Statistical presentation

Data description

Fixed assets are compiled in accordance with the principles of the European System of National and Regional Accounts (ESA 2010). The compilation covers both gross and net capital stocks, gross fixed capital formation and consumption of fixed capital.

Gross fixed capital formation in fixed assets (gross fixed capital formation) comprises acquisitions of new and existing fixed assets less disposals. Gross fixed capital formation constitutes the additions to the capital stock and is the first step in the calculation of capital stocks. Investment is compiled at replacement prices and broken down by asset type, industry and institutional sector.

Fixed assets are measured as both gross and net capital stocks. The gross capital stock is the value of all fixed assets at replacement prices for new assets. The compilation is independent of age and remaining service life, since assets of the same type are valued equally regardless of wear and tear.

The net capital stock is compiled as the gross capital stock less accumulated consumption of fixed capital. The net capital stock represents the part of the economy’s stock of fixed assets that takes account of technical and economic obsolescence and ongoing loss of value. The compilation is made at replacement prices, both in current prices and in 2020-prices, chain-linked values.

Consumption of fixed capital is a measure of the systematic decline in the value of fixed assets due to use, wear and tear and technological and market developments. Consumption of fixed capital is calculated using geometric depreciation for all asset types from the 2008 reference year onwards. Prior to 2008 linear depreciation was applied.

Other changes in the volume of non-financial assets record unexpected changes in the capital stock, for example large losses due to natural disasters or exceptional write-downs.

Nominal revaluations show changes in the value of assets due to price developments for the underlying asset types. Real revaluations are obtained by adjusting for general price changes and reflect changes in relative prices or technological shifts.

The compilation follows a cohort-based approach where gross fixed capital formation is distributed over the service life of the assets using age-efficiency profiles. Service lives, depreciation patterns and price series are set in line with international guidelines and ongoing empirical assessments.

Classification system

The variables are broken down by the following asset types:

• Dwellings
• Other buildings
• Structures
• Transport equipment
• ICT equipment, other machinery and equipment and weapon systems:
  • ICT equipment
  • Telecommunications equipment
  • Other machinery and equipment and weapon systems
• Cultivated biological resources
• Intellectual property products:
  • Research and development
  • Oil, gas and mineral exploration
  • Computer software
  • Original works of art, entertainment, literary or artistic originals

In addition, there is a breakdown by industry where the most detailed level corresponds to the 69-industry breakdown in the national accounts, and a breakdown by institutional sectors corresponding to the institutional sectors in the national accounts.

Figures are compiled so they are consistent between the industry and sector distributions.

Danish Industrial Classification 2007 (DB07), which is the Danish version of the international nomenclatures EU’s NACE Rev. 2 and UN’s ISIC Rev. 4, contains a number of standard groupings: 127-, 36-, 19- and 10-groupings.

At the most detailed level, fixed assets are published at the 69-industry grouping, which can be aggregated to the 36a2, 19a2 and 10a3 groupings. See more about industries in national account.

Sector coverage

Institutional sectors:

• S.11 Non-financial corporations
• S.12 Financial corporations
• S.13 General government
• S.14 Households
• S.15 Non-profit institutions serving households

Statistical concepts and definitions

Consumption of Fixed Capital: Consumption of fixed capital is the decline, during the course of the accounting period, in the current value of the stock of fixed assets owned and used by a producer as a result of physical deterioration, normal obsolescence or normal accidental damage.

Gross Stock: Gross capital stock is the value of all fixed assets still in use, at the actual or estimated current purchasers’ prices for new assets of the same type, irrespective of the age of the assets

Net Stock: Net capital stock is the sum of the written-down values of all the fixed assets still in use is described as the net capital stock; it can also be described as the difference between gross capital stock and consumption of fixed capital.

Other Volume Changes in Non-financial Assets n.e.c.: Other Volume Changes in Non-financial Assets records abnormal changes to the level of capital stocks. For example unforeseen injury cases are not recorded as consumption of fixed capital but as Other Volume Changes.

Revaluation: The revaluation account records changes in the value of fixed capital due to changes in their prices. The nominal account corresponds to the revaluation of fixed capital stock in a given period due to changes in their prices. The real holding is the difference between general price changes and the fixed capital price change.

Statistical unit

In the national accounts by industry, the unit is in principle the local kind-of-activity unit, the workplace, which is the smallest unit for which a production account can be compiled. This unit is called the functional unit and it differs from the institutional unit, which is normally the enterprise as the economic and decision-making unit. While functional units are classified by industry, institutional units in the national accounts are classified only by institutional sector.

Statistical population

All units generating Danish economic activity

Reference area

Denmark.

Time coverage

• Annual National Accounts, final 1966-2022.
• Annual National Accounts, preliminary 2023-2024.

Base period

Gross and net capital stocks, consumption of fixed capital and gross fixed capital formation are compiled as chain-linked volume indices with 2020 as base year (chain-linked values), in order to isolate the volume component of the monetary values.

Unit of measure

Mill. DKK

Reference period

Calendar year.

Frequency of dissemination

Annually.

Legal acts and other agreements

REGULATION (EU) No 549/2013 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 21 May 2013 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the European Union (OJ L 174. 26. June 2013, p. 1) (ESA2010).

Cost and burden

There is no direct burden of response since data are collected by other offices in Statistics Denmark.

Comment

Further information can be found at the subject page for these statistics, or by contacting Statistics Denmark directly.