National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria

Business Registers Department

Bulgaria, Sofia, 1038, 2 P.Volov Str.

Quarterly business demography (QBD) comprises data on registrations and bankruptcies of legal units in the country.

BNSI provides a number of Registrations, but the NACE breakdowns are not checked and confirmed by the statistical office. The NACE code of the newly registered legal units is as it is declared during the registration in the Registry agency (Commercial register and register of non-profit entities, and Bulstat register).

BNSI provides a number of Bankruptcies, but the NACE breakdowns are not checked and confirmed by the statistical office. The NACE code of the deregistered legal units is as it is declared in the Registry agency (Commercial register and register of non-profit entities, and Bulstat register).

From 2008 onwards NACE Rev.2 classification (Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community) is used for all indicators.

Data cover NACE Rev. 2 (Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community), market activities Sections B to N, and P to R and divisions S95 and S96.

The NSI provides data on legal entities under the Commercil Law. For example: Joint Stock Company, Special-purpose investment company, Civil Law Partnership, Single-stock company (sole beneficial ownership of a legal entity (Limited Liability Companies), European company, European Cooperative Society, Single-member private limited-liability companies, Branch of a foreign entity, Limited partnership that has limited and general partners, Partnership limited by shares  (partners with unlimited liability, in the case of a limited partnership with a share capital), Limited Liability Company, which is limited to the share capital contribution, Entity without share capital, such as a partnership or trust, European Cooperative Society Limited, and others.

And also data on legal entities under the the Law on Obligations and Contracts and Cooperatives Act, Advocacy Act; Investment promotion act; Foreign non-natural person registered under the VAT Act; BULSTAT Register Act. For example: Cooperative organization, Companies under the Law on obligations and contracts, another trader within the meaning of the Commercial Law, Foreign non-natural person with a place of economic activity in the country, and others.

The unit of this quarterly data collection is legal unit.

The unit in quarterly data on registrations refer to legal units. Several legal units can constitute one enterprise, a registration of a new legal unit therefore does not necessarily mean the birth of a new enterprise. The population of registrations of businesses includes: the market units in industry, construction and services (except public administration, defence, compulsory social security, activities of membership organisations and extra-territorial organisations and bodies).

Bankruptcies are defined as the number of legal units that have started the procedure of being declared bankrupt, by issuing a court declaration, at any time during the reference quarter. The court declaration may be provisional and does not always mean termination of an activity. 

The territory of Republic of Bulgaria.

The data on the number of new business registrations and the number of bankruptcy declarations in Bulgaria cover the period 2015 -2023.

Not applicable because data are sending in absolute figures.

The unit of measure is Number.

The registrations and declarations of bankruptcies refer to one quarter.

Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements.

The EBS Regulation N° 2019/2152: 

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32019R2152&from=EN

Table 1 of the Commission implementing regulation N° 2020/1197:

L_2020271EN.01000101.xml (europa.eu)

Data are only provided to Eurostat.

Confidentiality treatment is not applied in this data collection, because it refers to disseminated aggregated number of businesses only.

Not applicable.

Release calendar: the data is sent in maximum of 40 days after the end of the quarter.

You can see the links below.

The NSI can provide information on registrations and bankruptcies to each user with an individual request.

Quarterly and monthly.

Not applicable.

Regular press releases linked to data on Eurostat’s site:

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/web/products-eurostat-news/-/ddn-20220217-1

Regular press releases linked to data on Eurostat’s site:

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/web/products-eurostat-news/-/ddn-20220217-1

Microdata is not disseminated.

QBD data (absolute values) are transmitted to Eurostat within 40 days after the reference period. The transmission is done by eDAMIS using the SDMX format.

At the end of the quarter, with a reference from the Statistical Business Register data is  extracted from the SBR database according predefined algorithms for the status of each legal unit registered or filed for bankruptcy during the quarter. The main source for this data is the Commercial Register and register of non-profit entities, and Bulstat Register.

ESS Standart for Quality Reports.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

According to the European Business Statistics Manual 2021 edition, the main users are the national accounts.

User satisfaction is measured via download statistics for publications.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Data on registrations and bankruptcies are based on an administrative source law according:

ACT ON THE COMMERCIAL REGISTER AND THE NON-PROFIT LEGAL ENTITIES REGISTER

Q+40 days.

No cases in which data to be sent after the deadlines given in Release calendar.

According to the Commercial Register and the register of non-profit entities, and Bulstat Register, traders are registered at one address, which is usually their address of management, and the activity itself can be carried out at another address. These addresses can be even in a different cities.

No changes in the definitions of registrations or declarations of bankruptcies in the course of the period for which data is available.

The statistical unit in the annual business demographic statistics on births is the enterprise, while the quarterly data on registrations refer to legal units.

Registrations and births can also be recorded in different reference periods or years. Due to methodological differences, there is no direct comparability with annual business demographic statistics on enterprise births and for Employer business demography.

Registrations cannot be directly compared to births in the enterprise. Business registrations are part of administrative procedures, while annual business birth data are based on starting a business activity in terms of turnover, employment or investment. The registration of a legal entity can be considered as a declaration of intent, but it does not necessarily mean that it continues as a business activity in accordance with the annual concept of business demography. The registration data is not based on the demographic characteristics of the enterprise "date of commencement", but rather on the "date of registration", which is not necessarily the same.

The bankruptcy indicator is an early sign of measuring sentiment in the business environment. Quarterly insolvency statistics often differ from annual business demographic statistics on enterprise deaths, as they cover enterprise deaths due to bankruptcies as well as other causes. Bankruptcies do not necessarily mean the closure of the business. Even if an undertaking has declared insolvency, this does not always mean that it ceases all activities when it enters insolvency proceedings. In order to be recorded as the death of the enterprise in the annual business demographics, usually all factors of production are dissolved.

There are several methodological differences between the concepts of bankruptcy and death of enterprises. Quarterly business demographics for bankruptcies are based on legal units, while annual business demographics for deaths are based on enterprise statistics.

Not applicable.

NSI has direct access to the data of the Commercial Register.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

The main administrative source for the data - for registrations and bankruptcies, as well as other data for the legal units in the Business Register is the Commercial Register at the Registry Agency.

Quarterly and monthly.

According to Art. 29 of the Law on Statistics, we have direct access to the data of the Commercial Register on a daily basis.

The data that is received from the Administrative sources is not complete. This requires large human resource to improve the quality of data, to correct the errors and to remove the inaccuracies.

 Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Related metadata.