Comparability

Comparability - geographical

Covering private enterprises excluding agriculture, the General enterprise statistics can be compared to the Business Statistics published by Eurostat.

Comparability over time

The General enterprise statistics, which were compiled for the first time for the year 1999, have replaced the Enterprise statistics produced for the years 1992-1999. Both statistics gather information at the enterprise level. However, while the Enterprise statistics only included enterprises covered by activities in which the enterprises are liable to pay value added tax and which are engaged in the private sector, the General enterprise statistics covers all activities and sectors. Furthermore, the General enterprise statistics only includes active enterprises, while the previous statistics covered all enterprises.

The statistics was transferred from sector nomenclature DB03 to DB07 in December 2009.

From the reference year 2009 the General enterprise statistics started using eIndkomst as the primary data source for the calculation of full-time employees. This resulted in a discontinuity in the number of full-time employees from 2008 to 2009. From the publishing of reference year 2016 and forward, the discontinuity is pushed to the years 2007 and 2008.

Starting with reference year 2009 also the input source Purchases and Sales by Firms where changed. More information about the Purchases and Sales by Firms. Small changes due to quality improvements was made and implemented from the reference year 2009.

From the reference year 2013 changes in sector classification due to ESA2010 revisions affects this statistic. This means that units is reclassified between the public and private sector. Private schools and boarding schools is moved from public to private sector.

From the reference year 2015 the statistics use full-time employees with 2 decimal places, which have previously been rounded to whole numbers. From the publication of reference year 2016 and forward, the reference year 2014 has full-time employees with 2 decimal places. The accounting statistics, which are one of the primary sources of the statistics, have always used full-time employees with 2 decimal places hence the change is only of importance to those industries not covered by the accounting statistics. The difference between the two methods is in the reference year 2015 approx. 3,500 full-time employees. Previously, the economic variables in the public sector industries have been set to missing; however from the reference year 2015 only the public enterprises defined by sector code have been set to missing which means that the private enterprises in the public sector industries are now no longer missing. From the publication of reference year 2016 and forward, this practice has been adopted for the reference year 2014.

From the reference year 2016 the years 2012-2015 has been revised. This is due to a revision of the Accounts Statistics for Non-Agricultural Private Sector for the corresponding time period Accounts Statistics for Non-Agricultural Private Sector. Alterations mainly occur for the variable turnover within specific industries covered by the Accounts Statistics for Non-Agricultural Private Sector. For the reference year 2015 the General enterprise statistics sees a change in the overall turnover by a proximately 0,5 per cent. The reference year 2014 has in the same instance been revised using the practice that have been in place from the reference year 2015. For the reference years 2012 and 2013 the enterprises included in the industries covered by Accounts Statistics for Non-Agricultural Private Sector has been revised, so that the General enterprise statistics and the Accounts Statistics for Non-Agricultural Private Sector are alike for these industries. This is consistent with the practice used from the reference year 2015. Furthermore, from the reference year 2016, the reference year 2008 has been revised using eIndkomst as the primary data source for the calculation of full-time employees. Thus, the discontinuity in full-time employees that existed between 2008 and 2009 has been pushed back a year and is now placed between the years 2007 and 2008.

Starting with the reference year 2017 the source Accounts Statistics for Non-Agricultural Private Sector, will include information from the annual accounts obtained though digital annual reports (XBRL data).

The General enterprise statistics 2017 was republished in Maj 2020. This was due to quality-enhanced data processing, which resulted in an otherwise uncommon revision of Accounts Statistics for Non-Agricultural Private Sector. Republishing the General enterprise statistics ensures that the two are consistent, as the Non-Agricultural Private Sector is one of the main sources to the General enterprise statistics. The revision only carries minor alterations to the General enterprise statistics.

Starting with the reference year 2022, the number of active enterprises has risen with about a quarter, due to changes in the definition of active enterprises.

Coherence - cross domain

For activity performed in the private sector excluding agriculture, it is possible to compare the statistics with the Danish Accountant statistics for enterprises.

Coherence - internal

The statistics are based on multiple sources with different types of units. Therefore, the statistics are processed so that type of unit will be the same across sources.