Business demography: documentation of statistics

Business demography statistics provide information about the dynamics of the Finnish enterprise stock and the life cycle of enterprises, as well as on the employment effects of enterprises. The statistics contain data on enterprise openings and closures as well as on high-growth enterprises, by region and by industry. The data is produced and published quarterly and annually.

Enterprises engaged in business activities in Finland constitute the population of the business demography 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 if they are market-based and have had personnel, turnover, investments and balance sheet during the statistical reference year. 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 most significant branches abroad have been eliminated from the statistics.  

The business demography statistics are based on the registers of the Finnish Tax Administration, Incomes Register and the inquiries carried out among enterprises by Statistics Finland. 
The structural inquiries among enterprises produce information on the number of wage and salary earners and industries.
The registrations of new enterprises cover all enterprises producing goods or services for the market which have received a Business ID from the Finnish Patent and Registration Office during the reference period.

The business demography statistics are published partly for enterprises and partly for legal units. The registrations of new enterprises are published for legal units. The data on enterprise openings and closures and the data on high-growth enterprises are published for enterprises.

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. For high-growth enterprises enterprise comprise usually only one legal unit.

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.
A legal unit is an administrative reporting unit and a reporting unit for its own data collection.

Per cent and the number of personnel are used as the units of measure in the statistics’ database tables.

The business demography statistics are not index-based. The data are specific for each quarter and year.

The reference period of the business demography statistics is a quarter and a year. 

The business demography statistics are published on the level of the entire country.

Registrations of new enterprises describe new enterprises registered in Finland which produce goods or services for the market. The following legal forms are included in the statistics:
•    Public mutual insurance company, 
•    Mutual insurance company,
•    Limited partnership, 
•    Cooperative society, 
•    Cooperative bank, 
•    Limited company. 
•    Public limited company, 
•    Savings bank, public insurance company, 
•    Joint-stock insurance company, 
•    Private practitioner of trade, 
•    General partnership, 
•    Trade association, 
•    European mutual insurance company 
•    European company

The data on enterprise openings and closures and the data on high-growth enterprises cover industries B-R and S94, all legal forms, types of ownership and business sector categories. All market-based enterprises that have had turnover, personnel, other operating income, investments, or balance sheet during the statistical reference year are included in the statistics. 
Marked-based enterprises engaged in agriculture, forestry and fishery (industry A) that have had income from agriculture, other turnover, personnel, other operating income, investments, or balance sheet during the statistical reference year are included in the statistics. 
For industry 02, the units that have had income from forestry, other turnover, personnel, other operating income, investments, or balance sheet during the statistical reference year are included in the statistics.
Registrations include all new Business IDs granted, in which the enterprise form is a public mutual insurance company, mutual insurance company, limited partnership, cooperative, cooperative bank, limited company, public limited company, savings bank, public insurance company, joint-stock insurance company, private practitioner of trade, general partnership, trade association, European mutual insurance company or European company. These enterprise forms have been selected for the statistics because they can be thought to aim to produce products or services for the market.

The data on enterprise openings and closures are from the 2023 statistical year onwards. The data on enterprise openings and closures was previously published under separate statistic. The data on enterprise openings and closures is now congruent with the data of the other structural business statistics (Structural business and financial statement statistics, Regional statistics on entrepreneurial activity and Foreign affiliates in Finland) and with the data published by Eurostat.
The data on high-growth enterprises are from the 2017 statistical year onwards.
The registration data are from the 2019 statistical year onwards.

The data on enterprise openings and closures and the registration data are published quarterly on the website of Statistics Finland. The data on high-growth enterprises are published yearly.

Data on enterprise openings and closures are updated over time. 
Changes in the number of registrations are minor.
Data on high-growth enterprises are not updated regularly. If necessary the data for older years can be updated at the same time new data is published. In that case the update is mentioned in the footnote of the database table.

The data on enterprise openings and closures  are published at a lag of around 100 days.
The data on registrations are published at a lag of around 50 days.
The data on high-growth enterprises are published 12 months after the end of the statistical year.

The data of the business demography statistics are published on the days indicated in the release calendar.

The data of the business demography statistics are published on the days indicated in the release calendar.

The data cover the whole of Finland. The data sent to Eurostat are internationally comparable.

