This is not the latest documentation of the statistics.
Structural business and financial statement statistics: documentation of statistics
29.9.2022 valid documentation
Basic data of the statistics
Data description
The structural business and financial statement statistics describe enterprises operating in Finland. The statistics comprise industry-specific data on the number of enterprises, personnel and financial statements. The data are published in accordance with sectoral classification, legal form, type of ownership and size category. The data on enterprises' financial statements describe the formation of profit, profitability and balance sheet structure in different industries. The examined variables are profit and loss account and balance sheet data, and parameters calculated from them. Financial statement statistics for credit institutions, investment service companies, life insurance and non-life insurance companies can be found from separate database tables. Separate tables on non-profit institutions can be found in connection with the statistics.
Statistical population
Enterprises engaged in business activities in Finland constitute the population of the structural business and financial statement statistics. The key classification variables of the statistics, such as industry, sector, legal form, type of ownership, and the size category of wage and salary earners, are obtained from the Register of Enterprises and Establishments of Statistics Finland. Enterprises are selected for the statistics on the basis of criteria for the operating period, personnel, turnover and balance sheet. Persons carrying on a business using single-entry bookkeeping are also included in the statistics. Market-based enterprises and foreign branches are also included. The structural business and financial statement statistics are based on the business tax data of the Finnish Tax Administration and the inquiries carried out among enterprises by Statistics Finland. The business tax data contain financial statements data on all enterprises and persons carrying on a business under the Business Tax Act. The structural inquiries among enterprises produce information on the number of wage and salary earners and industries. The financial statements inquiries carried out by Statistics Finland produce detailed information on enterprises’ turnover, expenditure and investments.
Statistical unit
The structural business and financial statement statistics are published for enterprises and legal units. According to Statistics Finland’s definition, an enterprise is a unit with decision-making autonomy, which produces goods and/or services for sale in the market. An enterprise may comprise one or more legal units. If an enterprise comprises more than one legal unit, transactions between the units have been eliminated.
Legal units include:
Legal units include:
- persons carrying on a business, trade or profession in their own name, or in the name of a registered firm
- legal persons (such as limited liability company, limited partnership, general partnership, cooperative, savings bank and economic association)
- market-based enterprises.
Unit of measure
EUR 1,000, per cent and the number of personnel are used as the units of measure in the statistics’ database tables.
Base period
The structural business and financial statement statistics are not index-based. The data are specific for each year.
Reference period
A calendar year is used as the reference period for the structural business and financial statement statistics. As the data relate to the accounting period that ended in the statistical year, the accounting period does not always follow the calendar year. Extended and shortened accounting periods are converted to correspond to 12 months.
Reference area
The structural business and financial statement statistics are published on the level of the entire country. The financial statements data also cover activities outside Finland that are included in the enterprise’s financial statements produced in Finland. Thus, the turnover described in the statistics may also include goods sent abroad for processing and sales of goods and services from abroad to abroad.
Sector coverage
The structural business and financial statement statistics cover all industries, legal forms, types of ownership and business sector categories. Enterprises that have operated for more than six months in the statistical year and have employed more than 0.5 persons, or have a balance sheet total of more than EUR 170,000 or have more than EUR 50 000 of net investments or a turnover exceeding an annually determined statistical limit (EUR 12,273 in 2021) are included in the statistics. The data contained in the basic table of the statistics are published by main industry and for all sub-industries. Data at different classification levels are published at main industry and 2-digit levels. Enterprises engaged in agriculture, forestry and fishery (industry A) in which income from agriculture has exceeded the statistical turnover limit in the statistical year are included in the statistics. Only personal data on agriculture are comprehensively included in the statistics. For industry 02, only the units in which income from forestry has exceeded the statistical limit are included in the statistics. Only the number of enterprises and personnel data are published for financial and insurance activities (TOL K). There are two small enterprises engaged in the manufacture of tobacco products (TOL 12000), and the turnover of both enterprises exceeds the statistical limit. The data on these enterprises are not published for the industry they represent, and neither enterprise is included in the combined figures for all industries. Publishing these data would lead to the protection of data on industries that are significantly more important. Financial statements of enterprises are published for industries B to S Financial statement statistics for credit institutions, investment service companies, life insurance and non-life insurance companies can be found from separate database tables. These tables include only companies that are supervised by the Financial Supervisory Authority. Thus the tables do not cover for example foreign filiates operating in Finland. With a few exceptions, the financial statement data for industries B to S excl. K are published by main category and at the 2-digit level of the Standard Industrial Classification.
