In 2015, the Government decided on a Swedish maritime strategy concerning people, jobs and the environment. In 2016, the Government tasked Statistics Sweden with developing and producing compiled and detailed economic statistics on the Swedish maritime industries. The preparation of business statistics on maritime industries forms part of the efforts to follow up the strategy.

Maritime industries do not have their own section in the classification of economic activity. The task of developing statistics on maritime industries has therefore meant defining maritime industries based on existing data. The starting point has been the classification used for subindustries in the maritime strategy: transport, maritime technology and production, the ocean as a natural resource, leisure and tourism, and services.

Statistics Sweden has identified 23 out of 821 business codes in total that are completely maritime. To ensure the lowest possible undercoverage in the target population, additional information is added so that the areas of business activity that are identified in the maritime strategy are also represented in the population.

Information has been collected from statistical surveys and from other public authorities and private organisations.

A brief presentation follows below of the information sources and definitions that were used for each business group to reduce undercoverage.

The population has already been compared to the surveys Structural Business Statistics, Registerbased labour market statistics and Foreign trade – exports and imports of goods to link relevant variables to the enterprises in the population.