Entrepreneurship - statistical indicators

Data from June 2026

Planned update: May 2027

Highlights

In 2023, 5 years old enterprises in the EU had an average annual employment growth rate of over 16% in the first 5 years of their operations.

In 2023, the contribution of newly born enterprises to employment in the business economy was below 2% in Finland, Germany, Denmark, Luxembourg, Austria, Sweden and the Netherlands, but above 5% in Greece, Estonia and Portugal.

This article presents results about

newly created enterprises in the year 2023 as well as young enterprises that were established 1 to 5 years before the reference year 2023 and have survived until then. The article highlights their contribution to employment growth in the business economy.
young high-growth enterprises ('Gazelles'). Gazelles are a specific sub-population of high-growth enterprises defined by their age of a maximum of 5 years. These companies have shown their potential for high growth already in the early years after start-up.
the innovation activity of enterprises in years 2020-2022, e.g. by the age of the company or its belonging to an enterprise group.

Why are young enterprises important for the economy ?

The creation of an enterprise offers opportunities, not least the possibility to make the dream come true of becoming independent and self-employed. Often, there is a strong relationship between a new enterprise and the owner behind – the entrepreneur. ‘Entrepreneurship’ matters: it adds to the dynamism, agility, openness, and diversity of the society.

Moreover, new enterprises are of key importance for generating new jobs and economic growth. Most new companies start up without or with only very few employees. However, even where the job creation by young enterprises might be limited in the first years, they lay the groundwork for later growth.

To provide information on the evolution of entrepreneurial activity and the dynamics within the business economy, Statistics on Business Demography document important events in the life cycle of an enterprise from creation to dissolution, thereby offering insights into enterprise survival or discontinuity. Important statistical indicators of business demography statistics are data on

births of enterprises
survivals of newly created enterprises
(young) High Growth Enterprises
deaths of enterprises

In the policy discourse, the term ‘startups’ is mostly associated with enterprises which do not only exhibit high growth rates, but also above average innovation. The Community Innovation Survey (CIS) is a survey on business innovation that reports for example about how many enterprises translate inventions into innovation that result in the introduction of new business processes in the firm or new products in the market, and translate these innovations into commercial success. These results also show the innovation activity of companies in relation to its age or group status (belonging to an enterprise group).

Birth of enterprises and their contribution to job creation

Figure 1

Figure 1 shows enterprise birth rates in 2023 across different sectors, reflecting the number of new enterprises relative to all active ones. While some sectors thrive as breeding grounds for new enterprises, others seem to face inherent hurdles that impact enterprise creation. In 2023, the ‘Administrative and support service activities’ sector stood out with a high birth rate of 16.5%, indicating a dynamic and accessible sector for new businesses. Tech-enabled infrastructure like 'Transport and storage', digitally driven sectors ‘Information and communication’ and ‘Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply’, as well as socially relevant sectors like ‘Education’ or ‘Arts, entertainment and recreation’, also demonstrated strong birth rates.

This contrasts with ‘Mining and quarrying’ which showed a low birth rate of 6.0%, likely due to high economies of scale and entry barriers, and regulatory challenges. Low birth rates were also observed in ‘Water supply; sewage and waste management’ (6.1%) followed by ‘Manufacturing’ and ‘Wholesale and retail trade’ with birth rates close to 8%.

When an enterprise is born, a new economic entity is created. Figure 2 shows the proportion of enterprise births by number of employees in 2023. Newly created enterprises were very small: for the total economy (industry, construction, market services)

83.4% of new businesses consisted solely of self-employed individuals;
15.4% launched with 1 to 4 employees;
0.8% of all born enterprises had 5 to 9 employees;
0.4% 10 or more employees.

This highlights the prevalence of solo entrepreneurs or owner-driven ventures, especially in industries like ‘Education’, ‘Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply’, ‘Arts, entertainment and recreation’ and 'Professional, scientific and technical activities' where the percentage of businesses starting without any employees (i.e. consisting solely of self-employed individuals) was above 90%. ‘Education’ saw as much as 93% due to the prevalence of independent educators, freelance tutors, and online course creators who can operate as sole proprietors with low start-up costs and flexible business model.

