Content
About the statistics
Definitions
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Name and topic
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Name: Property management, local government
Topic: Public sector
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Responsible division
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Division for Housing, Property, Spatial and Agricultural Statistics
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Definitions of the main concepts and variables
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Definition of gross area:
The total floor space of a building, including unusable space, measured from the outside walls.The operating account includes revenues and expenditures, and also includes repayment etc. Operational accounts are specified according to account category, function and type.
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Standard classifications
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Statistics Norway has classified all the 428 municipalities into 16 categories (in 2013), by number of inhabitants and economic external conditions. The classification of municipalities is described by Langørgen, Løkken and Aaberge (2015) (only in Norwegian). In calculating the average for county municipalities, the municipalities are divided into 19 county municipalities in accordance with the standard for municipality classification.
Administrative information
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Regional level
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Municipalities- Data is published for all the municipalities
County municipalities- Data is published for all the county municipalities
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Frequency and timeliness
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Annual
Preliminary figures publication is 15. March in KOSTRA
Audited figures publication is 15. June in KOSTRA
Latest article publication is approx. 2 week after the KOSTRA publication 15. June.
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International reporting
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Not relevant
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Microdata
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Data for KOSTRA (from and til accounting year 2001) is saved in 3 samples of microdata (file as per 15.3, revised by munipalities and municipalities counties 15.4 and revised by Statistics Norway as per 156) in KOSTRA-KOEK- database in Oracle.
Background
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Background and purpose
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The statistics give a detailed overview of the municipalities; property management. It shows how much gross area the municipalities; buildings are made of, and the cost of maintaining the buildings. Municipalities can be compared both over time and to other municipalities.
The ministry of Local Government and Regional Development is the assignment-giver (authority) for the publication of the municipality accounts statistics.
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Users and applications
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The statistics is important in providing governing information regarding the municipalities; property management to politicians, state authorities and to the municipalities.
External users are e.g. municipalities and county municipalities, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, in addition to research institutions, media and others.
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Equal treatment of users
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Not relevant
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Coherence with other statistics
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Not relevant
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Legal authority
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The Local government act, 25 sep.1992 No.107. Updated with all amendments enacted up to 7 January 2005.
Municipal accounts regulations (available only in Norwegian) Forskrift av 15.desember 2000 om rapportering fra kommuner og fylkeskommuner § 1 jf. § 8, 2. ledd.
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EEA reference
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Not relevant
Production
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Population
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The statistics comprises all the municipalities, county municipalities and the consolidated companies that own local government buildings. The municipalities have different characteristics in relation to their geographical structures and the number of inhabitants. More than half of the municipalities have less than 5 000 inhabitants, while only 12 municipalities have more than 50 000 inhabitants.
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Data sources and sampling
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Statistics are collected from two data source; KOSTRA questionnaires 34A, 34B, 34C, 34D and the individual municipalities accounting.
Comprises of all the municipalities, county municipalities and the consolidated companies that own local government buildings.
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Collection of data, editing and estimations
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Data is reported electronically to Statistics Norway by to methods. An online questionnaire is submitted as well as a file extract from the municipalities accounting systems.
The deadline for reporting of both the questionnaire and file extract is 15th Feb.
There are different controls and revision systems designed for the submission of both the electronic questionnaire and file extract.
Data from the questionnaire is controlled online and further checks is made once received.
The data containing the accounting figures is controlled online before submission to Statistics Norway with the help of an online control program designed to counter check the file-extract for any deviations. In case of any deviations, the file must be corrected by the respondents (municipalities) before it is finally accepted and registered. Additional checks are further carried out internally in Statistics Norway. These are checks to ensure that there are figures for important activities which have been assigned to the municipalities by legislation. In addition the figures are checked against figures from the previous year and against the corresponding municipality groups.
If large or many deviations are found, the respondent is contacted and asked to submit a new corrected questionnaire and/or corrected accounting report. Data for the previous year is published as part of KOSTRA (Municipality-State-Reporting) the following year on March 15th as preliminary figures. In addition the municipalities and county municipalities have a deadline the 15th of April to report their improved figures for the publication of audited figures 15th of June.
The data is published as key figures and basic figures. Basic figures are absolute figures.
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Seasonal adjustment
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Not relevant
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Confidentiality
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Not relevant
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Comparability over time and space
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The reporting of the questionnaires 34A, 34B, 34C, 34D was carried out for the first time in 2009.
Accuracy and reliability
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Sources of error and uncertainty
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The controlling of the published preliminary figures March 15th, are only done by electronic controls. These controls do not find all the errors and there can be errors in the published preliminary figures March 15th. When publishing edited figures June 15th, controls are made by both Statistics Norway and the municipalities themselves. The publication gives very detailed information, and the controls done by Statistics Norway do not cover all details, so errors can still occur.
Questionnaires 34A, 34B, 34C, 34D has been reported for the first time by municipalities in 2009 (for accounting year 2008). The questionnaire is not without errors as the municipalities have no experience in the registration of the required data and also due to the absence of similar figures from the previous year.
Partial non-response occurs. The reporting of questionnaires 34A, 34B, 34C, 34D and municipality accounts is based on the principle of total counting, but there will always be considerable defections when Statistics Norway publishes preliminary figures March 15th. The audited figures published the 15th of June by KOSTRA, are figures controlled by the municipalities themselves and Statistics Norway.
Publication of audited figures 15th of June produce some defections but considerable less than publication of the preliminary figures. In the publication of 15th March the defection rate can be about 30 per cent, but in June the defection rate is normally less than 5 per cent.
The statistics is based on the principle of total counting.
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Revision
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Figures for property tax accounts are published the year after the other figures conerning property tax.
Preliminary figures publication is 15. March in KOSTRA
Audited figures publication is 15. June in KOSTRA