Definition: Delineation

Category: Business registers

The delineation of statistical units is mainly done by considering groupings or divisions of legal units and applying harmonised rules and/or using classifications. Bad delineation may occur when two units are considered as one and vice versa (for instance a cafeteria attached to a supermarket). Another frequent case of difficulties in delineation is encountered with very small enterprises, which represent a total employment less than the full-time equivalent of one year. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/ramon/statmanuals/files/KS-32-10-216-EN-C-EN.pdf Eurostat, "ESS Handbook for Quality Reports", edition 2009