The harmonisation process differs depending on the indicator, but is designed to make data as comparable as possible. To give a simple example, the countries have different reference dates for population data. While most countries measure the population on 1 January, Finland and Sweden measure it on 31 December. The data labelled as 2024 in Sweden and Finland are therefore not comparable to the 2024 data in the other countries. To harmonise these data, the year for Finland and Sweden is changed to 2025, making it comparable to the other countries’ data (albeit with a one-day difference).
The Labour Force Survey provides official labour market statistics and is comparable across countries. However, as a survey-based source, it does not enable breakdowns of the findings to the lowest geographical levels (such as municipalities). National registers are the other source of labour market data.
The register data are based on records of all individuals within the countries, allowing for detailed breakdowns. However, it is not possible to make exact comparisons between the countries since the data collection methods and definitions vary slightly. Accordingly, for our municipal maps, we have, harmonised the register data to correspond to the Labour Force Survey data.