Time coverage
The annual data contained in the Business Register and the financial statements data of the structural business statistics were combined into the structural business and financial statement statistics in 2013. Annual data contained in the statistics can be found on the website of the statistics and in Statistics Finland’s StatFin database for the period from 2013 to 2018. The data are not revised. Financial statements data can be found in Statistics Finland’s StatFin database for the period from 1999 to 2012. Data for years prior to 1998 are available in paper publications for the period from 1974 to 1998. Annual data entered in the Business Register are contained in Statistics Finland’s StatFin database for the period from 1993 to 2012. Data for the years before 1993 are available as paper publications.
Frequency of dissemination
The structural business and financial statement statistics are published twice a year on the website of Statistics Finland. The preliminary data are published in September of the year following the statistical year, and the final data in December.
Concepts
Assets covering technical provision
Assets covering technical provision is the result for the financial period in the insurance technical calculation of the insurance company. The main items in the calculation of assets covering technical provision are earned premium, claims incurred and operating expenses. In Finland, the income and expenses of investment activities for life insurance and pension insurance companies are included in the insurance technical calculation, not for non-life insurance companies.
Business ID (Identity code)
Business ID, or business and organisation code, is an identifying code given by authorities to all legal units.
The Business ID consists of seven numbers, a hyphen and a control number.
The Business ID consists of seven numbers, a hyphen and a control number.
Change in the provision for outstanding claims
The change in the provision for outstanding claims is the difference of the provision for outstanding claims at the beginning and end of the financial period. The change in the provision for outstanding claims is visible in the profit and loss account and claims incurred directed to the financial period can be determined as the sum of it and claims paid.
Change in the provision for unearned premiums
Calculated as the difference of the provision for unearned premiums at the beginning and end of the financial period. The change in the provision for unearned premiums is visible in the profit and loss account and earned premium directed to the financial period can be determined as the sum of premium income and provision for unearned premiums.
Claims incurred
Claims incurred consist of claims paid and changes in the provision for outstanding claims, from which reinsurers' shares are deducted. The part of claims to be paid is allocated to claims incurred that are directed to the financial period. Claims incurred are thus recorded on accrual basis.
Claims paid
Claims paid are recorded as expenses for the period when the benefits are paid before the reinsurers' share. The recording of claims paid is thus made on accrual basis. In addition to benefits, claims paid also include claims handling expenses.
Co-operative society
A community engaged in economic activity to benefit its members, whose number of members and capital are varying. The members participate in the activity by exploiting the services of the community. The founders of a co-operative society must number at least one. A co-operative society is entered into the Trade Register. A co-operative bank is a co-operative society engaged in banking activity.
Corporation subject to taxation
Corporations subject to taxation include: 1) corporations subject to taxation, 2) bodies jointly and severally liable for tax withholding, such as unregistered companies, foundations or association, 3) jointly owned forests, 4) farms, 5) trade associations and 6) other units subject to taxation.
Derivative instruments
Premiums paid for derivative instruments, including positive fair values of derivative instruments included among assets.
Direct insurance
Insurance business received by the insurance company directly from the policy holder. In direct insurance the policy holder is a customer that is not another insurance company
Earned premium
Earned premium consists of the sum of premium income and change in premium income, from which the reinsurers’ shares are deducted. Earned premium is income allocated from premium income directed to the financial period. Earned premium is thus recorded on accrual basis.
Enterprise
An enterprise is a unit with decision-making autonomy, which produces goods and/or services to be sold on the market.
Enterprise corresponds to legal unit, if the legal unit is not part of an enterprise group. Otherwise, the enterprise is an enterprise group or part of one.
The definition of enterprise is based on the EU regulation concerning statistical units (EEC) 696/93.