The data on enterprise openings and closures and the data on high-growth enterprises are temporally comparable since 2021. Starting from the statistical reference year 2021, the data on the number of personnel and wage and salary sum in the statistics have been calculated with a new method using the new Incomes Register data. Starting from the statistical reference year 2021, the estimated profit and loss account data of enterprises subject to the Tax Administration’s estimated assessment will be included in the statistics. Previously, these enterprises' profit and loss accounts were not included in
the statistics. Due to the renewals, the data is not fully comparable with earlier years. 

The data on enterprise openings and closures is congruent with the data of the other structural business statistics (Structural business and financial statement statistics, Regional statistics on entrepreneurial activity and Foreign affiliates in Finland) and with the data published by Eurostat.
In the statistics on enterprise openings and closures, the “enterprise stock” is the number of enterprises operating at the time derived from the Tax Administration’s registration data concerning enterprises that cover enterprises liable to pay value added tax on business activities or on the transfer of usufruct of immovable property, as well as enterprises acting as employers. The “number of enterprises” in the structural business and financial statement statistics is the number of enterprises as the annual average data. It covers all types of enterprises, that is, also other than those liable to pay value added tax or employer's enterprises, and it includes enterprises that are market-based and have had personnel, turnover, investments and balance sheet during the statistical reference year.

The quarterly data adds up to the annual data. 

The data contained in the business demography statistics are based on the 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.
The data on registrations of new enterprises are obtained from the business data system maintained by the Finnish Patent and Registration Office and the Tax Administration.
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.
Statistics Finland’s own data collections
The information of enterprises’ and institutions’ establishments address, name, the number of wage and salary earners in person-years, industry, and the starting date, the ending date and the date of transition of business is collected in the Business Register Inquiry on establishment.

The inquiry annually covers approximately 13,000 enterprises and institutions. The inquiries are sent yearly to enterprises and institutions working in several different addresses and employing at least 5 person-years. Approximately every three years the enquiry is sent to enterprises and institutions working in only one establishment. 

The number of wage and salary earners in enterprises not included in the surveys and in enterprises who have not answered to the survey is estimated.

The number of openings and closures of enterprises is estimated with seasonal timeseries model (SARIMA). Model uses the figures from the past quarters and subsidiary data to forecast the number of openings and closures. Subsidiary data includes among other things information of the administrative openings and closures. The seasonal model takes into account the variation in the number of openings and closures on different seasons. For example, holidays and other seasons affect the figures.

Statistics Finland

Economic Statistics

The compilation of statistics is guided by the Statistics Act. The Statistics Act contains provisions on collection of data, processing of data and the obligation to provide data. Besides the Statistics Act, the Data Protection Act and the Act on the Openness of Government Activities are applied to processing of data when producing statistics.

Statistics Finland compiles statistics in line with the EU’s regulations applicable to statistics, which steer the statistical agencies of all EU Member States.
Further information: Statistical legislation

The compilation of the statistics is also guided by the following legislation:
1.    Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European business statistics and Commission Implementing regulation (EU) 2020/1197.
2.    Regulation (EEC) No 696/93 on statistical units is applied to the statistics on business activities.
3.    Regulation 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.
 

The data protection of data collected for statistical purposes is guaranteed in accordance with the requirements of the Statistics Act (280/2004), the Act on the Openness of Government Activities (621/1999), the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and the Data Protection Act (1050/2018). 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 have access only 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. Violation of data protection is punishable.

Further information: Data protection | Statistics Finland (stat.fi)

The data contained in the structural business and financial statement statistics are published at aggregate level. All of the variables used in the statistics are publicly available.

Statistics Finland publishes new statistical data at 8 am on weekdays in its web service. The release times of statistics are given in advance in the release calendar available in the web service. The data are public after they have been updated in the web service.

Further information: Publication principles for statistics at Statistics Finland

Data from the business demography statistics are published quarterly on the home page of the statistics and in the StatFin database. Part of the data are also submitted to the researcher services. Industry-specific data are also transmitted to Eurostat, which publishes the data on its own website.

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.

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.

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 frameworks complement each other. The quality criteria of Official Statistics of Finland are also compatible with the European Statistics Code of Practice.

Further information: Quality management | Statistics Finland (stat.fi)

Data are released to all users at the same time. Statistical data may only be handled at Statistics Finland and information on them may be given before release only by persons involved in the production of the statistics concerned or who need the data of the statistics concerned in their own work before the data are published.

Further information: Publication principles for statistics

Unless otherwise separately stated in connection with the product, data or service concerned, Statistics Finland is the producer of the data and the owner of the copyright. The terms of use for statistical data