Statistical presentation

Data description

Trade in Services by Enterprise Characteristics (STEC) is an annual measurement of enterprises involved in international trade in services and their characteristics, stated in value. The statistics are grouped by economic activity, enterprise size, ownership and type of services.

Classification system

Type of services: The service items in STEC follow the service nomenclature EBOPS2010 (Extended Balance of Payments Services) which is defined in Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services (MSITS), issued by UN in 2010.

Sector coverage

There is no sector limits in STEC.

Statistical concepts and definitions

Residence: An enterprise is considered resident if it intends to have activity related the production of goods and services within the economy for at least a year. This means that affiliates and branches controlled by foreign enterprises within Denmark are considered Danish residents.

Number of employees: The number of employees refers to the number of persons who work for an employer and who have a contract of employment and receive compensation. A worker is considered to be a wage or salary earner of a particular unit if he receives a wage or salary from the unit regardless of where the work is done (in or outside the production unit). According to the Business Register Regulation, the intention is to use the situation at the end of the year. However, as the end date approach is not harmonized the annual average can also be used as reference.

Ownership: The ultimate owner: The statistics are defining a company's ownership attached to the ultimate owner who has control over the company, i.e. have the ability to determine a company's consult the general policy, if necessary by selecting a board. The controlling unit is the ultimate owner and holds, directly or indirectly, more than 50 pct. of equity or shareholders' voting rights. The ultimate owner must be understood in relation to the direct owner, since a company can immediately be owned (directly) from a country, even if it ultimately is the owned in another country. For more information see the documentation for the statistics on foreign owned enterprises

Statistical unit

The main statistical unit is an enterprise, defined as a legal unit until 2018 and as an enterprise unit from 2019 and onwards. However, since STEC is based on the international trade in services statistics (ITSS), a number of sources, other than enterprises, are included, and therefore not all trade can be attributes to the statistical unit. An enterprise can be used to collect parts of a complex company across e.g. legal units. Enterprises can be formed if it is assed that they will provide to more correct statistics. Before 2019 International Trade in Services by Enterprise characteristics used the legal unit as the statistical unit. Thus the legal unit defined the characteristic of the enterprise e.g. economic sector. Enterprises include all parts of the production process that a company has directly or indirectly ownership of. Thus, processes which have been separated in different companies, for historical or legal reasons, will be consolidated to one enterprise. For many small companies there will be no need to consolidate to enterprises and their enterprise will correspond to the legal unit. A change in the EU-legislation was the reason behind the change to enterprises as this will result in more correctly measuring the activity of the companies. Enterprises have been formed for the large and statistically most important companies.

Statistical population

The ITSS and thus the STEC cover all service transactions between residents and non-residents. One of the main sources for the ITSS is the ITS survey, which is a sample survey drawn from a population of around 50.000 (legal) units. The population (~50.000 legal units) is defined by using the statistical business register, SBS statistics and VAT reports on trade in services with other EU countries.

Reference area

STEC cover all international trade between Danish residents and non-residents.

Time coverage

The statistics annually covers the period from 2014 to 2018 for legal units. From 2019 and onwards the statistics cover enterprises.

Base period

Not relevant for these statistics.

Unit of measure

The statistics are disseminated in mill. DKK

Reference period

It is an annual statistic which follow the calendar year.

Frequency of dissemination

This statistics are disseminated annually.

Legal acts and other agreements

Not relevant for these statistics as they are a combination of individual statistics. The individual statistics all have their own legal agreements. For more information, see the documentation for the respective statistics.

Cost and burden

Not relevant for these statistics as they are based on already collected data.

Comment

Further information can be found by contacting Statistics Denmark directly.