Conversely, ‘Accommodation and food service activities’ stood out, as 39% of new enterprises started with 1 to 4 employees, indicating an immediate need for personnel. Also industries such as ‘Mining and quarrying’ and ‘Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities’ had a relatively higher percentage of new enterprises starting with 5 to 9 employees, indicating that those sectors often require larger initial teams due to the collective nature of the tasks. Finally, sectors like ‘Real estate activities’, ‘Education’, ‘Professional, scientific, and technical activities’ and ‘Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply’ showed very few new enterprises with 10 or more employees, what coincides also with the lowest share of 5 to 9 employees for those sectors, underscoring the cautious approach new entrants take given the complexities or resource constraints.

Figure 3

Figure 3 shows the share of new jobs created in total jobs available (represented by columns and percentage on the left axis) as well as average size of enterprises in terms of persons employed (presented by dots and number on the right axis).

In 2023, newly born enterprises in Portugal accounted for a significant 5.9% of employment in the business economy. However Greece had the highest average of 2.2 persons employed per created enterprise. In the EU, the average size of newborn enterprise was 1.1 persons. High numbers of jobs per enterprise might reflect a cultural inclination towards slightly larger business setups, or perhaps a business environment where starting a business requires a small team to handle early operational demands; it might also reflect below average labour costs.

Estonia accounted for the second-largest share of new jobs at 5.1%, followed closely by Greece, Slovakia, and Malta, each with a similar rate of around 4.5%. With the exception of Greece, these countries also had comparable average sizes for newly established enterprises, ranging from 1.1 to 1.2 persons per business.

At the lower end of the scale, Finland, Luxembourg, Germany, and Denmark recorded the smallest shares of new jobs, between 0.9% and 1.2%. Among these, Germany had the third-highest average size for newborn enterprises (1.5 persons), trailing only Ireland (1.6 persons). In contrast, Finland reported the smallest average size - 0.4 person per enterprise - which may partly reflect the inclusion of ventures with no employees (e.g., holding companies), delayed hiring later in the year, or limitations in the data sources used. Meanwhile, the Netherlands and France recorded an average of 0.6 persons per new enterprise. Such differences could be partly attributed to local economic conditions, regulatory and fiscal environments, societal attitudes towards entrepreneurship or prevalence of NACE sectors in the respective countries.

Young enterprises' share in the business economy

In 2023, the landscape of young enterprises - those aged 1 to 5 years - across the EU showed varying levels of employment contributions within different sectors (see Figure 4)^[1] . These are young enterprises that were established 1 to 5 years ago and survived until 2023. These emerging enterprises are vital to several economic activities, though their impacts differ significantly by industry.

Within the real estate sector, young enterprises accounted for 19.9% of employment, provided by 0.4 million new enterprises, indicating significant growth potential and adaptability. A very similar pattern was also observed in ‘Arts, entertainment, and recreation’ with a high share of employment in new enterprises (18.8%) and a relatively low number of new enterprises (0.3 million).

The construction sector also showed strong engagement, with young enterprises making up 18.0% of employment and totalling 1.3 million enterprises, which is one of the highest numbers of young enterprises among the sectors, exceeded only by ‘Professional, scientific and technical activities’ and ‘Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles’, accounting respectively for 1.6 million and 1.4 million new enterprises in 2023.

Service-oriented sectors, such as ‘Professional, scientific, and technical activities’, ‘Education’ and ‘Accommodation and food services’, exhibited substantial employment shares from young enterprises accounting for 17% to 18%, probably driven by evolving market needs and innovation. Though the number of young enterprises in those sectors varied greatly, the first had one of the highest numbers among sectors, and the latter 2 accounted for 0.4 million and 0.5 million, respectively.

In the ‘Information and communication’ sector, young enterprises contributed 13.1% to employment, while in ‘Administrative and support services’, they accounted for 12.7%. These figures demonstrate a moderate but significant presence of young businesses in these industries.

Traditional sectors like ‘Transportation and storage’ and ‘Wholesale and retail trade’ saw young enterprises contributing of respectively 10.9% and 9.6% to employment, while in ‘Human health and social work activities’ and ‘Financial and insurance activities’ they accounted for 8.5% and 7.9% respectively.