Enterprise corresponds to legal unit, if the legal unit is not part of an enterprise group. Otherwise, the enterprise is an enterprise group or part of one.
The definition of enterprise is based on the EU regulation concerning statistical units (EEC) 696/93.
Enterprise Group Register
The largest enterprise groups operating in Finland are entered into the Enterprise Group Register. Data on an enterprise groups' turnover, balance sheet total and number of employees are entered annually into the Enterprise Group Register. In addition, information is recorded about the structure of the enterprise group: its group head, subsidiary companies, joint venture companies, associate companies and their Business IDs, group head's shares of ownership and votes in group companies, start and finish dates of group relationships and type of group membership. Municipal enterprise groups are also entered into the Register. Since 2003, the Enterprise Group Register has also contained sub-groups.
Enterprise group
An enterprise group is an economic entity formed by two or more enterprises, in which the group head has either alone or together with other enterprises belonging to the same group the right of control in one or several other enterprises (subsidiary companies).
Cf. group of enterprises.
Cf. group of enterprises.
Equalisation provision
Nowadays only concerns non-life insurance companies. The equalisation provisions equalises the effect of random variations of claims paid on assets covering technical provision. The average of a longer term claims ratio is used in calculating the equalisation provision.
Foundation
A foundation refers to assets set aside for a certain purpose and administered by the board of the foundation. A foundation can be established with a charter of foundation, last will and testament or a deed of donation. A licence to establish a foundation must be applied for from the Board of Patents and Registration, which also ratifies the rules of the foundation. A foundation is entered into the register of foundations maintained by the Board of Patents and Registration.
Funds also belong to this category of legal form.
Funds also belong to this category of legal form.
General partnership
A general partnership must have at least two founders who may be either natural or legal persons. Each partner in a general partnership is responsible for the partnership's liabilities to their full extent as if they were their own debt. A general partnership is entered into the Trade Register.
Inventories
Current assets refer to commodities intended for assignment or consumption as such or after further processing. Current assets are divided into materials and supplies, work in progress, finished goods, other current assets and advance payments.
Materials and supplies refer to the commodities which have been acquired for the purpose of manufacturing current assets by a party obliged to keep books and engaged in manufacturing or service provision. These commodities include the raw materials and materials and auxiliary substances used in the production of goods or services.
Work in progress refers to commodities intended for sale or for use in service production, whose manufacturing process is not finished at the time of the closing of the accounts (semi-finished goods).
Finished goods refer to self manufactured commodities that can be assigned, sold or used in service production. Goods refer to commodities from external suppliers that are intended for sale or for use in service production as they are.
Other current assets refer to commodities bought or manufactured for the purpose of selling them as such or after further processing which are not included in the above mentioned current assets items. Other current assets may include, among others, lots or other property intended for sale which have been transferred from fixed assets to current assets.
Advance payments refer to purchase prices or parts thereof paid to the supplier of current assets commodities before receiving the commodities.
Materials and supplies refer to the commodities which have been acquired for the purpose of manufacturing current assets by a party obliged to keep books and engaged in manufacturing or service provision. These commodities include the raw materials and materials and auxiliary substances used in the production of goods or services.
Work in progress refers to commodities intended for sale or for use in service production, whose manufacturing process is not finished at the time of the closing of the accounts (semi-finished goods).
Finished goods refer to self manufactured commodities that can be assigned, sold or used in service production. Goods refer to commodities from external suppliers that are intended for sale or for use in service production as they are.
Other current assets refer to commodities bought or manufactured for the purpose of selling them as such or after further processing which are not included in the above mentioned current assets items. Other current assets may include, among others, lots or other property intended for sale which have been transferred from fixed assets to current assets.
Advance payments refer to purchase prices or parts thereof paid to the supplier of current assets commodities before receiving the commodities.
Legal form
Legal form identifies the legal status of a legal person. The classification of legal forms is based on the company forms of the Trade Register and on the requirements of taxation legislation. The legal forms of enterprises and corporations are recorded in the Business Information System.
Statistics Finland's classification of legal forms is based on this system and on the Tax Administration's coding of legal forms. Some of the Tax Administration's categories have been combined in Statistics Finland's classification.
Statistics Finland's classification of legal forms is based on this system and on the Tax Administration's coding of legal forms. Some of the Tax Administration's categories have been combined in Statistics Finland's classification.
Legal unit
A legal unit is a corporation, or an organisation registered for conducting business. A legal unit is identified with a Business ID.
Legal units are, for example, limited companies, private practitioners of trade, co-operative societies, state-owned companies and foundations.
Legal units are, for example, limited companies, private practitioners of trade, co-operative societies, state-owned companies and foundations.
Liabilities
Liabilities is capital that external parties invest in the enterprise. A liability always involves a repayment obligation. The repayment period for current liabilities is at most one year and that of non-current liabilities is over one year. The main source of liabilities for an enterprise is banks. Different forms of lending include short and long-term credits, overdrafts on current accounts, and intermediated credits.
Limited partnership
A limited partnership has both a liable and a silent partner. There may be one or more of each. Silent partners are only responsible for the partnership's liabilities up to the amount of capital they have invested into the partnership. Liable partners are liable for all debts of the partnership with their entire assets. The sizes of the investments of silent partners and the method for calculating their shares of profits must be recorded in the articles of incorporation of the partnership. A limited partnership is entered into the Trade Register. The name of a limited partnership must disclose its form either as an abbreviation or as an unabbreviated word.
Mutual interest bodies
Mutual interest bodies, such as fishery collectives and road maintenance associations.
Natural person
A natural person engages in entrepreneurial activity under his/her own name or under a registered trading name.
This group includes own-account workers, sole proprietors, most agricultural and forestry entrepreneurs, as well as practitioners of trade.
This group includes own-account workers, sole proprietors, most agricultural and forestry entrepreneurs, as well as practitioners of trade.
Number of employees
Employees comprise wage and salary earners and self-employed persons. Employees are converted to annual full-time employees so that, for example, an employee working half-time represents one half of a person and two employees working half-time for one year represent one annual full-time employee.
Labour input for self-employed persons is calculated as the input the owner of an enterprise or his/her family member makes into the enterprise without actual remuneration.
For enterprises not included in the surveys of the Register of Enterprises and Establishments numbers of employees are estimated from data on wages and salaries.
Labour input for self-employed persons is calculated as the input the owner of an enterprise or his/her family member makes into the enterprise without actual remuneration.
For enterprises not included in the surveys of the Register of Enterprises and Establishments numbers of employees are estimated from data on wages and salaries.
Other assets
Receivables from payment transactions, receivables on various settlement accounts, margin receivables related to derivative instruments and other receivables not reported under any other item in the balance sheet.
Personnel expenses
Wages, salaries and rewards, pension expenses and other employer contributions = Personnel expenses
Personnel expenses comprise wages and salaries subject to withholding of tax and comparable expenses, as well as expenses determined direct based on wage or salary, such as social security contributions, statutory and voluntary personal insurance contributions and pension expenses.
Other voluntary personnel expenses come under other operating expenses.
Personnel expenses comprise wages and salaries subject to withholding of tax and comparable expenses, as well as expenses determined direct based on wage or salary, such as social security contributions, statutory and voluntary personal insurance contributions and pension expenses.
Other voluntary personnel expenses come under other operating expenses.
Premium income
Premium income is recorded for the financial period when the insurance period started. It is reported before the reinsurers' share. Premium income is received from started insurance policies and assets at the end of the financial period. Credit losses of assets, insurance premium taxes, reductions and other public payments are deducted from premium income.
Provision for outstanding claims
Includes all provisions paid after the financial period which are formed from the insured events occurred in the financial period or before it.
Provision for unearned premiums
The provision for unearned premiums describes the part of the premium income in the financial period or earlier financial periods whose risk is directed to future financial periods.
Reinsurance
Reinsurance is an agreement between the direct insurance company and the insurance company acting as a reinsurer, by which the direct-writing company can transfer part of its insurance liability to be borne by another insurance company.
Assumed reinsurance refers to insurance business received by an insurance company from another insurance company. Ceded reinsurance, which is visible in the profit and loss account as reinsurers’ shares, refers to the share of insurance business transferred to another insurance company.
