Accuracy and reliability

Overall accuracy

Currently, the statistics are based on data from 98 municipalities. 74 of the municipalities have reported all data for entire period from 1st quarter of 2015 to 4th quarter of 2023 inclusive. The remaining municipalities have approved part of the data, for parts of the period. 19 municipalities have applied for and been granted dispensation by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Housing. That means that they have been exempt from reporting/validating data for the entire period Q1 2015 to Q4 of 2017 inclusive or part of it, or for certain services in the same period. Consequently, data that are covered by dispensation, are not part of the statistics. However, the period Q1 2018 to Q4 of 2023 contain all data for all 98 municipalities.

The precision of the statistics are primarily affected by inadequate reports, meaning - for instance - that some of the services have not been reported. Inadequate reports are often due to the fact that some municipalities have technical issues with their setup of system-to system solutions. This can e.g. mean that it is not clear for the municipality or Statistics Denmark what the internal validation criteria are and, consequently, which data are reported.
In addition, there are often problems with reporting when a municipality changes its administrative system and with that the system-to system solution. Often the services are not recorded in the new administrative system with the right start date but with a start date that is equal to the the date the municipality started to use the new administrative system. Thus, the history is lost since the entire course of the services are not preserved. The succeeding validation is complicated by the fact that the municipality often is not able to correct data in old administrative systems. For some of the services, it may be another department that handles the referral than the department that reports to Statistics Denmark. For instance, this is frequently the case with § 95 in the Act on Social Services that often is handled by the senior citizens department in the municipality. Seeing that it usually is the social services department that report data to these statistics, data for § 95 are sometimes missing in the reports.

Sampling error

Not relevant for these statistics.

Non-sampling error

At the moment data from 98 municipalities are included in the statistics.

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 contain data from all municipalities in the country. At the moment 98 municipalities are included in the statistics. 74 of them have reported all data for entire period from 1st quarter of 2015 to 4th quarter of 2023. The remaining municipalities have approved parts of the data. Inadequate coverage is the most important factor when it comes to the usefulness of the statistics. The period Q1 2018 to Q4 of 2023 contain all data for all 98 municipalities.

There may be major variations, when comparing the number of individual types of services across municipalities, even though population size is taken into account. This can be due to the difference in the referral practices among the municipalities. Some municipalities grant some types of services to a greater extent than other municipalities and conversely the same municipality may be more restrictive in granting other types of services. Similarly, the the referral practices for the individual service may change over time within the same municipality or there may be a shift from one service to another. When comparing the municipalities, it is therefore important to take these factors into account.

The data contained in these statistics are relevant, current and available. The service types are unambiguously defined and are comparable to categorizations used in other available data about municipalities' expenses for the selected services. Data are published annually.

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

Any revisions of previously released data will, by the default, be made at each new release. Revisions occur because the municipalities have performed quality assurance on their data or Statistics Denmark has improved their data processing.