Business demography

NOTES ON METHODOLOGY

Business demography data are prepared in line with the methodology developed by Eurostat and OECD. Since the reference year 2021, methodological standards have been applied in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2019 on European business statistics, repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistics, by which the coverage has been extended to the entire section K – Financial and insurance activities.

Data source

Business demography statistics are based on data from the Statistical Business Register (SBR) managed by the Croatian Bureau of Statistics.

Observation units

The main observation unit used for business demography statistics is an enterprise. Each enterprise as a whole is assigned a code number of its principal activities according to the National Classification of Activities. The principal activity is determined and updated in the Statistical Business Register. The criterion for determining the principal activity is the largest share in the total value added of an enterprise. If it is not possible to obtain accurate information on the value added, the activity classification has to be determined by using substitute criteria such as income and/or number of persons employed. For enterprises classified in section K – Financial and insurance activities, the observation units are still legal and natural persons that are used as substitutes for enterprises.

Coverage

Business demography data refer to enterprises registered in the SBR and classified in sections B – S according to the NKD 2007, with the exception of section O – Public administration and defence; compulsory social security and division S94 – Activities of membership organisations.

Definitions and explanations

Enterprise is, in the statistical sense, a business entity that represents an organisational unit for producing goods and/or services and benefits from a certain degree of autonomy. Depending on the business and organisational situation, it may correspond to only one legal unit or a group of several legal units. In addition to legal units, enterprises also include free lances and crafts (since 2019, also those whose activity has been determined on the basis of lump sum income tax reports). The Council Regulation (EEC) No 696/93 on the statistical units for the observation and analysis of the production system in the Community* is fully implemented and enterprises have become the central unit of presentation in business demography. Until the 2019 reference year, legal entities and natural persons were treated as proxies for enterprises, while the use of the common EU definition of enterprises will ensure a clear distinction between these terms.

* Council Regulation (EEC) No 696/93 on the statistical units for the observation and analysis of the production system in the Community

Number of active enterprises is the number of enterprises registered in the Statistical Business Register that were active during at least a part of the reference year.

Enterprise is considered to be active if it either had employment or realised turnover or investments.

Number of persons employed is defined as the total number of persons who work in an enterprise (including working proprietors, partners working regularly in the unit, unpaid family workers and voluntary workers), as well as persons who work outside the enterprise, who belong to it and are paid by it, calculated as an annual average.

Enterprise births include enterprises that started an economic activity in the reference year.

Births exclude events such as mergers, break-ups, split-offs or restructuring of a set of enterprises.

Enterprise birth is not equal to registration of enterprise in a competent register. It is the result of the comparison and analysis of populations of active enterprises in three consecutive years.

Enterprise deaths include enterprises that have not been economically active for two consecutive years after the last year of activity. Deaths exclude enterprises that ceased to operate due to a split
-up, take-over or merger.

Survived enterprise is the one without discontinuity in its activity status in years after the year of birth.

Survival rate of newly born enterprises in a given reference period is the number of enterprises that were born in year xx-n and survived to year xx as a percentage of all enterprises born in year xx-n.

Territorial constitution

Population covers enterprises resident in the Republic of Croatia.

Abbreviations

EEC           European Economic Community

EU             European Union

Eurostat     Statistical Office of the European Union

NKD 2007. National Classification of Activities, 2007 version

OECD        Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

SBR          Statistical Business Register

Symbols

-                no occurrence

...              data not available