Data Collection
Annual Enterprise Survey 2018
The Annual Enterprise Survey (AES) 2017/2018 collection provides statistics on the financial performance and financial position of New Zealand businesses, covering most areas of economic activity. The AES was designed as the principal collection vehicle of data used in the compilation of New Zealand's national accounts. Data used in this survey is compiled from a number of sources and measures industry levels for a given year. Incremental improvements in measurement, sample design, classification, and data collection may influence the inter-period movements, particularly over longer time periods.
en-NZ
Methodology
Non-market government
Non-market government units have not been included in the AES population for all data published since the AES 2015. (Non-market government units include central government institutions, funded social insurance schemes and local government institutions - Institutional Sector 3). This is because coverage of non-market government data was incomplete within the AES and made interpretation of the AES data more difficult by mixing sector data. Similar data is available from other sources.
For data on non-market government units, customers should refer to the Government Finance Statistics link below:
en-NZStatistical Unit
A statistical unit is the level at which a survey can be designed and forms the basis of sample selection. For the AES this is the kind-of-activity unit (KAU). (A 'KAU' is a subdivision of an enterprise consisting of a set of one or more activity units for which a single set of accounting records is available.)
Collection Unit
A collection unit is the level at which statistics are collected. For the AES, this is the same as the statistical unit and is the kind-of-activity unit. The selection unit (enterprise) may contain many KAUs, meaning that if an enterprise is selected then all of its KAUs will be included in the AES.
Selection Unit
A selection unit is the level at which a respondent to the survey is selected. For the AES this is the enterprise unit. (An 'enterprise' is generally described as a legal entity operating in New Zealand. For example it can be a company, partnership, trust, estate, incorporated society, voluntary organisation or self-employed individual.)
Under Coverage
Businesses that are not economically significant are not selected into the AES.
The working definition for 'economic significance' is that if an enterprise fulfils any one of the following conditions, then it is classified as economically significant:
- The Enterprise has greater than $30,000 Annual GST expenses or sales. (To avoid existing enterprises repeatedly changing their economic significance indicator, a buffer zone of $25,000 to $35,000 has been established),
- The Enterprise has more than 3 paid employees (This is the rolling mean employment which is measured as the twelve month moving average of the monthly employee-count figure),
- The Enterprise is in a GST exempt industry, other than residential property leasing and rental,
- The Enterprise is part of a Business Register (BR) group,
- The Enterprise is a new GST registration and has registered for Salaries and Wages PAYE,
- The Enterprise is a new GST registration and is part of a IRD GST group return,
- The Enterprise has a geographic unit classified to agriculture, it is alive on the BF, and it is classified as economically significant. (Typically these units will be registered for GST and/or have paid employees.)
- IR10 income is greater than $40,000 annually.
Population and Sample Size
AES 2018
- Population size: 484,946 KAUs
- 417,064 units surveyed using tax data from the Inland Revenue Department
- Sample size: 16,440 directly surveyed
- 1,448 not-for-profit units are sourced from Charities Services
- There were 49,994 non-sample units.
