Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
Unit in "Business Demography and entrepreneurship". Statistical production Department (DIPS) Central Directorate of Business Statistics (DCSE)
1.3. Contact name
Restricted from publication
1.4. Contact person function
Restricted from publication
1.5. Contact mail address
ISTAT Via Tuscolana n°1871 00100 ROMA ITALY
1.6. Contact email address
Restricted from publication
1.7. Contact phone number
Restricted from publication
1.8. Contact fax number
Restricted from publication
2.1. Metadata last certified
7 March 2023
2.2. Metadata last posted
7 March 2023
2.3. Metadata last update
17 January 2024
3.1. Data description
The annual Business demography data collection covers variables which explain the characteristics and demography of the business population. The methodology allows for the production of data on enterprise births (and deaths), that is, enterprise creations (cessations) that amount to the creation (dissolution) of a combination of production factors and where no other enterprises are involved (enterprises created or closed solely as a result of e.g. restructuring, merger or break-up are not considered).
A summary of the available indicators is listed below. The data is available at EU, country and regional level, with breakdowns for type of activity, legal form and size class.
For the population of active enterprises: • Number of active enterprises • Number of enterprise births • Number of enterprise survivals up to five years • Number of enterprise deaths • Related variables on employment: 'employees' and 'persons employed' (employees and self-employed persons)
For the population of active employer enterprises: • Number of enterprises having at least one employee • Number of enterprises having the first employee • Number of enterprises having no employees anymore • Number of enterprise survivals up to five years • Related variables on employment: 'employees' and 'persons employed' (employees and self-employed persons)
For high-growth enterprises, the following indicators are available at EU and country level: • Number of high-growth enterprises (growth by 10% or more) • Number of employees of high-growth enterprises • Number of young high-growth enterprises (up to five years old high-growth enterprises) • Number of employees of young high-growth enterprise
3.2. Classification system
From 2008 onwards NACE Rev.2 classification (Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community) is used for all indicators.
Starting with reference year 2021, BD data cover the economic activities of market producers within the NACE Rev. 2 Sections B to N, P to R and Divisions S95 and S96. The total economy is presented as Industry, construction and services (code BTSXO_S94).
For the reference years 2008-2020, data for the Sections P, Q, R and S were provided on a voluntary basis and K64.2 was not covered.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
BD constitutes an important and integrated part of the EU Regulation 2019/2152 on European Business Statistics (EBS Regulation).
3.5. Statistical unit
As reference year 2021, at ISTAT, the new definition of ENT was applied in statistical BD domain, according to the EBS regulation.
3.6. Statistical population
The target population is the private sector economy, including all active (having either turnover or employment at any time during the reference year) enterprises. In the additional datasets on employer business demography, the threshold is set to one employee at any time of the reference period. The following thresholds are used:
1 employee - population of employer enterprises,
10 employees in the beginning of the growth - population of high-growth enterprises (10%), 'gazelles' (10%).
3.7. Reference area
National level: the country (ITALY), the regions and aggregates covered by the data set disseminated (NUTS 2021)
3.8. Coverage - Time
2020-2021
From 2021 we have a break in the series due to the change in definition of the statistical unit (from old to new definition of ENT)
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
• The number of active, birth, death and survival enterprises, as well as high-growth enterprises is expressed in units. • The number of employees is counted as head counts and is expressed in units. • The number of persons employed is the sum of number of employees and self-employed persons. • The number of self-employed persons is the average number of persons who were at some time during the reference period the sole owners or joint owners of the statistical unit in which they work, measured in annual average headcounts, expressed in units. • Derived indicators are expressed in units or percentages
Year 2021.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
Before reference year 2021, EU Regulation 2008/295 on structural business statistics, Annex IX, was providing a legal basis for the BD data collection. The Commission implementing EU Regulation 2014/439 ensured data collection on employer enterprises (with at least one employee), high-growth enterprises (more than 10% annual growth over three years) and their employment.
