Data Collection
Annual Enterprise Survey 2022
The Annual Enterprise Survey (AES) 2021/2022 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-NZThe Annual Enterprise Survey (AES) provides statistics on the financial performance and position of businesses operating in New Zealand, covering most areas of economic activity. The 2022 AES questionnaires consist of 26 form-types which are stored on the Stats NZ Store House. Annual Enterprise Survey 2022 Questionnaire and forms
The Inland Revenue financial statement summary (IR10) provides financial performance and position accounting information and is used as an administrative data source for AES. Some modelling is applied to derive comparable information to that collected in AES. This avoids the need to directly survey many businesses. Inland revenue financial statements summary (IR10)
All registered charities file an annual return with Charities services. This includes some financial performance and position information which is used as an administrative data source for AES. Some modelling is applied to derive comparable information to that collected in AES. This avoids the need to directly survey many not-for-profit enterprises. Charities annual return
Methodology
Impact of COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic had significant impact on NZ business activity over 2020, 2021 and 2022 years, particularly when COVID-19 alert levels and protection framework (traffic lights) were in place.
As the Annual Enterprise Survey 2022 results cover enterprises with balance dates between 1 October 2021 to 30 September 2022, the impact of COVID-19 was varied.
'Government funding, grants and subsidies' include government funded COVID-19 wage subsidies in the Annual Enterprise Survey 2022. Wage subsidies passed on to employees are captured under salaries and wages paid.
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.
Some industries and activities are also excluded from AES including:
- Superannuation funds (K633000)
- Residential property operators (L671100)
- Foreign government representation (O755200)
- Religious services (S954000)
- Private households employing staff and undifferentiated goods and service-producing activities of households for own use (S96100-300)
- Non-market local and central government
Population and Sample Size
AES 2022
- Population size: 525,838 KAUs
- 450,783 units sourced using tax data from the Inland Revenue Department
- Sample size: 17,038 units directly surveyed
- 1,834 not-for-profit units were sourced from Charities Services
- There were 56,183 non-sample units (sample unit's responses are weighted up to represent these).
