing are estimated by using other sources.
Generally, when making comparisons with previously published figures it must be kept in mind that older data may have been corrected during later revisions. Updating of industries in the Central Register of Establishments and Enterprises may also have caused revisions for some of the industries. These changes have not been dated back.
Until 2003 the enterprises in the sample reported employment-figures on postal questionnaires. Starting with the reference year 2004 also employment figures for enterprises included in the sample is collected through the Register of Employees and Employers (the Aa-register).
The structural statistics on construction activities are a part of Statistics Norway industrial statistics covering most industries. Short-term statistics are published for certain industries in addition to the structural statistics. These show figures for shorter periods than one year and usually for the entire country as a whole.
The employment figures in the structural business statistics are not directly comparable with the registerbased employment statistics. The structural business statistics shows for example an average of number of employees through the year, while the registerbased employment statistics shows the number of employees in the 4. quarter. Furthermore the structural business statistics does not include enterprises within the public service sectors 110, 510 and 550. A definition of employment is given in section 4.1.
The statistics is published every year in Dagens statistikk at the Internet:
Sewage and refuse disposal, sanitation and similar activities - structural business statistics
The figures are additionally published in Statbank Norway:
Important results are also disseminated through other publications of Statistics Norway, including the Statistical yearbook, Økonomiske analyser and Økonomisk utsyn.
Bjerkseth, M.S. (1997): Evaluering av ny metode for utarbeidelse av strukturstatistikk ved seksjon 460. Notater 97/4, Statistisk sentralbyrå (in Norwegian only).
Primary data and information on sample units and population are stored temporarily in the programming language SAS, and stored permanently as text-files.