Comparability

Comparability - geographical

The statistics can be compared with the Business Demography published annually by Eurostat.

There is a difference regarding coverage. While the Danish published Business Demography include all NACE codes and ownerships, the European published Business Demography only include NACE Rev. 2 B-N excluding K642, which is a coverage in sectors comparable to the coverage in the structural business statistics. On voluntary basis P-S excluding S94 are also published. Moreover, following legal forms are included: Sole proprietor, Limited liability company and Partnership and other legal forms.

For more information on the european statistics published by Eurostat, refer to European Business Statistics Manual, 2021 edition.

Comparability over time

The Business Demography statistics has been republished for the reference years 2019-2021. It is based on the new activity threshold (Economically Active), which defines active firms differently from the previously used activity threshold. It is therefore not directly comparable to the previous time series covering 2001-2021.

As a result of the change in the activity threshold, the new Business Demography contains fewer new enterprises than the previous version of the statistics. An enterprise is considered genuinely active if it exceeds at least one of several threshold values. These threshold values are calculated for turnover, purchases of goods, foreign trade transactions, full-time employees, value added or payroll turnover. For each industry, the threshold value is determined based on the turnover of enterprises with 0.5-3 full-time equivalents (FTEs). This has raised the threshold value for some industries and is the primary reason why there are fewer new enterprises in the new Business demography compared to the previous version.

The new activity threshold also includes criteria related to asset holdings and whether an enterprise is owned by another genuinely active enterprise. These criteria have been excluded to ensure that the Business Demography only includes genuinely new enterprises, measured based on the enterprise's own growth.

Coherence - cross domain

The Business Demography is a sub-population of the General Enterprise Statistics, which includes all active enterprises in Denmark.

Like the Business Demography, the General Enterprise Statistics has also transitioned to identifying (new) active enterprises based on the new activity threshold (Economically Active). However, in the General Enterprise Statistics, an enterprise is also considered genuinely active if it merely meets the criterion for asset holdings or if it controls another enterprise that is genuinely active.

Statistics Denmark also compiles an Entrepreneurship Database. A key difference between the Business Demography and the Entrepreneurship Database is that in the Entrepreneurship Database, an enterprise cannot be a restarted business. This is permitted in the Business Demography if the enterprise has been closed for at least two years.

Coherence - internal

The statistics are based mainly on one source, why the internal consistency is considered high.