Last updated: 5 November 2024.
Highlights
This subchapter on the economy and finance is 1 of 9 thematic subchapters that provide a comprehensive glossary of variable definitions used within city statistics. The glossary is designed to ensure a clear understanding and interpretation of data disseminated by Eurostat, thereby improving the clarity of data requirements for the providers of these statistics in national statistical offices, while supporting the standardisation of statistical concepts across Europe.
This subchapter forms part of Eurostat’s City statistics manual.
Enterprise statistics by economic activity
Enterprise statistics in this section are defined within the context of structural business statistics.
Total employment (EC2020V) is the total number of people working in observation units (inclusive of working proprietors, partners working regularly in the unit and unpaid family workers), as well as persons who work outside the unit but belong to it and are paid by it (for example, sales representatives, delivery personnel, repair and maintenance teams). This statistic excludes manpower supplied to the unit by other enterprises, people carrying out repair and maintenance work in the observation unit on behalf of other enterprises and those on compulsory military service. For the purpose of city statistics, the observation unit is the local unit, meaning that employment variables are based on the place of work.
- an enterprise is an organisational unit that produces goods or services and has a certain degree of autonomy in decision-making; it can carry out more than 1 economic activity and can be situated in more than 1 location; it may consist of 1 or more legal units
- legal units include legal persons whose existence is recognised by law independently of the individuals or institutions which may own them or are members of them, such as general partnerships, private limited partnerships, limited liability companies, incorporated companies, and so on; legal units also include natural persons who are engaged in an economic activity in their own right, such as the owner and operator of a shop or a garage, a lawyer, or self-employed person working with handicrafts
- the local unit is an enterprise or part thereof (for example, a workshop, factory, warehouse, office, mine or depot) situated in a geographically identified place; at or from this place, economic activity is carried out for which – save for certain exceptions – 1 or more persons work (even if only part-time) for 1 and the same enterprise.
Employment (EC2008V, EC2009V, EC2022V and EC2032V–EC2038V) is distributed across a range of different economic activities. These are defined by NACE – the statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community. Various revisions of the NACE classification have been developed since 1970
- NACE 1970 was the original version of the classification – Nomenclature générale des Activités économiques dans les Communautés Européennes
- NACE Rev. 1 was the 1st major revision of NACE, adopted in 1990
- NACE Rev. 1.1 was a minor revision of NACE Rev. 1, adopted in 1993
- NACE Rev. 2 was the 2nd major revision of NACE, adopted in 2006
- NACE Rev. 2.1 is a minor revision of NACE Rev. 2, adopted in 2023.
NACE Rev. 2.1 will be progressively rolled out across all relevant statistical domains from 2025 onwards; Article 2 of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/137 provides details concerning its implementation.
NACE consists of a hierarchical structure established in Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006. The structure of NACE is composed of 4 levels
- a 1st level headings identified by an alphabetical code (NACE sections) – see the table below for a full list
- a 2nd level headings identified by a 2-digit numerical code (NACE divisions)
- a 3rd level headings identified by a 3-digit numerical code (NACE groups)
- a 4th level headings identified by a 4-digit numerical code (NACE classes).
NACE Rev. 2
Employment data from regional accounts are broken down into information for 10 different aggregates of NACE sections. NACE Rev. 2 Section U – activities of extraterritorial organisations and bodies is excluded.
The preferred data source for employment variables by economic activity is the business register. This data source is used for different sample surveys across the business statistics domain and for linking administrative data to the population of statistical units. If a country uses the labour force survey as an alternative data source, then information should be aggregated using the respondents’ workplace address (not their place of residence).
Legislation in force and other documents
- Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 on European business statistics
- Regulation (EEC) No 696/93 on the statistical units for the observation and analysis of the production system in the Community
- Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006 establishing the statistical classification of economic activities NACE Revision 2
- Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/137 establishing the statistical classification of economic activities NACE Revision 2.1 (and its roll-out schedule)
Source data for tables and graphs
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Database
- City statistics (urb), see:
- Cities and greater cities (urb_cgc)
- Functional urban areas (urb_luz)
- Perception survey results (urb_percep)