Up to reference year 2006 data have been collected under gentlemen's agreement within the context of the development of Structural Business Statistics.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Not applicable.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
According to the Italian Statistical Law (Autority decision), the Business Demography data are not more confidential (Parere del Garante 5 Luglio 2011 prot. n. SP2011)
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
According to the Italian Statistical Law (Autority decision), the Business Demography data are not more confidential (Parere del Garante 5 Luglio 2011 prot. n. SP2011)
7.2.1. Confidentiality rules (primary and secondary)
Data treatment
Remarks
Confidentiality rules applied
No
Threshold of number of enterprises (Number)
Not applicable
Number of enterprises non confidential, if number of employments is confidential
No
Dominance criteria applied
No
If dominance criteria is applied, specify the threshold (in %) and the method of applying the dominance rules
Not applicable
Secondary confidentiality applied
No
If secondary confidentiality is applied, explain the rules and the methods used
Not applicable
7.2.2. Measures taken to reduce the number of confidential cells
Remarks
Measures taken to reduce the number of confidential cells
Not applicable
If measures have been taken, describe them briefly
Impact of these measures
not applicable
8.1. Release calendar
Not available.
8.2. Release calendar access
Not available.
8.3. Release policy - user access
Everyone can access to the data (NOT microdata) with a specific request.
Annual.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
Statistics table for Business Demography "Tavole di dati" (reference year 2021) date: by July 2023. The frequency of disseminating BD data is annual.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
No pubblications about BD data (reference year 2021).
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
There is not database for BD data.
10.3.1. Data tables - consultations
Not requested.
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
The microdata are not accessible.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
The data are sent to Eurostat according to the new EBS regulation.
At national level BD data (in aggregate table) are free and available on the Internet ISTAT website.
10.5.1. Metadata - consultations
Not requested.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
For paper pubblication a statistical metadata is available.
BD data published at the national level are the same as those sent to Eurostat.
The BD data are relevant to the indicator's objectives and to the users' needs.
The data are accurate (some errors may occur during the record linkage phase) and reflect the main demographic dynamics of Italy.
The BD complies with the deadlines set by the EBS new regulation. There is a time lag between the availability of administrative data and the final statistical data
There are two breaks in BD data time series.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
BD data published at the national level are the same as those sent to Eurostat.
Main users of BD data:
Internal users:
Other departments in your institutions.
Social actors: employers' organisations
Media
Researchers & students
External users:
Eurostat, OECD.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
No opinions of the users are collected.
12.3. Completeness
All requested charateristics and breakdowns are available.
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
100 per cent.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Not requested.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable.
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
Not applicable.
13.3. Non-sampling error
It is important to have a measure of quality of matched records, but it is proved that this work requires efforts in terms of time and skilled staff.
Manual checks have been carried out during the phase aimed to identify rules to choice final linked records. In fact in order to investigate the L+S population having an economic activity “at risk”, some checks have been done. Approximately, the proportion of false matches in the match by location and sector in those activity “at risk” is estimated to 20% (about 100 links manually checked). From this result it seems very difficult to take a decision, both errors (first and second type) are very high.
The solution adopted was to check (in automatic) for the presence of telephone numbers and date of creation/cessation.
In detail, only units with the same telephone n. or a difference less than 12 months between date of cessation and date of creation were included in the links. With this decision proportion of errors were estimated to: false matches : from 20% to 2% false non matches: from 33% to 10% The basis hypothesis is to decide which error is the most important to reduce, and in our opinion it is more important to have a low false rate for matches rather than for non matches.
13.3.1. Coverage error
Not requested.
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
Not requested.
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
Not requested.
13.3.2. Measurement error
Not applicable.
13.3.3. Non response error
Not applicable.
13.3.3.1. Unit non-response - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.3.2. Item non-response - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.4. Processing error
No significant processing errors were found in the final data collection process
13.3.5. Model assumption error
Not requested.
14.1. Timeliness
Time lags in days between the main sources used in the integration process that produces the BR are:
Fiscal register: 152 days;
Social Security register: 120 days;
Chambers of Commerce: 60 days.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
Not requested.
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
Not requested.
14.2. Punctuality
No delays in the transmission of data as calculated by Eurostat.
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
Not requested.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Not requested.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
a) First reference year available (calendar year): 2001
b) Breaks in time series and reasons for the breaks:
1) Year 2007. The main reason is due to the fact that in 2007 we have a new classification of NACE from Rev1.1 to Rev.2 .
