0 Administrative Information about the Statistical Product


0.1 Name
Consumption of alcohol and tobacco

0.2 Subject Area
Incomes, consumption and prices

0.3 Responsible Authority, Office, Person, etc.
Prices and Consumption.
Christian Lindeskov, phone +45 3917 3435, e-mail: chl@dst.dk

0.4 Purpose and History
The purpose of the statistics on consumption of alcohol and tobacco is to describe the consumption, sales and cross-frontier purchase of alcoholic beverages and tobacco.

0.5 Users and Application
The aim of the statistics is to provide institutions and persons interested in the subject with general information.

0.6 Sources
The basic data are provided by the fiscal authorities (Central Customs and Tax Administration) and the publication "Status over Grænsehandel" (Status for Cross-frontier trade) from The Danish Ministry of Taxation.

0.7 Legal Authority to Collect Data
Data originate from another public authority.

0.8 Response burden
There is no direct response burden since data are collected by others.

0.9 EU Regulation
The collection of data is not based on an EU-regulation.


1 Contents


1.1 Description of Contents
The statistic show the consumption of alcoholic beverages distributed on beer, wine, spirits and Alco pops as well as the consumption of tobacco. The consumption is composed of the domestic dutiable sales and cross-frontier purchases, where the Danes purchase abroad is added and foreigners consumption in Denmark is deducted.

The dutiable sale is the sale of alcoholic beverages and tobacco to retail stores.

From 2005 the figures are adjusted for the moderation settlement for beer.

Alco pops are separated from the alcohol type they are based on from 2006.013f. Figures for sales and consequently also for consumption before and after 2006 are thus not directly comparable. This is especially the case for spirits.

1.2 Statistical Concepts
The statistics monitors the consumption of alcoholic beverages and tobacco in Denmark.

The primary variables are:

• Consumption of pure alcohol which is the volume of alcohol sold converted to an alcohol percentage of 100 added to the volume of cross-frontier purchase converted to an alcohol percentage of 100 as well.
• Consumption of alcohol which is the volume of sold alcoholic beverages: Wine, lager equivalents, spirits and Alco pops, added to the estimated volume of the cross-frontier purchase of these alcoholic beverages.
• Consumption of tobacco which is the volume of sold tobacco products added to the estimated volume of the cross-frontier purchase.
• Sales of pure alcohol which is the volume of sold alcohol converted to an alcohol percentage at 100.
• Sales of alcohol which is the volume of sold spirits, wine, lager equivalents and Alco pops.
• Sales of tobacco which is the volume of sold tobacco products.
• Cross-frontier purchase of pure alcohol which is net volume of cross-frontier purchase of alcohol converted to an alcohol percentage of 100. In the convertion from volumes of alcohol sold to volumes of alcohol with a percentage of 100 for the cross-frontier purchases it is assumed that the composition of cross-frontier purchases is identical to the composition of domestic sales. In other words it is assumed that the average alcohol percentage of cross-frontier purchase of e.g. beer is the same as the average alcohol percentage in the domestic sales which is assumed to be that of a lager equivalent namely 4.6 percentage.
• Cross-frontier purchase of alcohol which is net volume of cross-frontier purchase of spirits, wine, beer and Alco pops. Before 2006 cross-frontier purchase of Alco pops is included in the figures for cross-frontier purchase of spirits.
• Cross-frontier purchase of tobacco which is net volume of cross-frontier purchase of tobacco products.

A lager equivalent is defined as a beer with an alcohol percentage of 4.6.


2 Time


2.1 Reference Period
The consumption covers the calendar year.

The calculated revenue from dutiable products refers to the time of assessment, corresponding to the time of the sales.

2.2 Date of Publication

The statistic is normally published 6 months after the end of the year in question.

2.3 Punctuality
The statistics are usually published without delay in relation to the scheduled date.

2.4 Frequency
The statistics are compiled and published yearly.


3 Accuracy


3.1 Overall accuracy
The figures for sales are in general considered to be very accurate because the basic data are administrative information, which is subjected to checks by the fiscal authorities to ensure correct payment of taxes and duties.

