Research and development statistics

Data on the performance of research and development (R&D) are collected and used to provide information on the number of institutions and enterprises engaged in R&D, R&D personnel and R&D expenditure as well as source of funds thereof.

Data are collected and compiled using following classifications:

• Statistical Classification of Economic Activities (NACE Rev. 1.1) (until the end of 2007);
• Statistical Classification of Economic Activities (NACE Rev. 2) (from 2008);
• Classification of Administrative Territories and Territorial Units (CATTU);
• Nomenclature of Countries and Territories (GEONOM 2021);
• Nomenclature for the analysis and comparison of scientific programmes and Budget (NABS 2007);
• Fields of science and technology (Frascati Manual).

Business enterprise sector, government sector and higher education sector.

Business enterprise sector consists of:

• all firms, organisations and institutions whose primary activity is the market production of goods or services (other than higher education) for sale to the general public at an economically significant price and
• the private non-profit institutions, mainly serving them.

Enterprise in Business enterprise sector.

Data on research and development in higher education sector are acquired by conducting a full survey of higher education institutions and colleges founded by the state, local governments and legal entities, as well as the scientific institutions under their supervision.

Data on research and development in business enterprise sector are acquired by conducting a sample survey. Economically active statistical units are surveyed - entrepreneurs (sole proprietors/traders and commercial companies), whose main activity sectors according to NACE Rev. 2 corresponds to sections A to U and whose third and fourth characters of the Typological Classifier of Statistical Units of the CSB are 10, 51, 55, 57, 59, 61, 62, 71, 73, 74, 90. The target population of the survey does not include enterprises that submit statistical report forms 1-research, 3-research. The target population does not include NACE Rev. 2. Sector 9603 (funeral and related activities).

Data on research and development in government sector are acquired by conducting a full survey of public sector scientific institutions in the Registration of a Scientific Institution (whose activities are mainly financed from the state budget (excluding institutions included in the higher education sector)).

Latvia as a whole.

Comparable data are available since 1993. Part of data are available for later period.

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• number;
• thsd euros;
• mln euros.

Annual data.

Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2019 on European business statistics.

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Confidentiality of the information provided is protected by Statistics Law: 

• Section 7, Paragraph two, Clause 8, which sets out the obligation of the statistical institution to ensure statistical confidentiality;
• Section 17, which defines the procedures for data processing and the requirements for data protection;
• Section 19, Paragraph one, which stipulates that official statistics must be disseminated in a way that does not allow either directly or indirectly identify a private individual or a State institution;
• Section 19, Paragraph two, which stipulates that the statistical institution shall publish the official statistics which have been produced within the framework of the Official Statistics Programme in a publicly available form and by a predetermined deadline on the portal of official statistics. Until the moment of publication of official statistics this statistics shall not be published

Primary confidentiality

In enterprise statistics cells are defined as confidential according to threshold rule and dominance rule (n,k). Cells are safe to be published if contributed by at least 4 respondents (n=4) as well as share of a single contributor is less than 80% (1,80) or two contributors share is less than 90% (2,90).

Secondary confidentiality

To ensure protection of aggregated data, secondary confidentiality is applied to supress additional cells, thus protecting primary confidential cells. We select secondary confidential cells to provide adequate protection while minimizing information loss.

Applicable secondary confidentiality determination criteria:

1. Secondary confidentiality is determined using T-Argus software, which performs automatic secondary confidentiality calculation.
2. Secondary confidential cells are selected manually.

All official statistics are released according to the data release calendar at 13:00.

Data release calendar

Statistical release dates and times are pre-announced in the data dissemination calendar.

Annual.

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• Statistical yearbook of Latvia;
• Latvia. Statistics in Brief.

Statistics database

For research purposes, anonymized individual data are available through remote access. Depending on the data processing methods required, datasets may be used on the researcher's own infrastructure (OffSite) or via the CSB remote access system (OnSite). Data are provided upon submission of application and, if the CSB issues a positive decision, the conclusion of a contract. Anonymized individual data may be used only for scientific or research purposes, and the research results must provide a benefit to society.

Individual data, or microdata, relate to individual persons, households or enterprises and are obtained from surveys, population censuses and administrative registers.

Research data catalogue

Not available.

