Statistics Explained

Archive:Veterinary services statistics - NACE Rev. 2

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Data from October 2015. Most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database.

This article presents an overview of statistics for the veterinary services sector in the European Union (EU), as covered by NACE Rev. 2 Division 75. It belongs to a set of statistical articles on 'Business economy by sector'.

Table 1: Key indicators, veterinary activities (NACE Division 75), EU-28, 2012 - Source: Eurostat (sbs_na_1a_se_r2)
Table 2a: Key indicators, veterinary activities (NACE Division 75), 2012 - Source: Eurostat (sbs_na_1a_se_r2)
Table 2b: Key indicators, veterinary activities (NACE Division 75), 2012 - Source: Eurostat (sbs_na_1a_se_r2)
Table 3: Key size class indicators, veterinary activities (NACE Division 75), EU-28, 2012 - Source: Eurostat (sbs_sc_1b_se_r2)
Table 4a: Employment by enterprise size class, veterinary activities (NACE Division 75), 2012 - Source: Eurostat (sbs_sc_1b_se_r2)
Table 4b: Value added by enterprise size class, veterinary activities (NACE Division 75), 2012 - Source: Eurostat (sbs_sc_1b_se_r2)

Main statistical findings

Structural profile

The veterinary services sector (Division 75) in the EU-28 comprised 70.6 thousand enterprises in 2012, employed 214 thousand persons and created EUR 7.3 billion of value added. This sector represented approximately 0.2 % of the non-financial business economy (Sections B to J and L to N and Division 95) in terms of employment and 0.1 % in terms of value added. Its contribution to all professional, scientific and technical activities (Section M) was 1.9 % of the workforce and 1.2 % of value added. Within the EU-28, based on these two measures, the veterinary services sector was the smallest among the seven NACE divisions within professional, scientific and technical activities.

The veterinary services sector combined the lowest EU-28 apparent labour productivity (EUR 34.0 thousand per person employed) and average personnel costs (EUR 23.4 thousand per employee) among the seven NACE divisions within professional, scientific and technical activities in 2012; for both of these ratios the values for the veterinary services sector were below the non-financial business economy averages (EUR 46.2 thousand per person employed and EUR 32.4 thousand per employee). The particularly low average personnel costs boosted the wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio for the EU-28’s veterinary services sector to 147.0 % in 2012. This was the only NACE division among the EU-28’s professional, scientific and technical activities where the wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio exceeded the non-financial business economy average (142.7 %). Alongside a relatively high wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio, the EU-28’s veterinary services sector recorded a gross operating rate of 27.5 % in 2012, which was the second highest rate for any NACE division within professional, scientific and technical activities (behind legal and accounting activities) and was nearly three times as high as the non-financial business economy average (9.4 %).

Country analysis

In 2012, close to one quarter (25.6 %) of EU-28 value added in veterinary services was contributed by the United Kingdom, with Germany (21.2 %) and France (20.7 %) each accounting for just over one fifth of the total. In value added terms, the most specialised EU Member States in veterinary services in 2012 were Croatia, the United Kingdom, France and Slovenia, where this sector contributed 0.2 % of non-financial business economy value added.

Belgium and Germany recorded wage-adjusted labour productivity ratios (267.2 % and 204.0 %, respectively) for the veterinary services sector in excess of 200 % in 2012; as such, apparent labour productivity was more than double average personnel costs. In both countries, wage-adjusted labour productivity ratios for veterinary services were considerably higher than the national averages for the whole of the non-financial business economy (136.8 % and 144.4 %, respectively) and this pattern was repeated (although to a lesser degree) for six further EU Member States: Austria, France, Finland, Greece, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. By contrast, Spain, Luxembourg, Latvia and Lithuania reported that their wage-adjusted labour productivity ratios for the veterinary services sector failed to reach 100 % in 2012; the same was true for Malta in 2011.

The relatively high gross operating rate observed for the veterinary services sector in the EU-28 in 2012 was also evident in the majority of the EU Member States, as Latvia, Cyprus, Slovenia, Croatia and Romania were the only Member States for which data are available to report gross operating rates for the veterinary services sector that were below the corresponding rates for the whole of the non-financial business economy. The highest gross operating rates observed for veterinary services in 2012 were 49.5 % in Italy, 44.1 % in Belgium, and 37.9 % in Germany. In Belgium, the gross operating rate for the veterinary services sector was the highest across all of the NACE divisions within its non-financial business economy. Also, the veterinary services sector recorded the second highest gross operating rate within the Italian non-financial business economy and fourth highest rates within the German and Slovak non-financial business economy.

Size class analysis

On average, enterprises within the EU-28’s veterinary services sector employed just 3.0 persons in 2012. As such, it is no surprise to find that the veterinary services sector was dominated by micro enterprises (employing fewer than 10 persons) and small enterprises (employing 10 to 49 persons). The vast majority (95.8 %) of enterprises in the EU-28’s veterinary services sector were micro enterprises and they generated EUR 4.5 billion of value added in 2012, which was 2.1 times as high as the level for small enterprises (EUR 2.1 billion), which in turn was 4.8 times as high as the level for medium-sized enterprises (EUR 442 million), while the smallest value added (EUR 224 million) could be attributed to large enterprises that operated within the EU-28’s veterinary services sector in 2012.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs, employing fewer than 250 persons) generally accounted for the whole of the veterinary services sector, and as such the structure of this sector could be described as highly fragmented. In Norway, SMEs also employed everyone within the veterinary services sector. The United Kingdom was the only EU Member State, for which data are available, to report the existence of large enterprises within this activity in 2012; some 18.3 % of the veterinary services workforce in the United Kingdom was employed by large enterprises.

Data sources and availability

The analysis presented in this article is based on the main dataset for structural business statistics (SBS) and size class data, all of which are published annually.

The main series provides information for each EU Member State as well as a number of non-member countries at a detailed level according to the activity classification NACE. Data are available for a wide range of variables.

In structural business statistics, size classes are generally defined by the number of persons employed. A limited set of the standard structural business statistics variables (for example, the number of enterprises, turnover, persons employed and value added) are analysed by size class, mostly down to the three-digit (group) level of NACE. The main size classes used in this article for presenting the results are:

  • small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): with 1 to 249 persons employed, further divided into;
    • micro enterprises: with less than 10 persons employed;
    • small enterprises: with 10 to 49 persons employed;
    • medium-sized enterprises: with 50 to 249 persons employed;
  • large enterprises: with 250 or more persons employed.

Context

This article presents an overview of statistics for the veterinary services sector in the EU, as covered by NACE Rev. 2 Division 75. This division includes the provision of animal healthcare and control activities for farm animals or pet animals. These activities are carried out by qualified veterinarians in veterinary hospitals as well as when visiting farms, kennels or homes, in own consulting and surgery rooms, or elsewhere. The veterinary services sector also covers animal ambulance activities.

This division contains one group and one class only and so there is no analysis of subsectors in this article.

See also

Further Eurostat information

Publications

Main tables

Database

SBS – services (sbs_serv)
Annual detailed enterprise statistics - services (sbs_na_serv)
Annual detailed enterprise statistics for services (NACE Rev. 2 H-N and S95) (sbs_na_1a_se_r2)
SMEs - Annual enterprise statistics by size class - services (sbs_sc_sc)
Services by employment size class (NACE Rev. 2 H-N and S95) (sbs_sc_1b_se_r2)
SBS - regional data - all activities (sbs_r)
SBS data by NUTS 2 regions and NACE Rev. 2 (from 2008 onwards) (sbs_r_nuts06_r2)

Dedicated section

Source data for tables and figures (MS Excel)

Other information

External links

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