The figures for cross-frontier purchase and accordingly the figures for the consumption are however encumbered with considerable uncertainty. The cross-frontier purchase is estimated by The Danish Ministry of Taxation on the basis of several different investigations concerning the cross-frontier purchase. More information can be found in the publication "Status over grænsehandel" from The Danish Ministry of Taxation.

The consumption is compiled under the assumption that purchase is equivalent with the immediate consumption. Hence the possible storage or wastes are not taken into account. Likewise illegal import and trade with dutiable products are not included in the estimated consumption.

3.2 Sources of inaccuracy
There are different kinds of inaccuracies connected to the statistics:

The calculation of dutiable sales:

The fiscal authority sometimes revises the data as the result of actual errors or discrepancies in the accounts of the reporting firms. These revisions are handled in the following way:

• Actual errors are corrected.
• Additional payments are added if it is possible to place them within a single calendar year, while additional payments regarding several years are excluded.

Depending on the impact of the individual duty, the volume of sold alcohol or volume of sold pure alcohol is estimated using certain assumptions:

• Beer: The volume of pure alcohol sold is calculated directly from the revenue and the given duty, while the estimation of lager equivalents illustrating the volume sold in a more comprehensive way is calculated using the alcohol percentage of 4.6 in a lager equivalent.
• Wine: The volume wine sold is calculated directly from the revenue and the given duties, while the estimation of the volume of pure alcohol is conducted using assumptions of the average alcohol percentage for wine at different taxation levels.
• Spirits: The volume of pure alcohol sold is calculated directly from the revenue and the given duty, and the volume of spirits sold is calculated directly from information about volumes with a revenue label.
• Alco pops: The volume of the Alco pops sold is calculated directly from the revenue and from the additional duties for the different types of Alco pops. The volume of sold pure alcohol in Alco pops is estimated under the assumption that the average alcohol percentage for all Alco pops is 5.5.

The calculation of cross-frontier shopping:

Figures for cross-frontier shopping with alcohol are taken from the publication "Status over Grænsehandel" from The Danish Ministry of Taxation. Cross-frontier purchase includes purchase abroad by Danes and excludes foreigners consumption in Denmark. The Ministry of Taxation uses a number of different sources to illustrate this subject. You are kindly referred to "Status over Grænsehandel" for further information.

3.3 Measures on accuracy
There is no sampling errors as the statistic is compiled on the basis of a census.


4 Comparability


4.1 Comparability over Time
Due to a change in the regulations governing taxes on beer in 1991, there is a small break in the series of the total consumption of beer.

A change in the duty on beer in 2004 implies that sold beer, total and sold beer on different taxation levels are no longer estimated. Instead, the sale is estimated for lager equivalents.

From 2000 onwards the cross-frontier purchase has been included in the consumption of alcohol and tobacco.

From 2006 Alco pops have been separated from beer, wine and spirits and is regarded as an independent item. Due to this, figures for spirits - both sales and consumption - from before and after 2006 are not comparable.

4.2 Comparability with other Statistics
The Danish Ministry of Taxation publishes yearly a report on cross-frontier trade, where the same data sources are used.

4.3 Coherence between provisional and final statistics
Only final figures are published. However a smaller revision of the latest years figures can occur, cf. 3.2.


5 Accessibility


5.1 Forms of dissemination
The statistic is published in "Nyt fra Danmarks Statistik" (News from Statistics Denmark) and in "Indkomst, forbrug og priser" (Income, consumption and prices) appearing in the series "Statistiske Efterretninger" (Statistical News).

Yearly publications: Statistical Yearbook and Statistical Ten-Year Review.

www.statbank.dk/alko2, alko3 and alko4.

5.2 Basic material: Storage and usability
The published statistics in the series "Statistiske Efterretninger" contains the greater part of information, which can be derived from the material.

5.3 Documentation


5.4 Other Information
For this declaration of contents no further documentation is available.


Supplementary documentation
No supplementary documentation is available