Business Surveys

Selected for a business survey?

If you are selected for a statutory business survey, you are legally required to complete this form under the Statistics of Trade and Employment (Northern Ireland) Order 1988. We will accept estimated figures if it’s not possible for you to provide actual figures.

• Click here to register for an electronic form
• Guidance for businesses on webform access troubleshooting
• Frequently asked questions (FAQs) 

New survey platform

The new NISRA business survey data collection platform is now Live. Businesses and other organisations that have been selected for a survey should be able to create their new account and complete their outstanding business surveys.

The new registration process for setting up this account is as follows:

1. Create an account on the NISRA Business Survey Portal. 
2. Select “Register as New User” and enter the business email address used for the survey, as well as a contact name and the Captcha registration check. An email will be sent to the selected address with a link to a temporary password.
3. Follow the link in the email to retrieve a temporary password.
4. Return to the NISRA Business Survey Portal and log on with the same email address and the retrieved temporary password. Once logged on, you will be prompted to change the temporary password.
5. Change the temporary password as an extra security measure. You will receive a confirmation email that your password has changed. You can now log on and complete your outstanding survey.

This registration process needs to be completed only once; for any future survey you will need to sign in with your email address and chosen password. There is also a 2-minute video to explain this process. We hope this process is easy to understand, but if you have any questions, please get in touch.

We have made these changes after listening to suggestions from business contacts over the last number of years, and trust that they make things easier for users. As always, we appreciate all the information businesses and other organisations provide to us in confidence, which leads to a better understanding of the local economy and provides the evidence base for the development of policy and decision making at the heart of Government.

Our statutory business surveys

There are four annual surveys:

• Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES)
• Annual Business Inquiry (ABI)
• Research & Development Survey (R&D)
• Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE)

The Quarterly Business Survey is a combined survey which collects data on employee jobs, turnover, exports and construction output from businesses in Northern Ireland: 

• Quarterly Employment Survey
• Index of Services
• Index of Production
• Construction Output

If you have received a survey form asking for information about your business, thank you for taking the time to visit our website.

Examples of survey forms issued by NISRA can be found here.