Accuracy and reliability

Overall accuracy

Data are in general associated with some uncertainty and comparisons between years should be made with caution. There are some uncertainty concerning connecting institutions and employees to budget accounts as the budget plan is not always used completely homogeneously within and between municipalities and regions.

he occupation of the employees is also to a certain extent associated with some uncertainty as the municipalities and regions do not use the DISCO-codes in their administration. Furthermore the DISCO-codes are in some cases connected to the employees by keys between wage classes and the DISCO-nomenclature. In some cases it is only possible to connect a DISCO-code to the employees at the highest level. A Change in the number of employees over years might be caused by the fact that the municipalities change the connection of employees to budget accounts or changes the DISCO-codes of the employees. Consequently a change in number of employees might not be real but reflects a change in the use of the budget plan or changes in the DISCO-codes. If the work hours of an employee account to more than one fulltime employee the number of fulltime employee is reduced to one.

Sampling error

Not relevant for these statistics.

Non-sampling error

The statistics are based on the monthly data reported to the statistics of earnings for the municipal sector and is based on February. Data are delivered from the pay transfer systems that most municipalities use. Institutions that use other pay transfer systems will not be included in the statistics. Coverage errors might occur if employees are misclassified under a wrong budget account. This means that employees that should not be included might be included in the statistics by mistake. On the other hand, employees that ought to be included might be missing from the statistics by mistake.

The occupation of the employees is also to a certain extent associated with some uncertainty as the DISCO-codes in some cases are connected to the employees by keys between wage classes and the disco-nomenclature. In some cases it is not possible to identify a six digit disco code (the most detailed level) on basis of the wage class. Instead the employee will get at DISCO-code at a lower level which might be only at the level of one digit. The municipalities has recently gotten increased access to connect DISCO-codes to their employees. This might improve the quality of the DISCO-codes but might also in some cases cause errors if the municipalities misinterpret the DISCO-nomenclature. The municipalities and regions do not use the DISCO-codes in their administration and are registered for statistical purposes only. The increased access for the municipalities to connect DISCO-codes to their employee might in any case cause variations in the DISCO-codes of the employees over time.

The number of fulltime employees are reduced to one fulltime employee if the summarized work hours of the employee exceed one employee.

Quality management

Statistics Denmark follows the recommendations on organisation and management of quality given in the Code of Practice for European Statistics (CoP) and the implementation guidelines given in the Quality Assurance Framework of the European Statistical System (QAF). A Working Group on Quality and a central quality assurance function have been established to continuously carry through control of products and processes.

Quality assurance

Statistics Denmark follows the principles in the Code of Practice for European Statistics (CoP) and uses the Quality Assurance Framework of the European Statistical System (QAF) for the implementation of the principles. This involves continuous decentralized and central control of products and processes based on documentation following international standards. The central quality assurance function reports to the Working Group on Quality. Reports include suggestions for improvement that are assessed, decided and subsequently implemented.

Quality assessment

The statistics are based on the monthly data reported to the statistics of earnings for the municipal sector and is based on February. Data are in general associated with some uncertainty and comparisons between years should be made with caution. This is primarily due some uncertainty concerning connection of institutions and employees to budget accounts. This might happen if the municipalities misplace employees at budget accounts that do not reflect their real occupation. Consequently some employees might be included in the statistics by error and some employees that ought to be included are missing. The occupation of the employees is also to a certain extent associated with some uncertainty as the DISCO-codes in some cases are connected to the employees by keys between wage classes and the disco-nomenclature. In some cases it is not possible to identify a six digit DISCO-code (the most detailed level) on basis of the wage class. Instead the employee will get at DISCO-code at a lower level which might be only at the level of one digit. The municipalities has recently gotten increased access to connect DISCO-codes to their employees. This might improve the quality of the DISCO-codes but might also in some cases cause errors if the municipalities misinterpret the DISCO-nomenclature. This might cause variations over time in number of fulltime employees within municipalities, both for the municipality as a whole and when data are grouped by budget accounts and occupations. This is the case for data for the country as a whole as well. These variations might not reflect a real change in the number of employees but might reflect that the municipalities have shifted employees between budget accounts over years or have changed the DISCO-codes of the employees. The statistics are revised in 2016. Consequently data for 2016 and forward are not directly comparable to data published in previous years.

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.