2) Year 2021. The new definition of ENT was applied in statistical BD domain, according to the EBS regulation
c) Outliers in time series: No outliers in time series
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
2007-2020.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
The degree of coherence between the BD characteristics and SBS characteristics is very high.
Inter-domains comparison for common indicators ENT, EMPL, SAL, total size class and common activity show that for BD vs SBS there are small differences – less than 0.0% in general, except section K where difference is 4.1% for number of enterprises, for EMPL and SAL, difference is less than 2%.
Especially for EMPL and SAL the small differences are mainly due to rounding problems in the tables required by EUROSTAT. (Eurostat wants data rounded to the unit, while EMPL and SAL in SBS data and in BR data have 2 decimal places, so for different classifications we may have small differences.)
For K section SBS uses external sources, while BD is consistent with BR data. SBS is working to have K data consistent with both BR and BD.
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
Not applicable.
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
Not requested.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Not requested.
Not requested.
17.1. Data revision - policy
There is no revision policy in place.
17.2. Data revision - practice
The differences between the preliminary and final data are that the first, unlike the latest, are estimates. The methodology to estimate the real deaths (for the reference year t) is based on the death rates time series and on the information (more recent) of INPS (National Institute of Social Insurance) that is one of the sources used to built the BR. We are not able to produce the real deaths as individual statistical units, but only an estimate regarding to the main structural variables like NACE activity, legal form and size class, according to the Eurostat ’s breakdowns. 5,600 stratum are identified; for each stratum death rates (from year t-5 to year t-1) are calculated and only, for the stratum with more than 0 employees, the correlation between the number of active enterprises of BR and the number of active enterprises of INPS, is considered.
So, the death rate in stratum j (in the year t ) is a function of death rate time series of the period [t-5, t-1] and the correlation between BR and INPS number of active enterprises.
For each stratum, death rate in the year t is equal to a weighted average death rate. The number of real enterprises deaths for the stratum j is equal to the product of the death rate estimate in the stratum j and number of active enterprises in the stratum j (BR).
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
In Italy only the estimate of the deaths are revisioned.
18.1. Source data
a) Type of data source: Italian SBR
b) Coverage of SBR (Statistical Business Register): All NACE and all legal form are covered. The Italian SBR includes all units (ENT) with employment and/or have turnover greater than a threshold. This threshold is based on the average remunerations of the business sector and the geographical area in which the company operates
c) Matching, profiling or imputation: Not applicable
18.1.1. Concepts and sources
The BR raw sources of SBR contain all information.
The estimation done only for BD variables in the BD data base which is separate from SBR.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Annual data collection.
18.3. Data collection
The BD data came from Statistical Business Register. No direct access to an administrative data base.
18.3.1. Data matching
a) Data matching process and tools
- Matching process follows the methodology described in the guideline. For each year, units active during the year, new enterprises, reactivations and closure of enterprises were identified using the id-code of the BR. To identify subpopulations of matching, a matching process is carried out in two steps: 1) a match between stocks of years t and t-1 with closure of year t to obtain the Real deaths: in this way it is also possible to identify matches between a closure and a new enterprise (clear cases of continuity between two years); 2) a match between new enterprises in t and stock of year t in order to identify real births. The matching process is performed according to the Record Linkage procedure.
b) Matching
- Additional information on matched records of enterprises have been exploited using the information of 2 administrative sources:
1) The Tax register – Information on events, that are links between legal units (changes of legal form and hereditary successions).
2) The archive that links persons (partners) and partnerships managed by the Chamber of Commerce (CCIAA) (data treated).
- Multi-sites means that you have to check address at local unit level. We use enterprise address that corresponds to the place where organization is carried out.
- With reference to a given time t, a unit that enters the stock of active enterprises in year t and that in year t-1 was active but out of scope, was declared not to be a New enterprise. A unit is considered out of scope not only if it belongs to a Nace Rev 2 (A,O,T,U) not covered by the BR but when in the BR Nace code is missing (errors due to a lack in the administrative information or in the process of classification). Generally the rate of units that from out of scope become in the scope is minus than 1% over the stock of active units (similar percentages have been founded for units that move from in the scope to out of scope).