Assumed reinsurance refers to insurance business received by an insurance company from another insurance company. Ceded reinsurance, which is visible in the profit and loss account as reinsurers’ shares, refers to the share of insurance business transferred to another insurance company.
Technical provisions
Formed as the sum of the provision for unearned premiums and the provision for outstanding claims. In insurance companies’ profit and loss account, technical provisions describe the transfer items of claims paid and earned premium to be transferred to the balance sheet, which are the insurance company’s debt to policy holders. Technical provisions are thus comparable to accrued liabilities in the financial statement of other fields
Type of ownership
The enterprises and corporations included in the Register of Enterprises and Establishments are divided into the following categories by type of ownership:
Private domestic
State
Municipality
Region of Åland
Foreign-owned
Other type of ownership.
Private domestic
State
Municipality
Region of Åland
Foreign-owned
Other type of ownership.
Unit-linked insurances
In unit-linked insurances the insurance premiums of the policy holder are directed to one or several investment targets. The value of the insurance develops according to the value changes of the investment targets chosen by the policy holder.
Voluntary association
A voluntary association is an association founded by at least three private persons intending to join it as members or by an agreement of a corporation or foundation, and entered into the register of associations maintained by the National Board of Patents and Registration, the purpose of which is non-profit making (in other words the purpose may not be acquisition of profit or other financial benefit for the members). A voluntary association may engage in a trade or other gainful activity if an order concerning this is included in the association's by-laws or if such activity relates direct to the realisation of the association's purpose, or if the activity can be regarded as financially insignificant. E.g. sports association, political party, trade union, scout association.
Accuracy, reliability and timeliness
Overall accuracy
The main source of error is non-response.
Timeliness
Data are collected and checked 11 months after the end of the statistical year. Preliminary data on the structural business and financial statement statistics are published nine months after the end of the statistical year. Final data are published 12 months after the end of the statistical year.
Punctuality
There are no delays in releasing the data contained in the structural business and financial statement statistics. The data are published on the days given in the release calendar.
Comparability
Comparability - geographical
The data cover the whole of Finland. The structural business and financial statement statistics are based on the Finnish Accounting Standards (FAS) and the international industrial classification. The data sent to Eurostat are internationally comparable.
Comparability - over time
The structural business and financial statement statistics were established in 2013 by combining the annual statistics of the Business Register and the financial statements statistics of the structural business statistics. This means that a coherent time series is available from 2013 onwards. Similar data are also available from discontinued statistics. Their temporal comparability is weakened by changes concerning industries, and changes in the Accounting Act and Accounting Decree.
Coherence - cross domain
Coherence with other statistics is limited by conceptual and methodological issues. The turnover given in the business indicators has been calculated on the basis of the periodic tax data supplied by the Finnish Tax Administration. The definition of turnover in the periodic tax returns does not fully correspond with the turnover stated in the profit and loss account. The industry-specific added value in the national accounts at basic prices differs from the value added stated in financial statements, because the calculations of the national accounts are prepared separately for each establishment. The calculation of the value added stated in financial statements is based on enterprise-level data. The value added stated in financial statements is also valued at producer prices. The calendar year, six months, quarter or month is used as the measurement period in the monthly indicators of enterprises. The measurement period for structural business and financial statement statistics is the 12-month accounting period. The accounting period is not always the same as the calendar year.
Coherence - internal
The data contained in the structural business and financial statement statistics are internally coherent.
Source data and data collections
Source data
The data contained in the structural business and financial statement statistics are based on the business tax data and registers of the Finnish Tax Administration, and inquiries carried out by Statistics Finland. The source data are based on data on legal units. These source data are described in more detail below. The data are supplemented with inquiries carried out by Statistics Finland.
Finnish Tax Administration registers
Business start and end data, home municipality, preliminary industry of new enterprises, and wages and salaries are obtained from the Finnish Tax Administration registers. The register data are supplied to Statistics Finland once a month.
Business tax data of the Finnish Tax Administration
The business tax data contain profit and loss account and balance sheet data, as well as data on investments in fixed assets. The data are supplied on main tax forms 4, 5, 6A, 6B, 6C and 6U and on appendix forms 7A, 7M and 62. The forms contain data on enterprises that have been liable to pay taxes in the year in question. The business tax data are supplied to Statistics Finland on previously agreed dates. There are approximately ten data deliveries each year.
