Export Statistics Scotland: methodology

Export Statistics Scotland (ESS) data processing overview

Scotland’s export value is estimated by directly sourcing information on exports from official sources where possible, or by finding out information about the sales of businesses in Scotland (i.e. turnover), and then determining the proportion of these sales that are exports.  

GCS is our primary source of export information. Where export information from the GCS is not available, we use alternative sources of information from official and administrative sources produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and other parts of the UK and Scottish Governments. If no official values are available, we estimate the value of exports as a percentage of business turnover, using a process called grossing. Grossing involves using export data from similar businesses to calculate an estimate for those where we do not have any export information and is explained fully in the next sections.