Survey on economic activities

Survey objectives

• Determination of the main and / or secondary economic activity (NACE);
• The determination of the institutional sector to which the entity belongs (classification used by the national accounts);
• Identification of any demographic changes in the entity (e.g. change of legal form, ownership, mergers, splits, ...).

Periodicity and instructions

It is a monthly survey.  

Instructions (FR/DE)

Legal framework

• Grand-Ducal Regulation of 7 June 1979 laying down detailed rules for the application of the law of 30 March 1979 organizing the numerical identification of natural and legal persons. Article 6 §2 of this regulation states: "The nature of the main activity of a legal person will be determined by STATEC and communicated within thirty days to the IT department of the Luxembourg State."
• Regulation (EC) No 177/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 February 2008 establishing a common framework for business registers for statistical purposes and repealing Regulation (EEC) No 2186/93 and requiring EU Member States to regularly update their respective business registers.
• Legal act of 10 July 2011 on the organization of the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (STATEC) and amending the amended Law of 22 June 1963 laying down the salary regime for State officials and stipulating in Article 2 "... to establish a system of statistical information accessible to the public, in particular on the structure and the activity of the country by proceeding, by investigation or exploitation of administrative files, ...".
  

Classification of legal units by NACE code

The classification of legal units by branch of activity is carried out using the NACE nomenclature (Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community). Legal unit means either a legal person or a natural person carrying on an economic activity. The use of this nomenclature is mandatory for EU member countries. A national version is elaborated by STATEC by adding an additional level of detail (subclasses) according to the structure imposed by the European Commission. The latest national version is the NACELUX Rev. 2 (effective January 1, 2008) replacing NACELUX Rev. 1.1. NACE is revised periodically, the last revision took effect as indicated on 1 January 2008.

STATEC manages up to four NACE codes per legal unit, the first representing the main activity (the main activity is the one that contributes the most to the added value of the unit), and the other three possible secondary activities if known. The main activity is the one used for all statistics stratified by branch of activity (NACE). All the information (classification rules, structure, explanatory notes, ...) relating to NACE in its latest national version in force can be found here.

The classification of legal units is carried out in principle on the basis of the information provided in our survey of economic activities. STATEC also makes use of other sources of information available when needed, particularly for non-surveyed units (e.g. statutes published by the Trade Register, VAT Administration, corporate website, ...).

STATEC reserves the right to modify the NACE code assigned to a legal unit at any time without prior or subsequent notification and justification to the relevant legal unit. STATEC only uses NACE for purely statistical purposes.

The legal units have the possibility to request the adjustment or the modification of the NACE code assigned to them by sending an e-mail unite.repertoire@statec.etat.lu specifying the main activity carried out and the date of change if applicable.

The NACE codes assigned to legal units can be consulted at the Guichet.lu Enterprise Portal under the heading NACE Code Search (the update of the database is made once a month).

Contact

• M. Nicolas Merlevede Té. 247 88 489
• Email : unite.repertoire@statec.etat.lu