Accuracy and reliability

Overall accuracy

The component relating to earnings and wages accounts for about 96 pct. of total labour costs. Consequently, overall accuracy depends primarily on the accuracy of this component. Overall accuracy is described in the quality declaration regarding structure of earnings. The overall accuracy of other labour costs is considered to be reasonably high. The high accuracy of other labour costs stems from the fact that many of the costs involved are forced by law and often relate to the branch of economic activity or size group of the enterprise. This means that there is a great possibility to control the transmitted data. This strengthens the accuracy of the data. Furthermore, it is also the impression that the accuracy of the transmitted data is increasingly improved as enterprises are becoming familiar with the content of the survey,

Sampling error

The sample survey is a source of uncertainty. The sample survey used for other labour costs is created on the basis of extracts from the Central Business Register of business enterprises with more than nine employees working full-time. The sample is stratified in accordance with the size of the enterprises and economic activity. In 2024 the sample consisted of 3640 enterprises. 1561 of these received a questionnaire from Statistics Denmark, which corresponds to about 43 pct of the sample. 55 pct. of the questionnaires were mailed by the Danish Employers' Confederation, while the remaining 2 pct. were mailed by Finance Denmark and Insurance and Pension. Approx. 98 pct. of the mailed questionnaires were incorporated in the production of statistics. The questionnaires that were not used in compiling the statistics were omitted for different reasons, e.g. the business enterprises discontinued their activities during 2024, or the number of employees decreased to less than ten during the year.

There exists no overall assessment of the uncertainty caused by sampling errors.

Non-sampling error

Other uncertainty has not been estimated or assessed yet.

Quality management

Statistics Denmark follows the recommendations on the organisation and management of quality set out in the Code of Practice for European Statistics and the accompanying implementation model, the Quality Assurance Framework. Read more about these on the page Quality in official statistics.

Quality management is supported by common principles, guidelines and managerial responsibility for quality in statistical products and processes. The aim is to ensure a systematic and consistent approach to quality across the entire statistical production.

Quality assurance

Quality assurance at Statistics Denmark is integrated into the statistical production processes and is carried out in accordance with the principles of the Code of Practice for European Statistics. Read more on the page Quality in official statistics.

Quality assurance includes the continuous use of standardised procedures, documentation in line with international standards and internal controls related to data collection, data processing and dissemination. Experience gained from production is continuously used to identify needs for adjustments and improvements.

Quality assessment

The quality of the statistics is considered to be high. Some of the fundamental information in other costs rest upon voluntary agreements, and as a consequence are therefore somewhat difficult to assess the validity of. Still, the impact these information have on the total labour costs are minimal, and the uncertainty caused by these is considered to be limited. A potential source of error is the lack of response from the business enterprises. However, the response rate for other labour costs is close to 100 per cent.

Data revision - policy

Statistics Denmark revises published figures in accordance with the Revision Policy for Statistics Denmark. The common procedures and principles of the Revision Policy are for some statistics supplemented by a specific revision practice.

Data revision practice

Only final figures are published.