Statistics Finland’s own data collections
Each year, Statistics Finland carries out structural business inquiries to collect data on multi-establishment enterprises with at least five employees and single-establishment enterprises with at least 20 employees. For enterprises with fewer than 20 employees, inquiries are sent to units whose data have changed on the basis of administrative registers, commercial data or other surveys of Statistics Finland. New enterprises are usually included in the inquiries among new enterprises soon after they have started operations. The number of wage and salary earners, industry and addresses are obtained through separate inquiries. The number of wage and salary earners in enterprises not included in the surveys is estimated.
Each year, Statistics Finland collects data from approximately 5,000 enterprises by means of a financial statements inquiry (TILKES). All enterprises with more than 50 employees or a balance sheet of more than EUR 300 million are included in the financial statements inquiry. Enterprises employing between 10 and 50 persons are selected for the inquiry by means of random sampling. A small number of enterprises with fewer than ten employees and all market-based municipal enterprises are also included in the inquiry. The purpose of the inquiry is to collect data that are more detailed than the figures included in the enterprises’ official financial statements. The inquiry covers specific turnover and cost data, investment data and other additional data on financial statements.
Finnish Tax Administration registers
Business start and end data, home municipality, preliminary industry of new enterprises, and wages and salaries are obtained from the Finnish Tax Administration registers. The register data are supplied to Statistics Finland once a month.
Business tax data of the Finnish Tax Administration
The business tax data contain profit and loss account and balance sheet data, as well as data on investments in fixed assets. The data are supplied on main tax forms 4, 5, 6A, 6B, 6C and 6U and on appendix forms 7A, 7M and 62. The forms contain data on enterprises that have been liable to pay taxes in the year in question. The business tax data are supplied to Statistics Finland on previously agreed dates. There are approximately ten data deliveries each year.
Statistics Finland’s own data collections
Each year, Statistics Finland carries out structural business inquiries to collect data on multi-establishment enterprises with at least five employees and single-establishment enterprises with at least 20 employees. For enterprises with fewer than 20 employees, inquiries are sent to units whose data have changed on the basis of administrative registers, commercial data or other surveys of Statistics Finland. New enterprises are usually included in the inquiries among new enterprises soon after they have started operations. The number of wage and salary earners, industry and addresses are obtained through separate inquiries. The number of wage and salary earners in enterprises not included in the surveys is estimated.
Each year, Statistics Finland collects data from approximately 5,000 enterprises by means of a financial statements inquiry (TILKES). All enterprises with more than 50 employees or a balance sheet of more than EUR 300 million are included in the financial statements inquiry. Enterprises employing between 10 and 50 persons are selected for the inquiry by means of random sampling. A small number of enterprises with fewer than ten employees and all market-based municipal enterprises are also included in the inquiry. The purpose of the inquiry is to collect data that are more detailed than the figures included in the enterprises’ official financial statements. The inquiry covers specific turnover and cost data, investment data and other additional data on financial statements.
Data collection
Data for Statistics Finland’s own data collections are gathered with a web questionnaire. In addition, under an agreement between Statistics Finland and the Finnish Tax Administration, the latter agency delivers the business tax data to Statistics Finland on the agreed dates. The financial statements web questionnaire has been tested in connection with its introduction, and when changes have been made to it. The instructions for the questionnaire have been specified based on customer feedback. The non-response of the inquiry is monitored yearly.
Frequency of data collection
The data for the structural business and financial statement statistics, TILKES, and the Business Register are collected once a year.
Methods
Data compilation
Processing of business tax data
The quality of the Finnish Tax Administration data are verified programmatically. The data are revised automatically by means of mass editing and imputing. Values missing from the data are primarily replaced with data for earlier years and secondarily with data on enterprises in the same category in terms of turnover and number of personnel. Errors and outliers are corrected logically by means of editing or by removing outliers. Minor turnover errors (less than five per cent) are scaled. Two different imputation methods are in use. Donor imputation is used when the enterprise is included in the statistical frame but no data are available in the material provided by the Finnish Tax Administration. In such cases, the data are obtained from enterprises of similar size operating in the same industry. The second method is used when no tax data on the enterprise can be obtained for the statistical year in question but the data for the previous year are available. In such cases, the data are imputed by using changes in turnover in the periodic tax data as weighting coefficient.
