Documentation of statistics recreational fishing

Data description

Recreational fishing statistics includes data on the number of recreational fishers, the use of gear, and catches.

Classification system

The regional division follows the regions of Finland. Additionally, in sea areas subareas are divided by the regional boundaries between Uusimaa and Southwest Finland, Southwest Finland and Satakunta, and Ostrobothnia and Central Ostrobothnia. The division corresponds approximately to the subdivisions of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES).

Sector coverage

The statistics do not include fishing by foreign visitors in Finland or fishing by Finns abroad.

Statistical concepts and definitions

Fishing is considered as such when a person has used gear of some kind at least once in the year. Person is considered to have fished even if he or she had only rowed or steered the boat while someone else was fishing. 

In the case of angling, the term “fishing day” means that one person has used a certain type of angling gear during one day. In the case of gill nets, fish traps, crayfish traps and trap nets, “fishing day” means that a person has hauled the gear in question during one day.

The fishing days are allocated to the statistical areas by gear type. Catches are reported as ungutted weight and are allocated by species to the statistical areas according to the most important fishing area for the species.

Catch value is calculated using the producer prices paid to professional fishermen. Since no prices are reported for certain species, the price of European whitefish is used for grayling, the price of salmon is used for land-locked salmon, and the price of Baltic herring is used for sprat. The price of roach is used for the group “Other fish”. With the exception of vendace, the paid to marine fishers are used. For crayfish, the prices are collected from wholesalers, so the prices generally concern the most valuable part of catch.

The catch values are approximate, because recreational fishers rarely sell their catch. Most of the catch is used in fishers’ own households or is given free of charge to relatives and neighbours. Likewise, it is also estimated that the recreational crayfish catch is mostly used in fishers’ own households or enterprises. Part of the crayfish catch is sold directly or via traders, for example, to restaurants, processing or other households. Part of the crayfish catch may also be sold to restock populations in lakes and rivers.

Statistical unit

The statistical unit in the recreational fishing statistics is a household-dwelling. Recreational fishing covers all fishing of Finnish household-dwellings (including the catching of crayfish), with the exception of fishing carried out by professional fishers and their households. 

Statistical population

The population of the statistics consists of households of Finnish people living in Finland except for people under permanent institutional care, and professional fishers and their households. One household consists of the persons living permanently in the same dwelling unit. Sampling is targeted at persons aged 18–74 years. Since 2020, the sample size has been 11,000 households.

Unit of measure

Catch volumes are presented in thousands of kilograms. Crayfish catch volumes are presented in thousands of individuals. The number of recreational fishers are presented quantitatively.

Reference period

Calendar year

Reference area

The regional division follows the regions of Finland. Additionally, in sea areas subareas are divided by the regional boundaries between Uusimaa and Southwest Finland, Southwest Finland and Satakunta, and Ostrobothnia and Central Ostrobothnia. The division corresponds approximately to the subdivisions of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES).

Time coverage

Data are available in the database starting from 1998.

Frequency of disseminations

Every other year

Base period

The catch value is presented as the nominal value.

The statistics are compiled based on the Act on the Natural Resources Institute Finland (561/2014), the Act on Food and Natural Resource Statistics (562/2014) and the Statistics Act (280/2004). In addition, the EU programme for the collection of data in the fisheries sector (Regulation (EU) 2017/1004) also requires collecting data on recreational fishing.

More information: Statistics legislation

Confidentiality is a base principle of statistics and assures the confidential processing of data provided by informants, and the Natural Resources Institute Finland has undertaken to follow this principle.

More information: Privacy policy – Statistics

The disseminations of the Natural Resources Institute Finland are published online on weekdays at 9:00. Data is public after it has been published on the website.

Release calendar

Publication dates are confirmed in autumn together with the action plans. The release calendar of the following year is published for users in the end of the year. The release calendar contains data on the dates of future publications. The calendar also contains direct links to already published statistical publication.

Release calendar access

Statistical releases calendar | Natural Resources Institute Finland

Quality assurance

The Natural Resources Institute Finland follows the Code of Practice and the Quality Assurance Framework of European statistics when compiling statistics. The Code of Practice concern the independence and accountability of statistics authorities, and the quality of processes and published data. The principles are compatible with and supplement the Principles of Official Statistics, agreed upon by the United Nations Statistical Commission. The quality criteria of official statistics in Finland are also compatible with the Code of Practice of European statistics. The principles are also compatible with the European Foundation for Quality Management.

Quality assessment

The recreational fishing statistics were audited in 2018.

User satisfaction

Feedback is collected from the users of the statistics, especially when revising the statistics. Feedback is also received directly. In addition, we investigated the wishes of users for developing the statistics in the autumn of 2021 and beginning of 2022, when updating the work programme for the Natural Resources Institute Finland. We follow the received feedback and take it into consideration in developing the statistics.

Overall accuracy and reliability

The general accuracy and reliability of the statistics are good, especially regarding the number of fishers. However, catch estimates by species involve more uncertainties, especially regarding rarely caught species and those species whose catch volumes vary greatly from one household to the next.

Sampling error

The relative standard errors of the reported statistical quantities are presented alongside them.

Non-sampling error

Coverage error

Households in which all persons are aged 75 or older are not included in the sampling. Persons permanently residing in institutions, such as residential care homes for the elderly, are also excluded from the sampling. For recreational fishing, however, this under-coverage is small. 

Measurement error

The effect of the measuring error cannot have been established in this context.

