The Federal Business Census (BC) is a

survey Survey may refer to: Statistics and human research * Statistical survey, a method for collecting quantitative information about items in a population * Survey (human research), including opinion polls Spatial measurement * Surveying, the techniq ...

covering all second and third sector

business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for pr ...

es and enterprises throughout

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. The survey is conducted by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO) with the support of regional

statistical Statistics (from German: ''Statistik'', "description of a state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a scientific, industria ...

offices. The aim of the survey is to collect complete data from all

economic production Production is the process of combining various inputs, both material (such as metal, wood, glass, or plastics) and immaterial (such as plans, or knowledge) in order to create output. Ideally this output will be a good or service which has value an ...

units on economic, social and regional aspects. The BC is used to update the Business and Enterprise Register (BER), and serves as a reference for various statistics. The BC is a complete survey. Data is collected by means of paper

questionnaire A questionnaire is a research Research is "creativity, creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, ...

s, online questionnaires (eSurveys), and profiling (separate collection of data from large (government) administration units and enterprises). Participation in the survey is compulsory. Data collected includes: locations of businesses, (address), economic activity, and number and names of persons employed by hours of work,

sex Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones (ova, oft ...

, and nationality at the communal level (and per hectare for

geocode A geocode is a code that represents a geographic entity (location or object). It is a unique identifier of the entity, to distinguish it from others in a finite set of geographic entities. In general the ''geocode'' is a human-readable and ...

d data). The census is sanctioned by the Ordinance on the Conduct of Statistical Surveys by the

Confederation A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a union of sovereign groups or states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

of 30 June 1993 (RS 431.012.1).Ordinance on the Conduct of Statistical Surveys by the Confederation of 30 June 1993 (RS 431.012.1) (French)
/ref> The first

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

took place in 1905. Since then, it has been conducted three times per decade (in all years ending with 1, 5, and 8). Its reference day for any current calendar year is the last

working day The weekdays and weekend are the complementary parts of the week devoted to labour and rest, respectively. The legal weekdays (British English), or workweek (American English), is the part of the seven-day week devoted to working. In most of th ...

in September.

Footnotes and references

External links

Federal Statistical Office (FSO), Welcome to the Business Census internet pages

Economy of Switzerland Statistical data sets Censuses