Own inquiry
Sample responses are processed manually with the business tax data for each enterprise separately, using the image archive of the Finnish Patent and Registration Office. Checking of the additional data on financial statements is guided by internal production application rules. Using approved data as a basis, industry-specific coefficients are calculated for turnover specifications and expenditure specifications. The coefficients are used to produce corresponding data for the entire group of enterprises. All enterprises in the random sample that have received only a small number of penalty points are approved en masse. Some of them are returned to manual checking.
The quality of the Finnish Tax Administration data are verified programmatically. The data are revised automatically by means of mass editing and imputing. Values missing from the data are primarily replaced with data for earlier years and secondarily with data on enterprises in the same category in terms of turnover and number of personnel. Errors and outliers are corrected logically by means of editing or by removing outliers. Minor turnover errors (less than five per cent) are scaled. Two different imputation methods are in use. Donor imputation is used when the enterprise is included in the statistical frame but no data are available in the material provided by the Finnish Tax Administration. In such cases, the data are obtained from enterprises of similar size operating in the same industry. The second method is used when no tax data on the enterprise can be obtained for the statistical year in question but the data for the previous year are available. In such cases, the data are imputed by using changes in turnover in the periodic tax data as weighting coefficient.
Own inquiry
Sample responses are processed manually with the business tax data for each enterprise separately, using the image archive of the Finnish Patent and Registration Office. Checking of the additional data on financial statements is guided by internal production application rules. Using approved data as a basis, industry-specific coefficients are calculated for turnover specifications and expenditure specifications. The coefficients are used to produce corresponding data for the entire group of enterprises. All enterprises in the random sample that have received only a small number of penalty points are approved en masse. Some of them are returned to manual checking.
Data validation
The quality of the Finnish Tax Administration data is verified programmatically. Business tax data are scored separately for each enterprise in accordance with a scoring model. In the model, penalty points are given for logical errors in income, expenditure or balance sheet subtotals, and for differences in balance sheet totals and changes in turnover. Moreover, companies with a large number of employees get more points than small enterprises. Enterprises with a large number of penalty points are corrected manually even if they were not included in the TILKES inquiry. Quality codes are determined for business tax data, and the codes apply to income, expenditure and balance sheets in each individual enterprise.
Principles and outlines
Contact organisation
Statistics Finland
Contact organisation unit
Economic Statistics
Legal acts and other agreements
Compilation of the statistics is guided by the Statistics Act (280/2004, as amended 361/2013), the general act of the national statistical service. Only the necessary data that cannot be obtained from administrative data sources are requested from data suppliers. The data are published so that no individual enterprise’s data or development can be deduced from them. The compilation of the statistics is also guided by the following legislation:
- Act and Decree (1336/1997) and the Act amending the Accounting Act (1376/2016)
- of the European Parliament and of the Council (EC) No 295/2008 concerning structural business statistics, which is the key regulation guiding the compilation of annual business statistics.
- Regulation (EEC) No 696/93 on statistical units is applied to the statistics on business activities.
- on industrial classifications; Standard Industrial Classification 2008 is based on the European Union’s common industrial classification (NACE Rev. 2), which has been supplemented for national needs on the 5-digit level.
- on business registers 177/2008.
Confidentiality - policy
The data protection of data collected for statistical purposes is absolutely guaranteed in accordance with the Statistics Act (280/2004), the Personal Data Act (532/1999) and the Act on the Openness of Government Activities (621/1999), as well as the requirements of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (2016/679). The data materials are protected at all stages of processing with the necessary physical and technical solutions. Statistics Finland has compiled detailed directions and instructions for confidential processing of the data. Employees only have access to the data essential for their duties. The premises where unit-level data are processed are not accessible to outsiders. Members of the personnel have signed a pledge of secrecy upon entering the service. Wilful breaching of data protection is punishable.
