Data Collection
Annual Enterprise Survey 2015
The Annual Enterprise Survey (AES) 2014/2015 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.
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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 links below:
Central government finance annual releases and Local government finance annual releases
Balance sheet improvements
In the AES 2015 additional data was collected for financial assets and liabilities. This was to complete the alignment of the AES collection to the Statistical Classification of Financial Assets and Liabilities (SCFAL) to support balance sheet statistics.
Increased use of administrative data in 2015
To continue to reduce respondent load, in the 2015 financial year the AES sourced more data from the Inland Revenue. Inland Revenue's IR10 return is the primary source for capturing data on over 353,000 units.
Classification changes in agriculture in 2015
There have been a number of units reclassified in the agriculture industry in the AES 2015 as a result of information received from Agricultural Production Statistics: June 2015 (final). The units affected were mainly in the horticulture industry. Most of these reclassified units remain in the wider agriculture industry. The larger changes, with the most industry impact have been back-dated to 2013 for data released in the AES 2015.
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 Frame (BF) 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 2015
- Population size: 459,605 KAUs
- 353,205 units surveyed using tax data from the Inland Revenue Department
- Sample size: 16,767 directly surveyed
- 1,634 not-for-profit units are sourced from Charities Services
- There were 87,999 non-sample units.