Conversely, in capital-intensive sectors such as ‘Manufacturing’ (4.6%), ‘Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply’ (4.2%), ‘Water supply; sewerage, waste management’ (3.9%),and ‘Mining and quarrying’ (2.2%), young enterprises had lower employment contributions as very few new enterprises were present in these sectors, with the last 3 sectors accounting for only 0.7% of all new enterprises in 2023. These figures reflect high economies of scale and complexity of these industries.

Figure 5

Figure 5 illustrates the resilience of 5-year-old enterprises - those founded in 2018 and still active in 2023 - across the EU, along with their employment contributions.

Poland had the highest share of 5-year-old enterprises, representing 5.3% of all active businesses, suggesting a robust environment for long-term business survival. It was followed by the Netherlands and Slovakia (both 5.2%), Malta (5.1%), and France (5.0%). Beyond shares of enterprises, Malta also stood out for its employment impact, with five-year-old enterprises accounting for 3.5% of total employment - the highest share in the EU. Greece matched this figure, also recording a 3.5% employment share from employment in active enterprises.

At the lower end, Austria had a modest 2.4% share of surviving 5-year-old enterprises, though its employment impact (2.4%) aligned with the EU average. Germany recorded the lowest employment contribution from this cohort (1.2%), while Denmark had one of the lowest share of 5-years-old enterprises (3.0%) and an employment share of just 1.5%. Overall, resilience in business survival did not always translate to an equivalent employment impact, underscoring the complex interplay between survival strategies, economic conditions, different degrees of capital intensity and automation of production, and employment dynamics.

Employment growth in young enterprises

Employment growth is a fundamental objective of economic policy, and young enterprises significantly contribute by creating new jobs. The survival of these businesses is equally important, as it sustains employment and fuels innovation, driving economic vitality. In 2023, the analysis of employment growth among young enterprises across various EU sectors presented intriguing insights (Figure 6). Here employment in young enterprises in 2023 was compared to the annual average employment in the year of birth of the same enterprises. This can significantly magnify the impact of small absolute changes for enterprises with fewer starting employees.

The total business economy observed a rapid increase in employment of new enterprises, particularly in the first 2 years of their activity. Employment in 1-year-old enterprises increased by 32.7% compared to the year of birth. Enterprises that were born in 2021 reached 51.9% employment growth by their second year and 69.1% growth was observed for 3-year-old enterprises, slowing down growth for enterprises founded in 2019 reaching 70.8% by the fourth year; those born in 2018 showed an increase of 82.6% by the fifth year.

Sectoral disparities in employment growth may partly reflect differences in baseline workforce sizes for enterprise birth - small numerical increases can translate into large percentage gains for smaller enterprises.

The industry sector consistently outperformed construction and services, with enterprises peaking at 85.6% by their fifth year for enterprises born in 2018. The enterprises born in 2022 and survived to 2023, had 41.7% growth in employment - by 9 percent points more than in average for total economy, 2-years-old enterprises showed even higher growth in employment of 64.3% exceeding average by 12.4 percentage points, followed by growth of 75.5% for 3-years-old enterprises and 84.3% for 4-years-old enterprises.

The services sector mirrored the overarching business economy trend, as most new enterprises were in the services sector, with measured growth from 30.8% in 1-year-old enterprises to 82.5% in 5-year-old surviving enterprises.

Construction had the most consistent growth over years, starting at 39.5% after 1 year and soaring to 82.9% for enterprises that survived 5 years.

Young high-growth enterprises

Figure 7

Figure 7 illustrates data on young high-growth enterprises, known as "Gazelles", a specific subset of high-growth enterprises that are 4 and 5 years old. These enterprises have demonstrated significant potential for rapid expansion in terms of employees early in their development.

The available data reveal that the ‘Accommodation and food service’ sector had the highest number of young high-growth enterprises (2.5 thousands), followed by ‘Construction’ (2.0 thousands). The strong performance in these sectors can largely be attributed to a post-pandemic rebound in tourism, travel, and hospitality, which significantly boosted demand. Additionally, high demand for both public and private infrastructure projects has driven growth in construction. The inherently labour intensive nature of these industries further supports their expansion, as they require substantial workforces to meet rising needs.

