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Comparability

Contact info

Labour and Income, Social Statistics
Jarl Quitzau
+45 23 42 35 03

jaq@dst.dk

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Personal assets and Liabilities

These statistics have been compiled since 2014. Albeit unlisted stocks and defaulted public debt is only available from 2020. These statistics are compiled according to common European guidelines, but are unique as the only complete register based statistics with almost full coverage on wealth and liabilities. Use caution if doing international comparisons.

Comparability - geographical

As far as we know, similar register based statistics are not produced elsewhere that have as extensive coverage as the Danish ones – international comparisons may produce skewed results due to different methods of data collection and coverage. Use caution if doing international comparisons and take note of which component are covered by the statistics..

Comparability over time

These statistics have been compiled since 2014. Albeit unlisted stocks and defaulted public debt is only available from 2020.

In 2023, the statistics transitioned to using a temporary data foundation based on the Danish Tax Agency's new valuation system. This has resulted in a slight shift of values from "A.1 Primary residences" (down by 0.6 pct. compared to 2022) to "A.4 Other residences." (Up by 3 pct. compared to 2022). There is no notable effect on the overall value of real estate.

When the statistics were established in 2014, there were limited options for comparing data over time. As we do not have figures from years before 2014 we cannot compare with data from earlier years. The income register contains data on financial wealth, value of houses and debt going back to 1980. These data are somewhat consistent across time.

Coherence - cross domain

Data on wealth at the macro level is published in the national accounts. In 2014, a memo was made about the differences between the individual-based statistics and the national accounts. The National accounts include macro data on wealth components that are not available at the level of individuals I.E. non-traded stocks. This includes e.g. unlisted shares and cash. The statistics on personal assets and liabilities are a subset of these statistics. The financial wealth components that are also included in the income statistics are also very internally consistent. The few difference that occur are caused by the often changing points of time during the day that the tax authorities’ systems register their data.

Coherence - internal

Not relevant for these statistics.