Frascati Manual 2015

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To achieve high user satisfaction and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements, the CSB has introduced a Quality Management System (QMS). The system defines and, at the procedural level, describes processes of statistical production and identifies the persons responsible for their monitoring throughout all production stages. Its structure follows the principles of the Generic Statistical Business Process Model (GSBPM).

The QMS sets out the sequence in which processes are implemented – that is, the activities to be performed, including verifications of processes and produced statistics, the order and implementation requirements of these activities, and the persons responsible for their execution. It also defines the approach to evaluating production processes and their outcomes, and to implementing necessary improvements.

The CSB quality management system is certified to the ISO 9001:2015 standard Quality management systems — Requirements since 2018 (scope of certification: development, production and dissemination of official statistics). The original certification audit was performed by BM Trada Latvija SIA and a recertification audit, in 2024, was performed by Bureau Veritas Latvia SIA.

The CSB information security management system is certified to the ISO/IEC 27001:2022 standard Information security, cybersecurity and privacy protection — Information security management systems — Requirements since 2017 (scope of certification: collection, processing and storage of information and data for functions of the Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia. Provision of statistical information for inland and foreign users). The original certification audit was performed by BM Certification SIA and a recertification audit, in 2024, was performed by Bureau Veritas Latvia SIA.

The quality of statistics is assessed in accordance with the existing requirements of both external and internal regulatory enactments, as well as the established quality criteria.

Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European statistics stipulates that European statistics shall be developed, produced and disseminated on the basis of uniform standards and harmonised methods. In this context, the following quality criteria shall apply: relevance, accuracy, timeliness, punctuality, accessibility, clarity, comparability and coherence.

As the national statistical institute and the principal authority of the national statistical system, the CSB has set common general institutional-level quality requirements for authorities responsible for producing or providing national statistics. These requirements are based on the European Statistics Code of Practice, which comprises 16 principles.

The overall assessment of data quality is good.

European Commission – data specified in Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2019 on European business statistics.

Ministry of Economics, Ministry of Education and Science – summary tables for R&D strategy and policy making.

The task of the CSB is to produce reliable statistics to support the analysis of socio-economic processes and to inform future decision-making.

Send feedback on data quality to pasts@csp.gov.lv

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End date of the reference period (T): 31 December

Data publication date: T + 8 months

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EU data on EU-27 as a whole and for each EU Member State are published on Eurostat website Section: Science and technology/ Research and development.

Comparable data are available since 1993. Part of data are available for later period.

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One of the CSB priorities, in line with the strategic directions of the European Statistics System and current approaches to producing statistics, is to collect data through broader use of administrative sources together with regular CSB surveys, while proportionately reducing response burden.

In cooperation with administrative data holders and within the competences set out in the Statistics Law, CSB is addressing the issues related to the use of administrative data to ensure that the sources used are as complete and reliable as possible, helping to reduce the administrative burden on businesses and households.

CSB measures to improve the use of administrative data and reduce response burden (2024) – available in Latvian only.

Revision policy is an important component of good governance practice. The aim of the CSB Revision Policy is to define how the statistics produced and published by the CSB are reviewed and revised. The first chapter explains the main terms used in the document, the second chapter provides a brief description of the CSB Revision Policy, and the third chapter outlined the revision cycle for the statistics produced by the CSB.

Revision policy guidelines (8 September 2022, PDF, 597 KB)

Published data are not revised.

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Data on research and development in higher education sector are acquired with the help of full-scope survey. Data source is CSB annual "Report on implementation of R&D in higher education institutions, scientific institutions under their supervision" (statistical report form 1-research).

Data on research and development in business enterprise sector are acquired with the help of sample survey. Data source is CSB annual "Report on implementation of R&D in business enterprise sector" (statistical report form 2-research and experimental developments; starting with the report for the reference year 2012 - statistical report form 2-research) and statistical report “Innovation in business” (statistical report form 2-innovations). Each year, the companies included in the sample complete statistical report form 2-research. Each second year, part of the sampled companies (according to the conditions for conducting the innovation survey) complete statistical report form 2-innovation.

Data on research and development in government sector are acquired with the help of full-scope survey. Data source is CSB annual "Report of government sector scientific institutions on implementation of R&D" (statistical report form 3-research).

Annual.

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