Export Statistics Scotland: methodology

Global Connections Survey: response rate

9,668 businesses were invited to take part in GCS 2020 and 2021. We removed 1,033 because they had ceased trading, refused to take part, the survey wasn’t relevant to them, or the letter did not reach them, leaving 8,635 businesses. Of these, 1,132 completed the survey for 2020 (13%) and 1,091 completed the survey for 2021 (13%).  

For both GCS 2020 and 2021, SIC 27 ‘Manufacturing of electrical equipment’ had the highest response rate at 24%, whereas SIC 31-33 ‘Other manufacturing: including furniture, other manufacturing; repair and installation of 33 machinery and equipment’ had the lowest at 7%. Full breakdowns of the response rates by sector are provided in the published tables. 

The response rate is not high, however, as mentioned above, the GCS is only one of several sources used to produce these estimates. Where possible, estimates are supplemented with complete administrative sources of information for relevant sectors as described in later sections. Further, if a business responded to the GCS in a previous year, our methodology means we can use this to help estimate the value of exports for the latest year should a figure not be provided directly from the business.