Data & Methodology: How Norman's Analyses Are Produced

The Data & Research section publishes recurring, citable analyses of self-employment in Germany — based on anonymized, aggregated data from thousands of self-employed people and small businesses working with Norman. This page documents the rules that apply to every publication in the section. The principle: we publish aggregates only. Individual people or businesses are never identifiable.

Data source & anonymization

The basis is documents and records that self-employed people and small businesses in Germany process in Norman — for example registration details or incoming invoices. Data is anonymized before any analysis. We analyze aggregated metrics only, never individual records. Fields that could identify a person or business — such as names, addresses, or customer data — are not part of the analyses.

Aggregation thresholds

No published statistic is based on fewer than 40 businesses. Categories below this threshold are merged with others or omitted.

Exclusion of test and internal accounts

Internal accounts, test accounts, and clearly incomplete or implausible entries are excluded before any analysis. Where it matters for interpretation, we report the exclusions: in the analysis of self-employed professions, for example, 4,423 usable registrations remained after excluding 174 incomplete or unclear entries.

Reporting sample sizes

Every post in the section carries a data-basis line in its header with the data source and period, for example "Basis: 4,423 anonymized trade/tax registrations, 2025". Where we do not publish exact volumes — for instance on continuously updated trackers — we state magnitudes instead ("more than 10,000 incoming invoices"). Time series follow the event date (for example the invoice date), not the date of capture; the most recent months are preliminary and are revised in later updates. Continuously updated trackers carry an "As of" stamp and document every change in the changelog at the bottom of the page — at an unchanged address.

Limits of the data

Our user base is more digitally inclined than the average self-employed person in Germany; where this is likely to bias results, we say so in the respective post. Our figures describe the behavior of Norman users, not official statistics — they complement official sources rather than replace them.

Contact for data requests

Questions about the methodology, or requests for additional breakdowns or aggregated data: press@norman.finance. Inquiries from journalists and researchers are welcome. Charts and figures from this section may be reused freely with attribution to "Norman".