Accuracy and reliability

Overall accuracy

The statistics are based on municipalities' reports of individually attributable expenditure on social services. Statistics Denmark provides guidance and support to municipalities on the correct reporting of data and validates the reported information, including checks for missing information, extreme values and consistency with municipal accounting data. Statistics Denmark is not in a position to assess differences in municipalities' bookkeeping and accounting practices.

Reporting is governed by the Executive Order on Data Reporting, which aims to support consistent reporting across municipalities. In addition, municipalities record expenditure and revenue in accordance with the authorized Chart of Accounts, which is intended to promote consistent bookkeeping and accounting practices. Comparisons between municipalities should therefore be made with caution, as accounting practices may vary between municipalities.

The statistics should be interpreted with due regard to differences in municipalities' bookkeeping and accounting practices, as well as the uncertainty associated with 2025 being the first reporting year and the underlying data still being in the establishment phase.

The 2025 statistics include reports from 97 municipalities, all of which have approved both the reported data and the subsequent reconciliation with the municipal accounting data. The Municipality of Varde is not included in the 2025 statistics, as it was granted an exemption from the reporting requirement.

Sampling error

Not relevant for these statistics.

Non-sampling error

Reports from 97 municipalities are included in the population. All municipalities are subject to the statutory reporting obligation for individually attributable expenditure. As the 2025 reference year is the first year of reporting, municipalities are introducing a new practice for recording and compiling information on individually attributable expenditure in accordance with the requirements of the statistics. Since the underlying data are still being established, the statistics should be interpreted with due regard to the resulting uncertainty.

Data may be reported manually, which entails a risk of data entry errors. Reports containing invalid CPR numbers (or person IDs for foreign nationals) are excluded from the StatBank tables.

The statistics are subject to uncertainty arising from potential measurement errors and coverage errors. The main sources of uncertainty are described below.

• Expenditure period: Information on expenditure periods may be incomplete or incorrectly recorded in municipal systems. Municipalities differ in their practices for recording start dates. Some municipalities record the invoice date as the start date of the social service, while others record a period corresponding to the period during which the service was provided. Others record the start date of the expenditure period covered by the report, which is consistent with the reporting guidelines. Many municipalities use automated solutions to extract expenditure periods from invoices. As there is no uniform standard for presenting period information on invoices, the information may be formatted differently, which may result in errors during automated extraction. The uncertainty is further affected by the fact that the registration of expenditure periods has not yet been fully established in all municipalities. In addition, some financial management systems do not support the recording or transfer of period information from other systems. The expenditure period is a mandatory reporting variable, and Statistics Denmark only includes observations with a valid expenditure period.

• Expenditure incurred: Total expenditure incurred may be underestimated because not all expenditure can necessarily be included in the underlying data. This may occur, for example, where expenditure cannot be attributed to a specific individual or where information on the expenditure period is missing, as this is a mandatory reporting variable. Consequently, the statistics include only expenditure that can be attributed to an individual and is reported with a valid expenditure period.

• Accounting classification practices: Differences in municipalities' interpretation of the Chart of Accounts, together with manual bookkeeping processes, may result in expenditure being recorded under a social service other than the one actually provided. For some municipalities it has not been possible to allocate residential expenditure to the relevant functional categories in the Chart of Accounts, for example between long-term residential care accommodation for persons with social problems, persons with physical or mental disabilities, and persons with mental illness.

• Paying municipality: As a general rule, municipalities report expenditure for individuals for whom they are the paying municipality. In some cases, however, expenditure is reported for individuals where the municipality is only responsible for administering the case.

During the validation process, municipalities were reminded that reports should include only expenditure for which they are the paying municipality. In cases where data are transferred automatically from municipal financial management systems, it is currently not possible to exclude expenditure relating to municipalities that are only responsible for administering the case. Such observations must therefore be removed manually, increasing the risk of errors and constituting a source of uncertainty in the statistics.

• Inter-municipal payments: Invoices for services provided between municipalities may be issued after the period in which the service was delivered. Consequently, the paying municipality may receive an invoice during the reference year relating to an earlier period. This may lead to discrepancies between the activity period and the expenditure period.

Municipalities also differ in their accounting treatment of inter-municipal payments. Some municipalities record expenditure in the period to which it relates, while others record expenditure in the accounting year in which the invoice is received or posted. These differences may affect the comparability of expenditure across municipalities and over time.

Responsibility for financing a social service may also change during an ongoing service period. For example, one municipality may initially incur expenditure before it is established that another municipality is wholly or partly responsible for payment. In such cases, previously recorded expenditure may subsequently be reversed. This may result in a total expenditure of DKK 0 for a given period because the original expenditure has been offset by a reversing entry. Similar situations may occur where accounting errors are subsequently corrected.

When using the statistics, periods with recorded expenditure of DKK 0 should therefore not automatically be interpreted as indicating no activity, as they may reflect subsequent accounting corrections. Analyses of expenditure periods should therefore include only periods with actual expenditure.

• Negative annual expenditure: Negative annual expenditure, positive user payments and services with expenditure of DKK 0 were examined together with municipalities during the validation process. Such observations may arise from credit notes, accounting errors, delayed inter-municipal settlements, reimbursements from municipalities of residence, reversing entries relating to previous years, or services that were subsequently cancelled. They may also occur where revenue has not been recorded at the individual level or where expenditure and the corresponding revenue have been recorded under different functions. This may affect the calculated net expenditure.