- First of all the Real Births are the 85% of the Entries in the BR. About 20% of the Entries that are not RB are due to the link between birth and death populations.
- No problems have encountered when carrying out the matching procedure.
18.3.2. Manual checks
As previous years, we investigated manually some of the births and deaths with 20 or more employees. Both births and deaths, the enterprises with more than 100 employees are all checked, while only about 15% for both the births and the deaths with 20-99 employees.
18.4. Data validation
Before sending to Eurostat, the following checks are performed: hierarchical, inter-variable plausibility and completeness.
1. Validation of format and file structure checks
We check the structure of the file and the format of the data, according to new regulation.
2. Intra-dataset checks
This type of check consists of a series of operations , developed in sas code, that ensure hierarchical correctness within the same variable (sub-totals with totals) and between variables (e.g., if the number of firms in a cell is zero, then the number of employees must also be zero, etc.)
3. Inter-dataset checks
This quality check is applied between different tables in the same domain, that is, between the table (Nace x size class) with the table (Nace x legal form). Next, the check is also done with respect to the regional tables.
4. Plausibility or consistency checks between the data available in the Institution and the data / information available outside the Institution.
the BD data are compared with the Infocamere data (Chambers of Commerce). These data describe the similar phenomenon (registrations and cancellations).
18.5. Data compilation
The database on employers is based on several administrative and register sources providing information on declared jobs of employees and self-employed for each production unit. The database covers all the institutional units included in the ESA production boundary: enterprises, public and private institutions, households. In particular, the database is obtained integrating the business register, ASIA-Enterprises, with units excluded from its coverage but included in ESA production boundary. Sources on which the dataset on employers is based are LEED-type and include information on the duration of each single contract in the reference year, with a different level of accuracy on the dates, depending on the source. That allows to estimate the annual average for each single job.
Therefore Employment, both self-employed and employees, is measured in terms of job positions. Specifically annual average is calculated by taking job positions of employees or job positions of self-employed persons per month and dividing by number of periods in year. The denominator used is equal to 12.
No different measure of self-employed persons is adopted for enterprises with 0 employees. Operational rules identifying a person as self-employed are specific according to the enterprise legal form.
Self-employment always present both in active sole-proprietorship and in active Partnerships. For sole proprietorships, the self-employed person corresponds to the owner of the enterprise and assisting family members. For partnerships - the subjective element, represented by the partners, prevails over capital: they MUST possess self- employment (unless there are exceptional cases: e.g., all partners are employees). For Corporations - capital has conceptual and normative precedence over the subjective element represented by partners MAY NOT possess self- employment . Membership in business groups is relevant element in the process. The result is that Corporations may exist without employment neither self-employed, nor employees.
Finally consortium, public entities, branches of foreign companies, are not eligible for the presence of self-employment.
In SBR the number of enterprises without employment, either employed or iself-employed, is about 4.6% of the total number of active enterprises.
Because employment is measured in terms of jobs position and not head count, births and deaths, are treated in the same way as other SBR firms, that is, their average annual contribution to employment is measured. No operational period average is calculated.
For Estimation of preliminary deaths see section 17.2 data revision.
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
Not requested.
18.6. Adjustment
Not applicable.
18.6.1. Seasonal adjustment
Not applicable.
The annual Business demography data collection covers variables which explain the characteristics and demography of the business population. The methodology allows for the production of data on enterprise births (and deaths), that is, enterprise creations (cessations) that amount to the creation (dissolution) of a combination of production factors and where no other enterprises are involved (enterprises created or closed solely as a result of e.g. restructuring, merger or break-up are not considered).
A summary of the available indicators is listed below. The data is available at EU, country and regional level, with breakdowns for type of activity, legal form and size class.
