The planning process at municipal level often requires more detailed geographical statistics than provided by the official statistics. Statistics Sweden has therefore developed the Key-Code system (in Swedish "NYKO") which is designed for generating statistics on sub-areas within a municipality.

The Key-Code system

Key-coding is defined as "dividing a municipality into an optional number of small areas". The real estate is the smallest component in the area breakdown. Real estates are aggregated to form the sub-areas designed by the municipal authority. Each estate has a real estate designation, and all individuals in the Total Population Register are linked to a real estate. This triple link between individual - property - area division provides the technical capability for reporting demographic statistics by sub-area. The real estate designation is the "key" between area division and, in this case, the Population Register. For this reason, the name "Key-Code system" was chosen.

The Key-Code system is hierarchical in structure and the smallest sub-areas formed from one or more real estates may be aggregated to form areas of growing size. In this way, the municipal authority will be able to obtain statistics reported at a level adapted to reflect the planning situation.

Statistical package

The main statistical table packages available for municipalities are:

• BEFPAK presents tables with detailed demographic statistics covering age, sex, marital status, citizenship, country of birth, births, deaths, and migration
• INKOPAK covers the income situation of persons and families including different income measures and grants.
• AMPAK presents statistics on employment and commuting.
• BOSTADSPAK covers statistics regarding housing in a municipality.
• TYKOPAK contains statistics that can be used as a basis for at population projection.