Non-response error

The bias caused by non-responses is corrected using the response homogeneity group model. The sample is divided by stratum into two homogeneous response groups, within which the probability of responding is considered constant. The first group comprises those responding to the questionnaire during the first or second contact, and the second group consists of those responding during the third contact. The calibration of weights corrects the bias in the estimates arising from non-responses, as the size, structure, and place of residence of the household-dwellings all have an effect on the response activity.

Timeliness

The recreational fishing statistics are published by the end of October in the year following the statistical year. No preliminary data are published regarding the recreational fishing statistics.

Punctuality

The recreational fishing statistics for 2020 had to be postponed by approximately six months from the original publication date due to challenges in the compilation process.

Comparability - geographical

The data are comparable in the national regions included in the statistics.

Comparability - over time

The number of fishing households and persons engaged in fishing is defined similarly as in previous statistics compiled starting from the 1990s. These figures can therefore be considered comparable with those in the statistics for 1992–2010 (Official Statistics of Finland, Environment 1993: 8, 1995: 2, 1997: 8; and Official Statistics of Finland, Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery 2000: 1, 2002: 54, 2004:51, 2005:62, 2007:7, 2009:6, 2011:7).

It should be noted when comparing the numbers of fishing days using stationary gear (gill net, fish trap, crayfish trap and trap net) that the 1998–2012 figures refer to the number of times the gear was hauled, while the 1992–1996 figures refer to the time the gear was used in fishing.

In the 1998 statistics, the regional division was changed to follow the provincial division in inland water areas and the division of the International Council for Exploration of the Sea (ICES) in sea areas. In the 2004 statistics, the regional division was revised so that statistics concerning inland water areas could also be produced using the regional division of the fisheries units of the ELY Centres. In the 2006 statistics, this revision was extended to also apply to sea areas.  In the 2010 statistics, the provincial division was replaced by the regions of the Regional State Administrative Agencies. The new division differs from the provincial division in that the former province of Western Finland is now divided into Southwestern Finland and Western and Inland Finland. The 2024 statistics switched to using regions of Finland.

Since 2002 the estimates concerning the number of recreational fishers and catch volumes have been somewhat lower than those given in the statistics published in the 1990s and also in the statistics for 2000. The difference is largely attributed to the methodology used in the statistics published starting from 2002, which seeks to take selective non-responses into account more accurately than before.

Coherence - cross domain

The recreational fishing statistics are part of the fish catch and production statistics.

Coherence – internal 

The statistics is coherent.

Source data

Final hunting statistics are based on a sample study aimed at hunters, expect for the harvest of game subject to license and harvest reporting duty, which are collected from the Finnish Wildlife Agency.

The statistics are based on a sample survey.

Frequency of data collection

Every other year

Data collection

Since 2020, the sample size has been 11,000 household-dwellings. In previous years, the sample size was smaller: 6,000–7,500 households. One household-dwelling consists of the persons living permanently in the same dwelling unit. Sampling is targeted at persons aged 18–74 years.

Sampling is based on stratified sampling. The strata are formed considering the location of each person’s municipality of residence (Helsinki metropolitan area, other Southern Finland, Western Finland, Eastern Finland, the Province of Oulu, Lapland, and Ahvenanmaa), the type of municipality (urban, densely populated or rural), and the location of the municipality in relation to the sea (archipelago, coast, inland). From 2014 onwards, household-dwellings where at least one person has bought fisheries management fee for the statistical year have formed a separate stratum. There are seven strata altogether.

The questionnaire consists of four pages. The questions focus on the age and gender of persons engaged in fishing, the importance of fishing as a hobby, fishing activity, and catch sizes. The survey is conducted at the beginning of the year following the statistical year. The respondents are contacted three times. It is also possible to respond the questionnaire online.

For those who do not respond to the postal questionnaire, post-sampling is conducted as a telephone interview. The purpose of post-sampling is to establish the proportion of fishing household-dwellings among non-respondents.

Data validation

All questionnaire forms are checked before recording the data into the system. The recorded data are also subject to various logical and limit value checks. Any discrepancies and errors found are checked against the original forms and, if necessary, the data is corrected.

Data compilation

For the calculation of results, a weighted factor is generated for each statistical unit (i.e. household-dwelling). The measurement data (e.g. catch volume) for each household is then multiplied by that factor. The weighted factor is generated from the inverses of the inclusion probability and response probability of the sampling unit (i.e. household-dwelling), and from the calibration weight. The bias caused by non-responses is corrected using the response homogeneity group model. The sample is divided by stratum into two homogeneous response groups, within which the probability of responding is considered constant. The first group comprises those responding to the questionnaire during the first or second contact, and the second group consists of those responding during the third contact.

In the calibration, the distributions to be calculated from the sample can be made to correspond to the marginal distributions. Such marginal distributions include the number of households in six household groups obtained from Statistics Finland; the number of households within regions; the age distribution of men and women and the number of men and women; and the number of fishing households and persons within regions, estimated using both postal questionnaire and telephone interview data. The household groups are formed according to the size and age distribution of the household. The calibration corrects the bias in the estimates arising from non-responses, as the size, structure, and place of residence of the household all have an effect on the response activity.

The partial loss due to missing data is taken into account using hierarchical imputation, in which any missing data are replaced with a value obtained from the dataset. Hot deck imputation and mean imputation have also been used in the statistics. In practice, the estimation is carried out using the SAS software and the SAS macro CLAN97, developed by Statistics Sweden.