Eurostat: Business start-ups in the European Union increased in 2021

In 2021, the rate of enterprise births in the EU was 10.7% while the preliminary rate of enterprise deaths stood at 8.5%.

In most EU countries more companies were created than dissolved. The exceptions to this were Estonia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Poland, Denmark and Germany where the number of enterprises dissolved surpassed the number of companies created.

This information comes from data published by Eurostat today. The article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article on structural business statistics.

For the first time, Eurostat publishes detailed Business Demography Statistics (BD) compiled along the requirements of the new framework for European Business Statistics (EBS). Several improvements enhance the data’s capacity for analysis of the activity of enterprises in the EU, in particular for high-growth and young high-growth enterprises (also known as gazelles). The data now cover more economic activities, e.g. within services (education; human health and social work activities; arts, entertainment and recreation) and financial and insurance activities. Moreover, regional Business Demography Statistics are now available for all EU countries.

In 2021, the highest enterprise birth rates among EU countries were observed in Lithuania (20.2%), France (16.2%) and Malta and Portugal (both 14.4%). The lowest rates were registered in Estonia (3.1%), Austria (6.0%) and Greece (7.2%). The improved coverage of Business Demography Statistics shows the dynamic of the service economy, e.g. for ‘education’ or ‘arts, entertainment and recreation’ where, in both cases, birth rates were above 10% in two out of three EU countries (18).

The average employment size of newly born enterprises in 2021 varied between 0.4 persons in the Netherlands and 2.3 persons in Lithuania. At the EU level, the average size of newly born enterprises was 1.1 persons.

As for enterprise preliminary death rates, the lowest rates among EU countries were registered in Greece (2.2%), Belgium (3.6%) and the Netherlands (4.2%). Estonia registered the highest death rate at 23.4%, followed by Lithuania with 22.6% and Bulgaria with 17.6%.

Birth rate of enterprises in the EU

More information: Eurostat