Export Statistics Scotland: methodology

In Exports Statistics Scotland 2021, a new data source was used for business turnover, and as a result export data was only available on a limited basis from 2019 to 2021. This data source is the Annual Business Survey, and more information about this can be found in the ESS processing: using official data sources section.  

In the latest Exports Statistics Scotland 2023 publication, the Annual Business Survey as been used to revise data from earlier years which previous sourced business turnover from the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR). This means that in the latest publication, data is available from 2008 to 2023. This is beneficial because it allows for trends and patterns in the data to be observed in a time series.