1. 2.2 Characteristics of units
Regional Course on
Statistical Business Registers:
Making better use of administrative data
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
10-13 December, 2017
2.2
Characteristics of units

2. CHARACTERISTICS OF UNITS
For each type of statistical unit, SBRs contain a set of characteristics that describe the unit. Characteristics are also referred to as variables, properties or attributes.

3. TYPES OF CHARACTERISTICS
Characteristics can be grouped into five categories:
Identification and contact characteristics
Demographic characteristics
Economic/stratification characteristics
Relationships (links) between SBR units
Relationships (links) with other registers and data sources

4. IDENTIFICATION AND CONTACT CHARACTERISTICS
Examples
Type of unit
Identification number(s)
Names
Addresses
Phone numbers
Purpose
Allow the unit to be uniquely identified in the SBR and enable it to be linked to other units and data sources. They also allow the unit to be contacted for surveys / follow up.

5. GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION CODES
In addition to address, some countries use geographic location codes for establishments or local units. These may be geographic coordinates of the unit or the census enumeration area it is located in.

6. GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION CODES
Geo-coding options:
Manual collection (Economic Census)
Auto-Coding
Address Register
You can manually collect the data – using economic census – ideally with tablet to capture it.
You can auto-code the locations with geocoding programs – thinking google maps etc but can do it in batch.
Address register a list of all buildings in the country already geocoded. Business and people identify their locations.

7. CASE STUDY: MEXICO
During its most recent economic census in 2014, Mexico used mobile devices to allow census enumerators to record the geographic locations of over 5 million establishments. An interface for viewing basic characteristics of each establishment and their locations on a Google Earth map is publicly available.

8. CASE STUDY: MEXICO
Extraction of petroleum and gas:

9. DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS
Examples
Dates of events such as:
Births (of units)
Deaths
Mergers
Takeovers
Splits
Purpose
Needed to determine whether a unit is economically active and for the production of business demography statistics.

10. ECONOMIC/STRATIFICATION CHARACTERISTICS
Examples
Institutional sector
Economic activities
Market/non-market status
Turnover
Number of person employed
Purpose
Used for sampling frames and tabulating results. Exceptionally used for direct production of statistics.

11. ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
It is most important to record the code of the primary economic activity, which determines the classification of units in the SBR, but secondary and ancillary activities should also be recorded.

12. ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
Economic activities should be recorded using the ISIC classification or ISIC-compatible classifications (e.g., NACE, NAICS, ANZSIC or adapted national classifications).

13. UNSD SBR SURVEY RESULTS

14. NUMBER OF PERSONS EMPLOYED
Number of persons employed by a unit should be recorded as both a head count and in full-time equivalents (FTEs) if possible. These characteristics are important for sampling and analysis.

15. TURNOVER
Turnover (revenue or sales) is a characteristic commonly used as a proxy for value added, since it is easier to collect. Different definitions of turnover exist for different economic activities.

16. TURNOVER
Turnover of units is not additive so a sum of turnover of smaller units should only be used if no direct figure is available.

17. SIZE CLASSES
Breaking up enterprises into size classes is useful for data collection and analysis. It is up to individual countries how to define size classes, but a common practice is to use size classifications with a total of four different classes.

18. SMEs
One reason to uses size classes is to identify small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) because of their role in growth and job creation. SMEs are defined in the EU according to both number of persons employed and turnover. Typically the vast majority of enterprises in a country are SMEs.

19. SMEs
EU definition:

20. SMEs
Staff headcount includes all full-time, part-time, temporary and seasonal employees, calculated in FTEs.

21. LINKS BETWEEN SBR UNITS
Examples
Links between:
Administrative and statistical units
Statistical and observation units
Observation and reporting units
Purpose
Management of the SBR and for use in economic surveys based on sample frames derived from the SBR.

22. LINKS WITH OTHER DATA SOURCES
Examples
From legal units to administrative units for VAT purposes
From legal unit to a trade register
To satellite registers
Purpose
Used to connect SBR units to various data sources and satellite registers.

23. RECORDING OF LINKS IN THE SBR
In practice, links will be recorded as two identification numbers - one for each unit linked. Dates the relationship started and ended should also be recorded.

24. UNSD SBR SURVEY RESULTS

25. REFERENCES
This presentation was primarily based on UNECE’s Guidelines on Statistical Business Registers, in particular Chapter 5. Other material used:
The African Development Bank’s Guidelines for Building Statistical Business Registers in Africa
Eurostat’s Business registers: Recommendations manual
UNSD’s Report on global status of statistical business register systems
The EU SME definition guide
Country maps based on Natural Earth data. Presentation template by SlidesCarnival