Business Register as a basic tool for the production of statistics International Roundtable on Business Survey Frames, Wiesbaden, 21 – 26 October 2007 Session 5a, Benchmarking tools for Business Register

Helsinki In 2006: - Number of staff: 1087 (incl. interviewers: 232) - Number of staff years: 946 fte (incl. interviewers: 141) - Education: 67 % at least tertiary level of education - Age (on average): 47 years - Females: 60 % Population 5,2 million Area 338 000 sq km Helsinki Tuula Viitaharju 24.10.2007

Business Register functions To be a survey frame and tool for data collection To be a source of basic information of all relevant statistical units and to identify these units To be a source of business demography statistics To be a data source for fee-based information services New features globalisation relationships with the business respondents Tuula Viitaharju 24.10.2007

Business Register coverage Small and large business units Central and local government units Local kind-of-activity units (local KAUs) Enterprise groups: all resident & truncated groups The register covers all NACE sections: 442 000 active enterprises 509 000 active local units Tuula Viitaharju 24.10.2007

3 populations Enterprises Local KAUs Enterprise Groups Tuula Viitaharju 24.10.2007

Enterprises in Finland 2005 Employment Number of Employment Turnover size class Enterprises - 49 98,8 % 44,1 % 33,3 % 50 - 249 1,0 % 17,6 % 18,8 % 250 - 0,2 % 38,4 % 47,9 % Finnish enterprises in brief Small number of large and complex enterprise Large number of small and simple enterprises Tuula Viitaharju 24.10.2007

The production process of statistics in Statistics Finland g h r f – D c E x p m s v S u W b P K I H R M O y F k , : Tuula Viitaharju 24.10.2007

The main reasons for using admin data are as follows Reduction of the response burden of enterprises Reduction of the costs of statistics Increase the cost-effectiveness and coherence of statistics production Offer users high quality statistics by using total populations and producing detailed classifications Give the ability to compile small area statistics Offers an extensive basis for revision analysis and the follow-up of statistics based on directly collected data Tuula Viitaharju 24.10.2007

Preconditions for using admin data Legal Principles of the Finnish Statistics act (2004): It is compulsory to use existing data (if suitable) Access to administrative files: government and social security institutions are obliged to deliver their data to Statistics Finland Free of charge, compensation of direct cost ID-system General Business ID Tuula Viitaharju 24.10.2007

Business registration in Finland Responsible bodies: jointly Finnish Tax Administration and the National Board of Patents and Registration General register of businesses and corporations: Business Information System, BIS unique Business Identity Code (Business ID) some basic data like name, legal form, address, home municipality, industry code legal register (Act 244/2001) service is open to everyone on Internet (htpp:www.ytj.fi), (Finnish, English, Swedish) Tuula Viitaharju 24.10.2007

Statistical Business Register of Statistics Finland Sources administrative sources, other mass data (private) direct data collection, BR surveys data estimation feedback information from other surveys & integrated data collection Updating frequency monthly, annual annual data for each statistical year (t) are completed in 10 months => by the end of October (t+1) Tuula Viitaharju 24.10.2007

BR data collection BR direct data collection is necessary since BR receives the legal units from Tax Administration but local units, local KAUs are maintained only by the statistical Business Register of Statistics Finland Tuula Viitaharju 24.10.2007

Business Register Surveys (1) Multi-site enterprises 6 000 enterprises, 32 000 local KAUs survey jointly with Regional Employment Statistics updates Local KAUs structure of the enterprise links persons to Local KAUs Tuula Viitaharju 24.10.2007

Business Register Surveys (2) One-site enterprises sample of 8 000 enterprises (allocated in 3 surveys in a year) Quality survey: 6 000 small enterprises, sample (3 surveys a year) New enterprises 12 000 enterprises, significant units according to size of monthly data accumulation continual phone profiling, approximately the 300 largest new legal units per year 2007-2008 NACE implementation means larger surveys Tuula Viitaharju 24.10.2007

Business Register Surveys (3) Questionnaires on paper (pre-printed questionnaires) printing out and reception services are outsourced Phone profiling for major structural changes Electronic data collection via Internet was started in 2006 Tuula Viitaharju 24.10.2007

The BR administrative sources & data providers Tax files The Customer Register of the Tax Administration Business Taxation data (accounting data) VAT and PAYE registers, monthly Employer’s annual notifications Files of the National Board of Patents and Registration Files of the National Board of Customs Files of the Bank of Finland Population Register Center (Register of Buildings and Dwellings) Files of the State Treasury Files of the Local Government Pensions Institution Tuula Viitaharju 24.10.2007

Customer Register of National Board of Taxes Main source of BR population, monthly updates New legal units, Business ID Updating data for the existing units, information on Business ID, names postal and location addresses, home municipality start / cessation of legal unit legal form, activity code relationship between legal units, mergers etc. Tuula Viitaharju 24.10.2007

Business taxation data file (accounting data) Variables from financial statement & balance sheet Agreement of common data content between Tax administration and Statistics Finland file contains appr. 200 variables covers all Finnish businesses main source for SBS statistics BR exploits turnover, sum of wages and salaries Tuula Viitaharju 24.10.2007