Confidentiality - data treatment
The data contained in the structural business and financial statement statistics are published at aggregate level. Of the variables used in the statistics, the number of enterprises, number of personnel and the industry are publicly available. Other data are subject to confidentiality provisions. The threshold value rule is used in the statistics to assess the disclosure risk of data for all industries. The protected data are suppressed. In primary suppression, data on an individual industry group are protected by suppression if the group has data on one or two enterprises. In secondary encryption, the data are suppressed so that the primarily protected data cannot be derived. The same encryption rules apply to the information services and stricter encryption can be applied on a case-by-case basis. The data transmitted to Eurostat that are subject to primary and secondary encryption are indicated with codes.
Release policy
Statistics Finland’s release calendar lists in advance all the statistical data and publications to be released over the year. Statistical releases can be found under statistics-specific releases. The statistical data are released on the Internet at 8 am unless otherwise indicated. The calendar is updated on weekdays. Statistics Finland’s release calendar for the coming year is published in December each year. The dates of future releases can also be seen on the website of the statistics.
Data sharing
The structural business and financial statements data are published annually on the statistics’ own website and in the StatFin database. The data are also submitted to the national accounts, the information service subject to a charge and the researcher services. Industry-specific data are also transmitted to Eurostat, which publishes the data on its own website. The basic data of the structural business and financial statement statistics are sent to Statistics and Research Åland each year.
Accessibility and clarity
Statistical data are published as database tables in the StatFin database. The database is the primary publishing site of data, and new data are updated first there. When releasing statistical data, existing database tables can be updated with new data or completely new database tables can be published.
In addition to statistical data published in the StatFin database, a release on the key data is usually published in the web service. If the release contains data concerning several reference periods (e.g. monthly and annual data), a review bringing together these data is published in the web service. Database tables updated at the time of publication are listed both in the release and in the review. In some cases, statistical data can also be published as mere database releases in the StatFin database. No release or review is published in connection with these database releases.
Releases and database tables are published in three languages, in Finnish, Swedish and English. The language versions of releases may have more limited content than in Finnish.
Information about changes in the publication schedules of releases and database tables and about corrections are given as change releases in the web service.
Data revision - policy
Revisions – i.e. improvements in the accuracy of statistical data already published – are a normal feature of statistical production and result in improved quality of statistics. The principle is that statistical data are based on the best available data and information concerning the statistical phenomenon. On the other hand, the revisions are communicated as transparently as possible in advance. Advance communication ensures that the users can prepare for the data revisions.
The reason why data in statistical releases become revised is often caused by the data becoming supplemented. Then the new, revised statistical figure is based on a wider information basis and describes the phenomenon more accurately than before.
Revisions of statistical data may also be caused by the calculation method used, such as annual benchmarking or updating of weight structures. Changes of base years and used classifications may also cause revisions to data.
Lisäksi suhdannetilastoihin tarvittaessa tämä lisäys:
Seasonally adjusted data in statistics on economic trends become revised because of the calculation method used. Additional information on a new time series observation is exploited in model-based calculation methods and this is reflected as changes in previous releases. Revisions of the latest figures to be seasonally adjusted are elaborated on in the releases and quality reports of statistics.
A summary table of the revisions that have taken place is also published in connection with key statistics on economic trends and some annual statistics. The table shows how the data for the statistical reference periods have changed between the first and the most recent statistical release.
Quality assessment
The quality of the structural business and financial statement statistics is examined as the data accumulate. At aggregate level, the data are compared with the previous year and the most significant changes are examined. Coherence analyses of statistics on economic cycles are also carried out.
Quality assurance
Quality management requires comprehensive guidance of activities. The quality management framework of the field of statistics is the European Statistics Code of Practice (CoP). The quality criteria of Official Statistics of Finland are compatible with the European Statistics Code of Practice.
Further information: Quality management | Statistics Finland (stat.fi)
User access
The statistics are published for all users of the statistics simultaneously on the statistics’ website at https://www.tilastokeskus.fi/til/yrti/tie_en.html
No data are disclosed before the release date. The data are transmitted to Eurostat on agreed dates.
No data are disclosed before the release date. The data are transmitted to Eurostat on agreed dates.