Business demography, European standard; size class,SIC2008

Table explanation

Description topics

Enterprises

Total

Enterprise:
The actual transactor in the production process characterised by independence in deciding on that process and in offering its products to third parties.

It follows from this definition, and in particular from the element of independence, that an enterprise can comprise more than one establishment, but also more than one legal unit. (Legal units include both natural and legal persons.) This is the case when the separate establishments or legal units do not operate independently. Conversely, it is possible to distinguish between different parts within a legal unit that operate independently in terms of production. These then constitute as many enterprises as defined. The latter is especially the case for larger groups with diverse activities.
When a unit thus defined extends over several countries, the Dutch part will be considered as a whole company for the sake of national statistics.

In official CBS terminology the enterprise as defined here is called the enterprise unit (BE), so that there is no confusion with the term enterprise used in common parlance, which is not very precise in this respect.

The statistical unit enterprise is an operationalisation of the kind-of-activity unit, as defined by Eurostat. This definition combines two requirements that may conflict: contributing to one activity versus corresponding to one or more operational units. The Netherlands gives priority to the second requirement when operationalising to the statistical enterprise unit.

Births

An enterprise birth is the creation of a new enterprise.

This means that economic criteria for an enterprise must be met: there must be information on employment or turnover of the enterprise. Furthermore, it is important that the enterprise is actually new. The continuation of one or more existing enterprises is therefore not an enterprise birth.

There is no enterprise birth in the case of
- enterprises that are created as a result of a merger, division or demerger;
- takeover or privatisation of part of a company;
- change of name;
- change of legal form;
- change of ownership;
- gradual change of activity;
- relocation;
- reactivation.

Deaths

An enterprise death is the termination of an existing enterprise.

This means that there is no question of a significant part of the activities being continued by another enterprise. An enterprise death only occurs when the enterprise (with the associated employment) no longer belongs to the enterprise population. The best-known example of this is bankruptcy.

There is no enterprise death in the case of:
- enterprises that disappear as a result of a merger, division or demerger;
- takeover or privatisation of part of an enterprise;
- change of name;
- change of legal form;
- change of ownership;
- gradual change of activity
- relocation;
- reactivation.

Newly born enterprise survivals

Newly born enterprises surviving year 1

An enterprise birth is the creation of a new enterprise. Here, it concerns enterprise births that took place in the year preceding the reporting year and are still active.

Newly born enterprises surviving year 2

An enterprise birth is the creation of a new enterprise. Here, it concerns enterprise births that took place two years prior to the reporting year and are still active.

Newly born enterprises surviving year 3

An enterprise birth is the creation of a new enterprise. Here, it concerns enterprise births that took place three years prior to the reporting year and are still active.

Newly born enterprises surviving year 4

An enterprise birth is the creation of a new enterprise. Here, it concerns enterprise births that took place four years prior to the reporting year and are still active.

Newly born enterprises surviving year 5

An enterprise birth is the creation of a new enterprise. Here, it concerns enterprise births that took place five years prior to the reporting year and are still active.

Enterprise population

Persons employed

The number of persons employed consists of:
- employees and directors who are on the payroll;
- employees who are on the payroll of another enterprise or institution, but work in the enterprise's own place of business and as such are in fact part of the workforce (agency staff);
- employed proprietors, partners, associates and cooperating family members;
- agency staff. Loaned personnel (employees on the payroll, but working for another enterprise or institution) are not included under persons employed.

Employees

The number of employees is determined on the basis of the employees on the payroll excluding director-major shareholders. The number of employees per company is calculated from wage tax data from the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration.