Concepts: N

The concepts described on these pages are words and expressions used in statistics with a specific, limited meaning. In everyday speech the word may have a different meaning. The same concept may mean a different thing in different sets of statistics. For example, the concept “unemployed” has three different definitions.

In connection with each definition you can find information about which sets of statistics use the concept. If you are looking for statistical figures, go from the definition to the statistics page.

An approximation of national expenditure on environmental protection can be compiled from the sum of the following components:
• total output (environmental protection market output, environmental protection non-market output and environmental protection ancillary output),
• plus gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) and net acquisition of non-financial, non-produced assets for environmental protection,
• minus intermediate consumption of environmental protection services by corporations as specialist producers.

This is an indirect, supply-side estimate of expenditure. The imports, exports and international transfers of environmental protection services, as well as the VAT and other taxes less subsidies on environmental protection services, are not (yet) estimated due to incomplete data sources. It is assumed that these components have a small impact on the total national expenditure of the EU-28 as a whole. Work is ongoing to improve the estimates of national expenditure on environmental protection.

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NUTS (Nomenclature des Unités Territoriales Statistiques) is the regional classification system of the EU, according to which all common regional statistics of the EU are compiled. The official NUTS division is recommended to be used as the primary regional division in statistics. The NUTS classification is defined in the Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council No. 1059/2003. This is updated by the European Commission's delegated regulation. NUTS 2021, that is valid from 1 January 2021, is based on the delegated regulation 2019/1755.

The NUTS nomenclature is used for
a) collecting, developing and harmonising Community regional statistics
b) socio-economic analyses of areas
c) defining Community regional policy.

In Finland NUTS level 1 refers to the division into Mainland Finland and Åland and NUTS level 2 major regions. Regions should correspond to the NUTS level 3 areas, but Finland's NUTS 2021 remains unchanged and corresponds to NUTS 2016 (valid from 1 January 2018 - 31 December 2020). Sub-regional units form LAU level 1 (NUTS 4) and municipalities LAU level 2 (NUTS 5). LAU (Local Administrative Unit).

In the European statistics the most important one is NUTS level 2 (major regions), on which all regional data are to be produced.

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In the Business Register, official names are used for legal units and trade names for natural persons. The official name of a legal unit includes an identifier of the company form, such as Limited Company/Ltd or Limited Partnership. Names for enterprises are obtained to the Business Register from the Tax Administration and they are congruent with the names of the enterprises in the Business Information System.

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There are several definitions for this concept

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National income is an income concept obtained by deducting consumption of fixed capital from gross national income.

Gross national income represents total primary income receivable by resident institutional units: compensation of employees, taxes on production and imports less subsidies, gross operating surplus, gross mixed income and property income. Gross national income equals GDP minus primary income payable by resident units to non-resident units plus primary income receivable by resident units from the rest of the world.

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International climate conventions (incl. the Paris Agreement) and the EU require each country to have a system for the assessment and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and removals. The division of responsibilities related to the inventory as well as the legislative and procedural arrangements are defined and reported for the system. In Finland the responsible unit appointed for the system is Statistics Finland. The Ministry of the Environment is the national body responsible for the Climate Convention (UNFCCC).

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Road transport between two places (a place of loading/embarkation and a place of unloading/disembarkation) located in Finland with vehicles registered in Finland for private and licensed transport (for hire or reward). The trip may include transit in the area of another country.

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A road vehicle registered in the reporting country and bearing registration plates of that country or having been separately registered (trams, trolleybuses, etc.).

Where registration of a road vehicle does not apply in a specifi c country, a national road vehicle is a vehicle owned or leased by a person or company tax resident in that country

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The Kyoto Protocol obliges its parties to have in place a national system for the calculation of greenhouse gas emissions and their removal through sinks. The national system must incorporate inventory preparation, evaluation and reporting, as well as acquisition of source data, emission calculations and uncertainty analysis, quality management, and national auditing and approval of the inventory. A national responsible entity must be nominated for the system, and the division of responsibilities, and the legal and procedural arrangements related to the inventory must be specified. The system must be operative no later than one year before the start of the commitment period. The national system must meet the requirements set on it if the party concerned wants to employ flexible mechanisms.

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International climate conventions (incl. the Paris Agreement) and the EU require each country to have a system for the assessment and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and removals. The division of responsibilities related to the inventory as well as the legislative and procedural arrangements are defined and reported for the system. In Finland the responsible unit appointed for the system is Statistics Finland. The tasks assigned to the responsible unit are carried out by the Greenhouse gas inventory unit. The Ministry of the Environment is the national body responsible for the Climate Convention (UNFCCC).

As the national responsible unit, Statistics Finland is responsible for the general management of the inventory, quality management of the entire inventory as well as contacts with the UNFCCC and the European Union. Statistics Finland co-ordinates participation in inventory reviews and publishes and archives the inventory results. In addition, Statistics Finland acts as an expert organisation by producing for the inventory the emission data on the energy sector and industrial processes. A part of the energy sector emissions data are obtained from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd (transport and working machinery).

The Finnish Environment Institute produces the emissions data on the Waste sector and F-gases. The Natural Resources Institute Finland calculates the emissions data on Agriculture data on Land Use, Land-use change and Forestry.

The division of calculation tasks and the procedures adjusted for the Finnish conditions have been recorded in the calculation protocols. The agreements with expert organisations confirm the division of responsibilities recorded in the calculation protocols and specify procedures in the annual calculations.

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A national television channel is a channel the modes of transmission (over-the-air, cable, satellite) of which have a combined coverage area that reaches at least 70 percent of the population.

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There are several definitions for this concept

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Energy inputs originating from nature.

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A natural person engages in entrepreneurial activity under his/her own name or under a registered trading name.
This group includes own-account workers, sole proprietors, most agricultural and forestry entrepreneurs, as well as practitioners of trade.

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Neonatal mortality is calculated by dividing the number of deaths during the first week of life by the number of live births during the statistical year and multiplying the result by 1,000.

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Net amount of debt incurred during a specific period of time.

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Net amount of financial assets acquired during a specific period of time.

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Net agricultural income is the income received in money or money's worth in the tax year, after deduction of expenses incurred in acquiring or maintaining the income.

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By deducting the consumption of fixed capital from the gross domestic product, we obtain the net domestic product at market prices, NDP.

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Net effective heating energy is the part of energy acquired for a residential building that can be exploited in heating. Some of the acquired energy is wasted due to fuel conversion and transmission losses. Bet effective heating energy has been calculated by deducting heating system losses from the amount of energy used for heating of spaces. District and electric heating are net effective heating energy as such. Net effective heating energy of heat pumps has been calculated as the sum of produced ambient heat and consumed electricity. The following assumed net effective heating energy ratios have been used for other energy sources:
- Small combustion of wood 55%
- Peat 60%
- Coal 60%
- Heavy fuel oil 83%
- Light fuel oil 78%
- Natural gas 90%

The assumed net effective heating energy ratios are based on the REM model (model for calculating energy consumption for the building stock) jointly developed by the Tampere University of Technology and the Technical Research Centre of Finland.

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Merchanting is defined as the purchase of goods by a resident (of the compiling economy) from a non-resident, combined with the subsequent resale of the same goods to another non-resident without the goods being present in the compiling economy. Net exports of goods under merchanting represent the difference between sales over purchases of goods for merchanting. This item includes merchants' margins, holding gains and losses, and changes in inventories of goods under merchanting.

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Net capital stock describes the cumulated value of past investments minus the accumulated consumption of fixed capital.

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Positive or negative difference (trade margin) between sales price and book value of debt securities, shares and participations belonging to the financial assets of a credit institution.

Positive and negative exchange differences resulting from currency exchange and from translating foreign-currency items (assets, debts and currency swap contracts) into domestic currency.

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Net imports of electricity refers to the difference between imports and exports of electricity.

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Net income from agriculture equals net agricultural income minus index and exchange rate losses and interest on debts pertaining to agriculture.

The net income from agriculture of a person engaging in agriculture is the total net income of agriculture from each of that person's farms.

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Net income from financial assets that a company holds, often for an extended period of time, with the intent of selling them at a convenient opportunity.

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Hedging involves the use of e.g. derivative instruments for the purpose of eliminating risks relating to e.g. interest rate, exchange rate or commodities price developments.

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Net income from land or buildings not in the company's own use. Assets are held for capital appreciation or rental income.

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Rents from leasing contracts minus planned depreciation of leasing assets. Also included are additional depreciation of leasing assets and capital gains as well as losses from the sale of leasing assets, fees charged to customers and other income and expenses directly pertaining to leasing contracts. Other income and expenses pertaining to leasing contracts are reported as profit and loss account items under the corresponding type of income or expense.

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Net lending/borrowing is a balancing item in the capital account and the fi-nancial account.

Net lending/borrowing corresponds to the amount available to a unit or sec-tor for financing, directly or indirectly, other units or sectors, or the amount which a unit or sector is obliged to borrow from other units or sectors.

The corresponding concept to net lending/borrowing in financial accounts is financial transactions, net. It is the difference between net acquisition of fi-nancial assets and liabilities. If a sector acquires financial assets in excess of the amount of new debt incurred during the period it is a net lender.

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Net migration is the difference between immigration and emigration. Persons who have moved to Finland and intend to reside or have resided one whole year without interruption in Finland shall inform the register office of their place of residence (Population Data Act 507/1993).

For those who intend to live permanently in Finland and have a valid residence permit for at least one year, the place of domicile is generally determined according to the same principles as with Finnish nationals (Act on the Municipality of Domicile 201/1994). The register office then delivers these data to the Population Information System.

Those emigrating to a place of domicile abroad shall supply a notice of change of address just as do those that migrate within the country (Decree on the Municipality of Domicile 351/1994). Those who intend to leave the country for more than one year are primarily considered emigrants, barring diplomats and those working in development co-operation, etc. (Act on the Municipality of Domicile 201/1994). In accordance with an agreement made between the Nordic countries, generally a period of residence of less than six months is not construed as a move.

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The reproduction of the population refers to a change of a generation into a new one. Reproduction is measured by gross reproduction rates or net reproduction rates that generally indicate the ratio between the sizes of the daughter's and mother's generations. The fertility and mortality of the mother's generation before the end of the childbearing age is taken into account in the calculation of the net reproduction rate. In the gross reproduction rate this mortality is not taken into consideration. If the net reproduction rate calculated per one woman is less than one, the daughter's generation is smaller than the mother's generation and the mother's generation has not reproduced itself.

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Subscriptions minus redemptions of shares in mutual funds during a specific period of time.

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The net tax ratio is obtained by deducting income transfers received by the private sector from general government and this is proportioned to the GDP for the same period.

In this context, income transfers include

- public transfers like social security benefits and subsidies,
- investment grants and other capital transfers,
- subsidies on products and other public subsidies such as import, energy and agricultural subsidies.

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The following network connections are identified for a building:
- sewage
- running water
- electricity
- natural gas.

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A network operator is an operator that provides a communications network in its ownership or for other reasons in its possession for the purposes of transmitting, distributing or providing messages (source: Communications Market Act, 23 May 2003/393, FINLEX).

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A networking relationship is an established collaborative relationship between enterprises. The objective of both parties is to benefit from the relationship more ways than just financially (e.g. strategic alliances).

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There are several definitions for this concept

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New domestic orders in manufacturing describe the value of new domestic orders manufacturing enterprises have received during a reference month. Received new orders are regarded as indicative of future output and domestic turnover.

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A new dwelling is completed in the statistical reference year or the year before it.

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New export orders describe the value of new orders received by manufacturing enterprises from export countries during the month. Received new orders are regarded as indicative of future production, turnover and exports.

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The total amount of outstanding guarantee commitments granted during the reference period.

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New orders in manufacturing describe the value of new orders manufacturing enterprises have receive during a month. Received new orders are regarded as indicators of future production and turnover.

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New person with housing loan refers to a person who did not have a housing loan by the end of the year previous to the examined year but has one in the examined year. Housing loans include herein also land improvement loans, and therefore the new credit may not have been used to acquire a new dwelling.

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There are several definitions for this concept

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There are several definitions for this concept

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Statistics compiled on newspapers include papers which are published 1 to 7 times a week and which contain national or local news material. Newspapers are divided into daily newspapers, which are published 4 to 7 times a week, and other newspapers, which are published 1 to 3 times a week.

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Night work is work made between 11 pm and 6 am.

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Nitrogen dioxide is an indirect greenhouse gas that forms ground level ozone. It also causes acid rain and eutrophication of soil and water. Nitrogen dioxide is produced during combustion, especially when burning takes place at high temperatures. It is also released during certain industrial processes.

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There are several definitions for this concept

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Starting from the statistical reference year 2019, the European Union’s CN nomenclature (Combined Nomenclature) will be used as the nomenclature of the inquiry on materials and supplies of manufacturing production. The CN nomenclature is the eight-digit classification of goods used in statistics on foreign trade. The nomenclature is revised annually. In the inquiry on materials and supplies of manufacturing production, answers can usually also be given on a less detailed six-digit level of the CN nomenclature.





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Describes the change in prices relative to the base time period of the index (cf. real price index).

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County elections
The candidates are nominated for the entire wellbeing services county, voters only vote for the candidates in their own wellbeing services county and the result is calculated for each wellbeing services county.

Parliamentary elections:
Parliamentary election candidates can be nominated by registered political parties and constituency associations established by at least 100 persons entitled to vote. When nominating candidates two or more political parties have the right to form an electoral alliance by mutual agreement. Correspondingly, two or more constituency associations have the right to form a joint electoral list. Each party, electoral alliance or joint electoral list can nominate a maximum of 14 candidates in each electoral district. If, by virtue of a Government decision, more than 14 candidates are elected from an electoral district, the number of candidates may be at most the number of candidates elected from that electoral district.

Municipal elections:
Municipal election candidates can be nominated by political parties and a minimum of 10 persons entitled to vote, who have established a constituency association. When nominating candidates two or more political parties have the right to form an electoral alliance by mutual agreement. Correspondingly, two or more constituency associations have the right to form a joint electoral list. A party, an electoral alliance or a joint electoral list can nominate at most one and a half times as many candidates as there are places for elected representatives.

European Parliamentary elections:
European Parliamentary election candidates can be nominated by registered political parties and constituency associations established by at least 2,000 persons entitled to vote. When nominating candidates two or more political parties have the right to form an electoral alliance by mutual agreement. Correspondingly, two or more constituency associations have the right to form a joint electoral list. Each party, electoral alliance or joint electoral list can nominate a maximum of 20 candidates in each country.

Presidential elections:
Candidates may be nominated in Presidential elections by 1) a political party, from whose list of candidates at least one representative was elected in the most recent Parliamentary elections or 2) at least 20,000 persons entitled to vote, who have established a constituency association. A political party or a constituency association may nominate only one candidate. Political parties and constituency associations may nominate the same candidate.

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Financial assets and liabilities can be presented in non-consolidated form, i.e. all transactions are shown in full, including intra-sectorial and intra-sub-sectorial transactions. Intra-sectorial transactions in sectors consisting of a single institutional unit are nevertheless eliminated (e.g. borrowing within the central government sector). Intra-sectorial transactions do not have any impact on the sector's net worth or net lending.

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Non-employed is a person that is unemployed or in the inactive population.

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Non-formal education refers to participation in course-form, other than education and training leading to a qualification according to the regular education system. Examples of course training are in-service training arranged and sponsored by the employer, hobby and languages courses at adult education centres, vocational further education courses, driving school, dance school, etc.

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A non-performing asset derives from a breach of contract. An asset becomes non-performing when payment of interest on it, or its principal or part thereof has been in arrears for 90 days.

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The total economy is defined in terms of resident units. A unit is said to be a resident unit of a country when it has a centre of economic interest on the economic territory of that country – that is, when it engages for an extended period (one year or more) in economic activities on this territory. The institutional sectors are groups of resident institutional units.

Resident units engage in transactions with non-resident units, that is, units which are residents in other economies. These transactions are the external transactions of the economy and are grouped in the rest of the world account. So, in the accounting structure of the national accounts, the rest of the world plays a role similar to that of an institutional sector, although non-resident units are included only in so far as they are engaged in transactions with resident institutional units. Consequently, as far as coding of classifications is concerned, a specific item for the rest of the world is included at the end of the classification of sectors.

Notional resident units, treated in the system as institutional units, are defined as:

a) those parts of non-resident units which have a centre of economic interest (that is in most cases which engage in economic transactions for a year or more or which carry out a construction activity for a period of less than a year if the output constitutes gross fixed capital formation) on the economic territory of the country;

b) non-resident units in their capacity as owners of land or buildings on the economic territory of the country, but only in respect of transactions affecting such land or buildings.

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Non-subsidised dwellings are dwellings produced in other ways than with government ARAVA loans.

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Normal weekly working hours of an employed person in the main job, including regular overtime work.

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Notional resident units are defined as:

a) those parts of non-resident units which have a centre of economic interest (that is in most cases which engage in economic transactions for a year or more or which carry out a construction activity for a period of less than a year if the output constitutes gross fixed capital formation) on the economic territory of the country;

b) non-resident units in their capacity as owners of land or buildings on the economic territory of the country, but only in respect of transactions affecting such land or buildings.

Notional resident units, even if they keep only partial accounts and may not always enjoy autonomy of decision, are treated as institutional units.

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The number of children refers to the number of children who are living at home and have the status of a child. The number of children in families with underage children refers to the number of children aged under 18 living at home.

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There are several definitions for this concept

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There are several definitions for this concept

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The number of employees is defined as those persons who work for the affiliate and who have a contract of employment and receive compensation in the form of wages, salaries, fees, gratuities, piecework pay or remuneration in kind. All persons for whom payments are booked under the heading personnel costs in the profit and loss accounts of the affiliate should be included even if in some cases no contract of employment exists.
The number of employees includes part-time workers, seasonal workers, persons on strike or on short-term leave, but excludes persons on long-term leave.
Temporary workers from an employment agency are not included in the number of employees.
The number of personnel is measured as an annual average using at least data for each quarter of the year.

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The number of those occupations the respondent has engaged in when gainful employment has been the main activity. Occupations of those employed with subsidised measures are included, but not such as occasional summer work.

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The number of rooms is the number of rooms in a dwelling. Kitchen is not counted as a room. Dwellings with at least three rooms belong to the category 3h+.

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The number of storeys in a building consists of all storeys that are primarily above ground level and in which there are habitable rooms or office space or other space conforming to the intended use of the building. If the number of storeys varies in different parts of the building, the number usually refers to the largest number of storeys in the building.

For buildings completed after 1980, the number of storeys is expressed as an average number that takes into account the whole building if the share of the gross floor area of a certain storey out of the gross floor area of the main storeys is very small. For instance, if a large industrial unit is mainly a one-storey building, but office space is located on three storeys, then the number of storeys is given as one.

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