Payment control register for VAT and employer contributions Variables from monthly VAT and social security payments Monthly transmission from Tax administration to Statistics Finland (each transmission includes 7 latest months) covers all employers and VAT units main source for STS statistics BR exploits monthly sales, sum of wages and salaries => fast size approximation (turnover, employment), birth and death expectation, tool for phone profiling Tuula Viitaharju 24.10.2007

Annual PAYE data (pay-as-you-earn) Employer’s annual notifications covers all employers individual wages and salaries of all employees source for various social and population census statistics BR exploits sum of wages and salaries => update of the variable in BR: sum wages and salaries update of the variable in BR: number of employees (employment estimation by using wage model and the individual wages and salaries of each employee) Tuula Viitaharju 24.10.2007

Private mass data providers The National Post Company Address database - all genuine addresses in Finland for checking the address format for defining location municipality Address files of the National Post company Company addresses (street + number, postal code) Suomen Asiakastieto (a private data house and rating company) Enterprise Group data Invest in Finland Foreign ownership Tuula Viitaharju 24.10.2007

The use of administrative data is still increasing Tax files Ownership data (stored since 2006) subsidiaries Partnership members and shares of participation for Enterprise Groups for updating data on entrepreneurship Information Centre of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry link between Business Register and farm register Tuula Viitaharju 24.10.2007

Statistical Business Register Tuula Viitaharju 24.10.2007

Use of BR data in Statistics Finland BR service database is available to everyone working for Statistics Finland autonomous use (batch, on-line) supported by BR metadata (variable descriptions, process descriptions, time tables of planned updatings and reports of realised updatings) In Future moving towards integrated processes more pressure to use only Business Register classifications in all statistical systems of Statistics Finland Tuula Viitaharju 24.10.2007

Some examples of integrating processes Business Register - Regional employment statistics: joint data collection of multi-site large enterprises BR/ Enterprise Group Register - inward FATS: co-operation in data collection concerning foreign owned enterprises treatment of complex cases and methodology Business Register - STS follow-up of structural changes, media etc Tuula Viitaharju 24.10.2007

Register of enterprise respondents - enlargement of the Business Register Established in 2006 Located in the BR unit Operates as an inner service register of statistics, also respondents get information of the inquiries they are picked up Part of the program leadership: enterprise respondent programme Tuula Viitaharju 24.10.2007

Business surveys Altogether about 60 direct surveys More information on surveys: http://stat.fi/keruu/index_en.html Business surveys Income and expenditure of foreign sea transport Information technology and electronic commerce in enterprises Innovation survey Inquiry for industrial establishments (T5) Inquiry on cost indices Inquiry on incentive stock options Inquiry on manufacturing commodities Inquiry on new orders in manufacturing Inquiry on postal and small freight deliveries Inquiry on private sector wages and salaries Inquiry on volume index of industrial output Inventory inquiry Job vacancy survey Monthly inquiry for accommodation statistics Monthly inquiry for iron and steel statistics Mutual fund inquiry Outstanding credit Periodic survey of motor vehicle trade Periodical regional survey of trade Periodical survey of retail trade Periodical survey of wholesale trade Price inquiry on producer price indices for manufactured products Producer price indices for services Quarterly inquiry on international trade in services Quarterly inquiry on labour costs Regional outstanding credit Renovation building of construction enterprises Renovation building of housing corporations Sales inquiry Statistics on agriculture Statistics on goods transport Telecommunications inquiry The inquiry on financial accounts Altogether about 60 direct surveys Annual inquiry on foreign trade in services Authority (Virati) data collections (A and T data collections) Building cost index Business Register inquiry for multi-establishment enterprises Business Register inquiry for new enterprises Business Register inquiry for single-establishment enterprises Business Register inquiry for small single-establishment enterprises Business services CVTS, Continuing Vocational Training Survey Credit cards Data collection on occupations Data collection on personnel of multi-establishment enterprises for employment statistics Energy production inquiry Energy use in manufacturing Enterprises' research and development Environmental protection expenditure in industry Finance of housing corporations Financial leasing inquiry Financial statements inquiry for enterprises (TILKES) Financial statements of mutual funds and investment management companies Forest workers' wages Tuula Viitaharju 24.10.2007

Business surveys according to enterprise size class, in 2007 Enterprise respondents in total 51 700 enterprises, 12 % of all enterprises - 66 % of enterprises received one inquiry - 90 % of enterprises that employ over 250 persons, got at least one inquiry - 6 enterprises answered to more than 20 inquiries - biggest amount of different sheets to one enterprise was nearly 300 Tuula Viitaharju 24.10.2007

Strategic goals for Business Register Globalisation - to cover MNEs and international co-operation means in improving coherence efficiency of production - the BR as a common frame of business statistics enlarge the scope of Business Register - new variables a more real time Business Register with interactive nature => BR data system has to be redesigned, the work will start next year Tuula Viitaharju 24.10.2007

The System of Economic Statistics International statistical system Environmental statistics Business statistics (STS, SBS) Labour statistics Government finance National accounts Foreign trade Prices and costs Other economic statistics Business register Economic statistics Science, technology, innovation Operating environment Social statistics Tuula Viitaharju 24.10.2007

Thank you for your attention ! tuula.viitaharju@stat.fi 24.10.2007