For the population of active enterprises: • Number of active enterprises • Number of enterprise births • Number of enterprise survivals up to five years • Number of enterprise deaths • Related variables on employment: 'employees' and 'persons employed' (employees and self-employed persons)
For the population of active employer enterprises: • Number of enterprises having at least one employee • Number of enterprises having the first employee • Number of enterprises having no employees anymore • Number of enterprise survivals up to five years • Related variables on employment: 'employees' and 'persons employed' (employees and self-employed persons)
For high-growth enterprises, the following indicators are available at EU and country level: • Number of high-growth enterprises (growth by 10% or more) • Number of employees of high-growth enterprises • Number of young high-growth enterprises (up to five years old high-growth enterprises) • Number of employees of young high-growth enterprise
17 January 2024
BD constitutes an important and integrated part of the EU Regulation 2019/2152 on European Business Statistics (EBS Regulation).
As reference year 2021, at ISTAT, the new definition of ENT was applied in statistical BD domain, according to the EBS regulation.
The target population is the private sector economy, including all active (having either turnover or employment at any time during the reference year) enterprises. In the additional datasets on employer business demography, the threshold is set to one employee at any time of the reference period. The following thresholds are used:
1 employee - population of employer enterprises,
10 employees in the beginning of the growth - population of high-growth enterprises (10%), 'gazelles' (10%).
National level: the country (ITALY), the regions and aggregates covered by the data set disseminated (NUTS 2021)
Year 2021.
Not requested.
• The number of active, birth, death and survival enterprises, as well as high-growth enterprises is expressed in units. • The number of employees is counted as head counts and is expressed in units. • The number of persons employed is the sum of number of employees and self-employed persons. • The number of self-employed persons is the average number of persons who were at some time during the reference period the sole owners or joint owners of the statistical unit in which they work, measured in annual average headcounts, expressed in units. • Derived indicators are expressed in units or percentages
The database on employers is based on several administrative and register sources providing information on declared jobs of employees and self-employed for each production unit. The database covers all the institutional units included in the ESA production boundary: enterprises, public and private institutions, households. In particular, the database is obtained integrating the business register, ASIA-Enterprises, with units excluded from its coverage but included in ESA production boundary. Sources on which the dataset on employers is based are LEED-type and include information on the duration of each single contract in the reference year, with a different level of accuracy on the dates, depending on the source. That allows to estimate the annual average for each single job.
Therefore Employment, both self-employed and employees, is measured in terms of job positions. Specifically annual average is calculated by taking job positions of employees or job positions of self-employed persons per month and dividing by number of periods in year. The denominator used is equal to 12.
No different measure of self-employed persons is adopted for enterprises with 0 employees. Operational rules identifying a person as self-employed are specific according to the enterprise legal form.
Self-employment always present both in active sole-proprietorship and in active Partnerships. For sole proprietorships, the self-employed person corresponds to the owner of the enterprise and assisting family members. For partnerships - the subjective element, represented by the partners, prevails over capital: they MUST possess self- employment (unless there are exceptional cases: e.g., all partners are employees). For Corporations - capital has conceptual and normative precedence over the subjective element represented by partners MAY NOT possess self- employment . Membership in business groups is relevant element in the process. The result is that Corporations may exist without employment neither self-employed, nor employees.
Finally consortium, public entities, branches of foreign companies, are not eligible for the presence of self-employment.
In SBR the number of enterprises without employment, either employed or iself-employed, is about 4.6% of the total number of active enterprises.
Because employment is measured in terms of jobs position and not head count, births and deaths, are treated in the same way as other SBR firms, that is, their average annual contribution to employment is measured. No operational period average is calculated.
For Estimation of preliminary deaths see section 17.2 data revision.
a) Type of data source: Italian SBR
b) Coverage of SBR (Statistical Business Register): All NACE and all legal form are covered. The Italian SBR includes all units (ENT) with employment and/or have turnover greater than a threshold. This threshold is based on the average remunerations of the business sector and the geographical area in which the company operates
c) Matching, profiling or imputation: Not applicable
Annual.
Time lags in days between the main sources used in the integration process that produces the BR are:
Fiscal register: 152 days;
Social Security register: 120 days;
Chambers of Commerce: 60 days.
Not requested.
a) First reference year available (calendar year): 2001
b) Breaks in time series and reasons for the breaks:
1) Year 2007. The main reason is due to the fact that in 2007 we have a new classification of NACE from Rev1.1 to Rev.2 .
2) Year 2021. The new definition of ENT was applied in statistical BD domain, according to the EBS regulation
c) Outliers in time series: No outliers in time series
