The administrative burden (i.e. administrative costs less business-as-usual costs), was €3.88 million, or €7.57 per enterprise. This was down by €48,500 from 2021.
There were 512,800 active business enterprises (including farms) in Ireland in 2022.
The CSO issued 311,500 survey forms to these enterprises in 2022, or an average of 0.61 survey forms per enterprise.
The total number of hours spent by businesses on responding to surveys in 2022 was 213,900 or 25 minutes per business, measured on the basis of forms at least partially completed and actually returned to the CSO.
There was a 1.2% decrease in the response burden index between 2021 and 2022(See Summary Table and Figure 1 below).
(For main headline figures, see Infographic).
The response burden is a measure of the total administrative burden placed on Irish enterprises and agricultural holdings by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) surveys when calculated on an actual compliance basis. (Actual compliance basis: Calculated on a time and cost basis of fully or partially completed returns to the CSO. This is the preferred method of the European Statistical System for calculating the Response Burden.)
| Index 2013=100 | |
| 2012 | 90.7 |
| 2013 | 100 |
| 2014 | 92 |
| 2015 | 92.4 |
| 2016 | 90.3 |
| 2017 | 87.2 |
| 2018 | 86.7 |
| 2019 | 84.6 |
| 2020 | 91.1 |
| 2021 | 85.6 |
| 2022 | 84.6 |
The Response Burden saw a slight decrease of 1.2% from 2021. In terms of forms completed by farms and businesses, in 2022, the CSO received 180,200 fully or partially completed forms while in 2019, 197,400 fully or partially completed forms were received. The lower number of returns in 2022 compared with 2019 (-8.7%) reflects the ongoing difficulties experienced by businesses due to COVID-19 (See Tables 1, 2 and Figure 1).
If all survey forms issued by the CSO were partially or wholly completed and returned (i.e. if there had been full compliance), then the total number of hours spent on this task by enterprises in Ireland in 2022 would have been 294,800, or an average of 34.5 minutes per enterprise (See Table 2 & Methodology).
There are 512,800 active business enterprises (including farms) in Ireland, according to the latest estimate.
The CSO issued 311,500 survey forms to these enterprises in 2022, or an average of 0.61 survey forms per enterprise.
There were 180,200 forms returned as partially or wholly completed in 2022, representing an average of 0.35 forms per enterprise.
The estimated total number of hours spent by businesses on responding to surveys in 2022 was 213,900 or an average of 25 minutes per business, measured on the basis of forms at least partially completed and actually returned to the CSO (i.e. based on actual compliance) (See Table 2 & Methodology).
| Forms Issued | Forms Returned | |
| 2020 | 419000 | 273200 |
| 2021 | 320600 | 181500 |
| 2022 | 311500 | 180200 |
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (27 November 2023) released Response Burden Barometer 2022.
Commenting on the annual figures, James O'Rourke, Statistician in the Business Division, said: "The Response Burden Barometer is a measure of the estimated burden on businesses of filling out CSO surveys. The response burden index fell by 1.2% in 2022. Farms and businesses returned 180,200 fully or partially completed forms to the CSO in 2022, compared with 181,500 in 2021.
The estimated total cost to businesses of completing CSO surveys was €3.88 million in 2022, down €48,500 from 2021. The time spent on these returns was an average of 25 minutes per business, at an average cost of €7.57 per enterprise."