Foreign subsidiaries in Norway

Branch

A local unit not constituting a separate legal entity.

Control

The ability to determine the general policy of an enterprise by choosing appropriate directors.

Enterprise

The smallest combination of legal units that is an organisational unit producing goods or services, which benefits from a certain degree of autonomy in decision-making, especially for the allocation of its current resources.

Enterprise group

An association of enterprises bound together by legal and/or financial links and controlled by the group head.

Foreign affiliate

An enterprise or a branch resident in a country which is under the control of an institutional unit not resident in the same country.

Institutional unit

Elementary economic decision-making centre characterised by uniformity of behaviour and decision-making autonomy in the exercise of its principal function. There are two main types of institutional units:

1. Households and individuals who make up a household

2. Legal entities

Legal entity

A legal or social entity is one whose existence is recognized by law or society independently of the persons or other entities that may own or control it.

Ultimate controlling institutional unit (UCI)

The institutional unit, proceeding up a foreign affiliate’s chain of control, which is not controlled by another institutional unit.

The classification by industry in the Inward Foreign Afiliates Statistics follows the Norwegian Standard Industrial Classification (SIC 2007), which is based on NACE Rev.2 (EU) and ISIC Rev.4 (UN). NACE Rev. 2 is used when data are transmitted to Eurostat.

The classification by country or territory in the Inward Foreign Afiliates Statistics follows the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes, which are two-letter country codes defined in the ISO 3166-1 standard. GEONOM is used when data are transmitted to Eurostat.

Name

Foreign Affiliates in Norway

Topic

Establishments, enterprises and accounts

Division for R&D, technology and business dynamics’

National level

Frequency

Annual

Timeliness

The inward foreign affiliates statistics is released on the Internet within 18 months from the end of the reference year.

The inward foreign affiliates statistics is transmitted to Eurostat within 20 months from the end of the reference year.

Collected and revised data are stored securely by Statistics Norway in compliance with applicable legislation on data processing.

Statistics Norway can grant access to the source data (de-identified or anonymised microdata) on which the statistics are based, for researchers and public authorities for the purposes of preparing statistical results and analyses. Access can be granted upon application and subject to conditions. Refer to the details about this at Access to data from Statistics Norway.

Purpose

The survey describes the structure and development of foreign affiliates in Norway and their impact on the Norwegian economy.

History

The survey was established in the year 2000 and has been released in its current form since 2008.

Users include mass media, politicians, chambers of commerce, foreign embassies, interest groups, research institutes, international organiations etc.

Areas of use are journalism, politics, statistics, research and education, public administration, etc.

No external users have access to statistics before they are released at 8 a.m. on ssb.no after at least three months’ advance notice in the release calendar. This is one of the most important principles in Statistics Norway for ensuring the equal treatment of users.

The survey reuses data from Statistics Norway’s annual enterprise-based business statistics. The direct link with the annual enterprise-based business statistics enables us to compare the results for foreign-controlled affiliates with the results for domestically-controlled affiliates.

The statistics are developed, produced and disseminated pursuant to Act no. 32 of 21 June 2019 relating to official statistics and Statistics Norway (the Statistics Act).

Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2019 on European business statistisk, repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistics

The population covers foreign controlled Norwegian affiliates within section (B) Oil- and gas exploration, mining and quarrying, (C) Manufacturing, (D) Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply, (E) Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation, (F) Construction, (G) Wholesale and retail trade, (H) Transportation and storage, (I) Accommodation and food service activities, (J) Information and communication, (L) Real estate activities, (M) Professional, scientific and technical activities and (N) Administrative and support services activities. Section (P) Education, (Q) Human health and social work activities, (R) Arts, entertainment and recreation and (S) Other service activities are included from the year 2021 and onwards.

Foreign controlled affiliates within section (A) Agriculture, forestry and fishing, (K) Financial and insurance activities and (O) Public administration and defense; compulsory social security are not covered by the population. The same goes for foreign controlled affiliates within (S94) Activities of membership organisations.

Norwegian branches of foreign enterprises with net turnover < NOK 15 millions and/or employment < 10 man-years are removed from the population since manual checks have revealed that the ultimate controlling institutional unit often is a natural person resident in Norway.

The survey reuses data from Statistics Norway’s annual enterprise-based business statistics. Ownership information is obtained from the EuroGroups Register (EGR), the National Shareholders Register (SHR) and open sources on the Internet.

Collection of data, editing and estimations

The survey has no separate data collection.

Editing

Editing is defined here as checking, examining and amending data.

The variables «Ultimate controlling institutional unit» and «Country code ultimate controlling institutional unit») are edited manually for large observations in the annual enterprise-based structural business statistics. This is necessary since the EuroGroups Register does not extend beyond the first link, proceeding up a foreign affiliate’s chain of control, outside the EU/EFTA area, while the national Shareholders' Register does not extend beyond the first link outside Norway.

The criteria used for defining large observations in the annual structural business statistics are turnover >= NOK 500 million and/or employment >= 100 man-years for enterprises, as well as turnover >= NOK 15 million and/or employment >= 10 man-years for branches. Consistency is achieved through the linking of micro data.

Estimations

Enterprises and branches from the annual enterprise-based structural business statistics are divided into domestically-controlled affiliates and foreign-controlled affiliates based on ownership information from the EuroGroup's Register, the national Shareholders' Register or open sources on the Internet.

Foreign-controlled affiliates are broken down by country (ISO 3166-1 alfa-2), by industry (Standard Industrial Classification 2007) and by size (Classification of enterprises by size group 2007).

Employees of Statistics Norway have a duty of confidentiality.

Statistics Norway does not publish figures if there is a risk of the respondent’s contribution being identified. This means that, as a general rule, figures are not published if fewer than three units form the basis of a cell in a table or if the contribution of one or two respondents constitutes a very large part of the cell total.

Statistics Norway can make exceptions to the general rule if deemed necessary to meet the requirements of the EEA agreement, if the respondent is a public authority, if the respondent has consented to this, or when the information disclosed is openly accessible to the public.

More information can be found on Statistics Norway’s website under Methods in official statistics, in the ‘Confidentiality’ section.

Access to new sources of ownership data affects the distribution of affiliates by country code.

The Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) was revised in 2007.

Sources of error and uncertainty in the annual enterprise-based structural business statistics are described in «About the statistics».

Sources of errors in ownership data are described above in the chapter "Editing".