Close behind were ‘Administrative and support services’ (1.9 thousand), followed by ‘Wholesale and retail trade (including motor vehicle repairs)’ and ‘Manufacturing’, each with around 1.5 thousand enterprises. These sectors thrive in employment growth due to their adaptability to market demands, labour-intensive operations, and structural tailwinds - such as outsourcing trends in administrative services, e-commerce expansion in retail, and reshoring coupled with green transitions in manufacturing.

In contrast, sector ‘Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply’ showed far weaker growth in employment and had 15 young high-growth firms (gazelles), followed by ‘Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities’ with 87 firms. The low number of young high-growth firms in these sectors indicates that few enterprises that started 4 or 5 years ago had at least 10 employees in the beginning of growth and achieved annualised employment growth exceeding 10% over a three-year period. These normally are small or inherently stable but slow-growing companies.

EU data for sectors ‘Mining and quarrying’ and ‘Real estate activities’ were confidential for year 2023.

Enterprises and innovation

Innovation is a critical driver for enterprises seeking to gain a competitive advantage in today’s dynamic market landscape. The ability to innovate enhances businesses’ adaptability and growth potential. The Community Innovation Survey (CIS) reports about enterprises with 10 or more employees.

When exploring the life cycle of young enterprises and the factors contributing to their success, it is important to recognise that some young enterprises gain a head start by being part of an enterprise group. This might provide them with easier access to capital, knowledge, and organisational support.

Figure 8 presents 2022 data from the CIS. There were 18 EU countries that reported voluntarily on the group status of enterprises, revealing a distinct difference in innovation activities between young enterprises that are part of an enterprise group and those operating independently. Among enterprises affiliated with an enterprise group, 68% are identified as innovation active, compared to only 45% of independent enterprises. This disparity highlights the advantages of being part of a group, including easier access to finance, knowledge transfer, and structured environments conducive to innovation. Some group-affiliated young enterprises serve as experimental hubs for larger organisations, exploring new technologies or business models with reduced financial exposure. Additionally, group membership often facilitates market access and stronger networks, essential for scaling innovative solutions. In contrast, independent enterprises might struggle with limited resources and higher operational pressures, prioritising immediate concerns over long-term innovation investments. Overall, the data illustrate that being part of an enterprise group offers fertile ground for innovation.

Due to their group affiliations, enterprises belonging to an enterprise group may not fit perfectly to the idea of an SME. However, they are a minority, as on average, 95.1% of SMEs operate independently of any enterprise group (see Table 1).

Similarly, Figure 9 covers all EU countries and further illustrates the importance of innovation in driving enterprise success, particularly how it correlates with turnover generation across different enterprise sizes. The dataset reflects figures from 2022 and indicates that 80% of turnover is generated by innovation-active businesses. This underscores the critical impact of business innovation on revenue generation, and vice versa.

There is a progression: as businesses scale, so does their capacity to invest in and benefit from innovation. With greater resources and R&D expenditure, bigger firms are strategically better positioned to prioritise innovation, and effectively translate it into turnover. The share of turnover coming from innovation-active firms was

54% in small enterprises (those with 10 to 49 employees),
70% in medium-sized enterprises (50 to 249 employees),
89% in the largest enterprises (250 or more employees).

Figure 10 provides another perspective on innovation activities based on the age of businesses. In 2022, enterprises established in 2013 or earlier showed a balanced approach to innovation, with 51% identified as innovation active. Similarly, those founded between 2014 and 2017 maintained the same proportion, while for enterprises established between 2018 and 2019, or in 2020 and after, there was only a slight decline. Overall, the data across various age classes reveal only minor differences in innovation engagement, suggesting that while newer businesses face unique challenges, the role of innovation remains significant across all enterprise ages.

