Forestry, sample survey of agriculture and forestry (discontinued), 2008, preliminary figures

County

Annual.

Not relevant

Edited microdata are stored in Statistics Norway.

The purpose of the Survey of Forestry is to obtain relevant data not found in administrative data systems, and to obtain data for units not covered by administrative systems.

The Survey of Forestry is one of several data sources which together shall complete a picture of the agricultural and forest industry in Norway. The themes in the survey vary from year to year. Questions about labour force, debt, investments, fixed assets, extended forest survey and environmental themes like about tilling and fertilizing practices appear frequently.

Data from the survey are used by professional organizations, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, the Ministry of Environment, various research institutions such as the Norwegian Agricultural Economics Research Institute and the Division for Environmental Statistics at Statistics Norway.

Results from the Sample survey of Forestry 2008 may be compared with official statistics based on registers such as the statistics on Commercial roundwood removals and Silviculture.

Statistics Act §§2-1, 2-2, 2-3.

Not relevant

The population is holdings and properties registered in the administrative Farm Register of the Norwegian Agricultural Authority, and covers all units that meet one or more minimum conditions related to areas or number of livestock. Examples of such conditions are that a holding must have at least 5 decares of agricultural area in use and a forest property must have at least 100 decares of productive forest area.

The majority of the data comes directly from respondents who fill in a form for the annual survey. The Farm Register provides basic information on the size of the agricultural and forest areas and persons associated with the property/holding as owner/holder.

Each year a sample is drawn from the Farm Register for the Survey of Forestry. In 2008 the sample included 9.418 forest properties, stratified by the size of the productive forest area and county.

Forms are sent to the properties/holdings included in the survey. The owner or holder provides the data. The municipal agricultural administration plays an important role in the collection of forms and also roughly inspects the forms before they are forwarded to Statistics Norway.

A number of controls and corrections are done to ensure consistency both within a single form and between forms and available register information. During this work, the local agriculture offices are contacted to clear up various lacks and ambiguities.

The Sample Survey of Forestry 2008 is based on a classification of the population of properties with at least 100 decares productive forest area in 8 size classes of productive forest area and 18 counties (Oslo and Akershus together) - totally 144strata. In each stratum a drawing probability (percentage) is decided. The drawing per cent is increased in strata with few properties. On this basis an extrapolation factor is created for each property in the sample. This factor is like the ratio between the number of properties in the population and in the samples in each stratum.

Any statistics based on three respondents or less are not published.

In the years 1971-1989 Statistics Norway worked out separate sample surveys of forestry. The sample used in the period 1971-1979 was drawn from the Census of Forestry 1967. The sample used in the years 1980-1989 was drawn from the Census of Agriculture and Forestry 1979. The Census of Agriculture and Forestry 1979 was the first complete census conducted in Norway that included both agriculture and forestry.

From 1990 a yearly sample survey of agriculture and forestry has been conducted. The sample used for the period 1990 - 1998 was drawn from the Census of Agriculture and Forestry 1989. As from 2000 the sample is drawn from the Farm Register of the Norwegian Agricultural Authority.