Statistical processing

Source data

Data are collected from several registers: The integrated agricultural control system (IACS) which is a register of farmers’ applications for area-based subsidies, including the number of hectares of land distributed across fields. The register contains records of fields used for agricultural activities and crops. The GLR is maintained by the Danish Agency for Green Land Restructuring and Aquatic Environment.

The land is registered in the Cadastre (Matriklen), which is administered by the Danish Geodata Agency, as is the Ownership Register (Ejerfortegnelsen), which describes ownership of real property and, where information is missing, is supplemented by the Land Registration Register (Tinglysningsregistret), administered by the Danish Courts.

Information about the owners is obtained from the Central Person Register (CPR), as well as from the Central Business Register (CVR), address registers, and finally Eurostat’s Enterprise Group Register (EGR).

Frequency of data collection

Annual.

Data collection

Data for the statistics is collected via a system-to-system solution.

Data validation

There is no data validation since the register information is assumed to be reliable.

Data compilation

The starting point for the statistics is IACS i.e. farmers’ applications for area-based subsidies. The registered fields are linked to the Cadastre (Matriklen) through the BFE number (BFE_nr). If, after the GIS overlap analysis, there are individual areas smaller than 1,000 square metres that cannot be matched, these areas are excluded in order to avoid creating further uncertainty.

Owners are identified through the Ownership Register (Ejerfortegnelsen). If a field has multiple owners, the land is distributed proportionally according to ownership shares.

For companies, the ownership structure of the company and, where relevant, its owners is examined in order to identify ownership through legal or beneficial owners. The search first looks for beneficial owners and then for legal owners. If only legal owners are registered in the Central Business Register (CVR), it is examined whether the company is registered in the European Group Register (EGR) of multinational enterprises. The register is updated 14 months after the end of the year, so for the current statistical year the same EGR basis as the previous year is used. If multiple owners of a company are identified, ownership of the land is distributed proportionally according to ownership shares. If no foreign ownership is identified in the company, ownership is classified as Danish. For owners whose nationality is unknown, a category labelled “unknown nationality” has been created.

For individuals with a personal identification number, the owners’ nationality can be determined from the Civil Registration System. For individuals with dual citizenship, nationality is classified as Danish if Danish citizenship is one of them. For individuals without a Danish personal identification number, the country of residence is used as the country code.

Age information can only be determined for persons residing within the Danish Realm.

In the calculation of agricultural land area distributed by country, there is some uncertainty because ownership shares of a given piece of agricultural land do not always add up to 100 percent. Example: A parcel of land has a German owner with a 20 percent share and a Danish owner with a 60 percent share. This means that 20 percent of the area cannot be determined. In such cases, the ownership shares are adjusted proportionally using a factor of 100/(20+60)=1.25, so that the German share becomes 20×1.25=25 and the Danish share becomes 60×1.25=75. Such cases account for less than 1 per mille of the total agricultural land area.

Adjustment

Not relevant for the statistics.