Source data for tables and graphs

Entrepreneurship – statistical indicators: tables and figures

Data sources

Eurostat's Business demography statistics (BD) provide information on the dynamics of the business economy. They capture how the composition of the enterprise population changes over time. They also show how the economic contribution of the business economy in terms of employment develops across a number of enterprise characteristics. Business demography statistics cover, amongst other things, the birth, survival (followed up to 5 years after birth) and death of enterprises within the business population. They report changes in the stock of enterprises within the business economy from one year to the next, reflecting among other things the level of competition, entrepreneurial spirit and the business environment.

Business demography statistics reflect the employment dynamics within the business economy by measuring growth in terms of employment. European business demography statistics are compiled for 2 different enterprise populations:

A) All enterprises, whether they have employees or not

B) Only enterprises that have employees.

This article focuses only on one option, i.e. on all enterprises, independent from the presence of employees.

Business demography data are also available at regional level. These statistics are becoming increasingly important as many economic phenomena in the single European market are present across national borders. Regional level business demography data show regional hot spots of innovation and technological development within the countries, or sometimes stretching across national borders. Furthermore, the regional concentration of selected activities as well as job creation can be traced from regional data for policy purposes. This article does not present any regional data.

Statistical business registers are the main source for BD statistics. Data come from the national statistical business registers in the EU, EFTA, and enlargement countries. In practice, most of these national statistical business registers are based on a combination of administrative and statistical sources.

The Community Innovation Survey (CIS) is designed to provide information on the innovativeness of business economy sectors, to enable the analysis of innovation drivers or barriers or to assess innovation outcomes. The survey focuses, among others, on the following aspects:

product innovation (new to firm; new to the market)
business process innovation
innovation development
innovation activities
innovation expenditure
turnover from innovative products
incentives for the implementation of innovation
innovation cooperation
source of financing for innovation
sources of information on innovation
barriers to innovation
others

The CIS provides various innovation indicators by 3 main breakdown variables: type of innovator, economic activity, and size class of enterprise.

Coverage, units and classifications Business demography covers the business economy, which includes industry, construction and many services ((NACE Rev.2)sections B to N, P to R as well as division S95 and S96). Business demography statistics do not cover agriculture, forestry and fishing, or public administration.

Starting with the reference year 2021, business demography statistics are compiled under the legal basis of the EU Regulation 2019/2152 on European business statistics and its implementing act, EU Regulation 2020/1197 on technical specifications and arrangements.

The information from the CIS covers the business sectors (B-C-D-E-46-H-J-K-71-72-73) for enterprises with 10 or more persons employed.

Context

Business demography is an important subject for policy-maker discussions about increasing the level of employment, since it is one of the main priorities of the EU growth strategy.

Enterprise demography reflects, to some degree, the dynamism of the EU economy through the adaptation of economic structures to changing market conditions. The potential contribution that enterprise creation can make to employment is also one of the most important aspects drawing the attention of policy makers to the subject of enterprise demography. In this context, enterprise creation can be seen as an indicator of competitiveness, as a factor of economic growth and as a vital means of creating jobs.

Business demography provides information for births, deaths and survival rates of enterprises, as well as information on related employment data. The 2 main measures used for employment are the number of persons employed and the number of employees.

The demography of the business population is represented by data on:

the active population of enterprises;
their birth;
their survival (followed up to 5 years after birth);
their death.

Particular attention is paid to the impact that these demographic events have on employment levels. Business demography data can be used to analyse the dynamics and innovation of different markets, such as:

entrepreneurship in terms of the propensity to start a new business, such as analysed in the joint OECD/Eurostat Entrepreneurship Indicators Programme;
how newly-born enterprises can contribute to the creation of jobs.

Footnotes

Survived (young) enterprises by activity are compared with active enterprises in the reference year, however for survived enterprises activity is taken from the year of birth, but for active enterprises from the reference year. Data are analysed at section level; in practice it can be assumed that within 1 to 5 years activity would not change from one section to the other. ↑

Explore further

Database

Thematic section

Publications

Methodology

External links

European Commission - Enterprise and Industry - Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) - Promoting Entrepreneurship

[1] Survived (young) enterprises by activity are compared with active enterprises in the reference year, however for survived enterprises activity is taken from the year of birth, but for active enterprises from the reference year. Data are analysed at section level; in practice it can be assumed that within 1 to 5 years activity would not change from one section to the other. ↑

[1]