These circumstances are also the main reason why the first quartile of unit expenditure may be negative for some municipalities, particularly where expenditure has been reported for individuals for whom another municipality is the paying municipality.

• Remarks on specific social services

• §107: Low unit expenditure may reflect respite care services.
• §109: Low unit expenditure may reflect psychological counselling provided in connection with stays at crisis shelters. The expenditure period may also be uncertain because stays are often short, repeated and involve frequent transfers. Individuals admitted anonymously and therefore registered with a fictitious CPR number are not included in municipalities' applications for state reimbursement, as expenditure cannot be attributed to a valid CPR number. The resulting loss of reimbursement is incorporated into the tariff for the following year.
• §110: The expenditure period may be uncertain because stays are often short, repeated and involve frequent transfers. Night shelter accommodation is also included and is generally associated with lower expenditure than other types of accommodation.
• §85: The target group ranges from individuals with limited support needs to individuals requiring extensive support, including one-to-one or two-to-one staffing. This contributes to considerable variation in reported expenditure.

• User payments: User payments are determined on the basis of the individual's means of support and may therefore vary considerably.

Positive expenditure recorded under user payment categories may reflect credit notes, cancellation of previously charged user payments or repayments made to individuals. Similarly, user payments may occur without corresponding residential expenditure, for example where payments relate to stays in previous years.

For accommodation under Section 85, residential expenditure may occur without corresponding user payment revenue where rent is paid directly by the individual to the housing association. Residential services without user payments may also occur where individuals are exempt from user payments or where municipalities do not charge user payments. For municipalities unable to allocate user payments to expenditure periods, user payments are excluded from the reporting. In some cases, the residential provider collects user payments directly, meaning that the revenue is not included in the municipality's report. As a result, a service may appear without any corresponding user payment.

User payments may also exist without corresponding expenditure because of accounting errors or timing differences between accounting years. In addition, user payments relating to objectively financed services, which are outside the scope of these statistics, may occur.

As part of the validation process, municipalities were asked to review observations where user payments had been reported without corresponding expenditure, and vice versa.

For some municipalities it has not been possible to separate user payments from residential expenditure in their administrative systems. In these cases, user payments are included in the total reported expenditure. Furthermore, municipalities have not always been able to allocate user payments to the relevant functional categories in the Chart of Accounts, for example user payments relating to services, accommodation, electricity and heating.

These factors may affect the comparability of user payments across municipalities and contribute to uncertainty in their interpretation.

The uncertainty relating to user payments is considered too high for the following municipalities. User payments have therefore been excluded from the StatBank tables, both at municipality level and from the national totals:

• Copenhagen Municipality: all user payments excluded.
• Næstved Municipality: user payments under Section 110 excluded.
• Aalborg Municipality: user payments under Section 107 excluded.

The research microdata contain the data reported, validated and approved by the municipalities.

Quality management

Statistics Denmark follows the recommendations on organisation and management of quality given in the Code of Practice for European Statistics (CoP) and the implementation guidelines given in the Quality Assurance Framework of the European Statistical System (QAF). A Working Group on Quality and a central quality assurance function have been established to continuously carry through control of products and processes.

Quality assurance

Statistics Denmark follows the principles in the Code of Practice for European Statistics (CoP) and uses the Quality Assurance Framework of the European Statistical System (QAF) for the implementation of the principles. This involves continuous decentralized and central control of products and processes based on documentation following international standards. The central quality assurance function reports to the Working Group on Quality. Reports include suggestions for improvement that are assessed, decided and subsequently implemented.

Quality assessment

The annual publication of the Municipal Expenditure on Social Services statistics takes place no later than six months after the end of the reference period, ensuring that users have timely and relevant information on municipal expenditure relating to social services provided to adults with physical or mental disabilities and vulnerable adults.

The two Statistics Bank tables, SIU001 and SIU002, enable users to analyze municipal expenditure at the individual level from different perspectives.

The statistics are disseminated through a NYT article from Statistics Denmark, StatBank tables, microdata and this quality declaration. The statistical registers provide researchers, ministries and other relevant users with access to data for analyses of municipal expenditure on social services.

The statistics should be interpreted with due regard to differences in municipalities' accounting classification practices, as methods for recording municipal expenditure may vary across municipalities (see Sections 'Overall accuracy' and 'Non-sampling error'). Data quality is supported through the annual validation process, during which all municipalities receive validation reports and automatically generated validation queries based on their reported data. Municipalities are responsible for assessing the quality of the reported data and approving them prior to publication.

The 2025 statistics include data from 97 of Denmark's municipalities, covering the period from 1 January to 31 December 2025.

Data revision - policy

Statistics Denmark revises published figures in accordance with the Revision Policy for Statistics Denmark. The common procedures and principles of the Revision Policy are for some statistics supplemented by a specific revision practice.

Data revision practice

This is the first year in which the statistics are published. The statistics are not revised, as the entire time series is republished with each annual release.

The statistics are based on administrative data that are updated annually. Consequently, subsequent releases represent updated versions of the statistics rather than revisions. Municipalities report adjustments relating to previous accounting years as part of the reporting for subsequent accounting years. These adjustments are incorporated into the next annual release of the statistics.